What Happened at the Dublin Federal Women's Prison Last Week and What to Expect Next
'There's No Support': Incarcerated Survivors Testify in East Bay Women's Prison Court Hearing
Judge Considers Federal Oversight for Dublin Women's Prison Notorious for Sexual Abuse
Nearly 200 Uber Sexual Assault Cases Are Being Grouped Together in 1 SF Court
California Prisons Fail to Uphold Transgender Rights Despite State Law
Is a San Francisco 'Sex Cult' Subjecting People to Abuse?
Dublin Women’s Prison Faces Class-Action Lawsuit Over Sexual Abuse Scandal
Court Records Reveal Names of Active East Bay Priests Accused of Abuse
At an Oakland Art School, a Teacher's Arrest for Alleged Sexual Abuse Reopens a Painful History
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A member of OSA's first graduating class, she says staff took advantage of close relationships with students. Maureen married someone who taught at the school while she was a student. ","credit":"Beth LaBerge/KQED","altTag":"a young woman stands with her back to the camera in downtown Oakland","description":null,"imgSizes":{"medium":{"file":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/006_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-800x533.jpg","width":800,"height":533,"mimeType":"image/jpeg"},"large":{"file":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/006_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-1020x680.jpg","width":1020,"height":680,"mimeType":"image/jpeg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/006_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-160x107.jpg","width":160,"height":107,"mimeType":"image/jpeg"},"1536x1536":{"file":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/006_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-1536x1024.jpg","width":1536,"height":1024,"mimeType":"image/jpeg"},"post-thumbnail":{"file":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/006_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-672x372.jpg","width":672,"height":372,"mimeType":"image/jpeg"},"twentyfourteen-full-width":{"file":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/006_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-1038x576.jpg","width":1038,"height":576,"mimeType":"image/jpeg"},"kqedFullSize":{"file":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/006_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022.jpg","width":1920,"height":1280}},"fetchFailed":false,"isLoading":false}},"audioPlayerReducer":{"postId":"stream_live"},"authorsReducer":{"byline_news_11964027":{"type":"authors","id":"byline_news_11964027","meta":{"override":true},"slug":"byline_news_11964027","name":"\u003ca href=\"https://www.novemberinmysoul.com/about/#62b093f21c801819ce513743\">Lee Romney and Jenny Johnson\u003c/a>","isLoading":false},"rachael-myrow":{"type":"authors","id":"251","meta":{"index":"authors_1591205172","id":"251","found":true},"name":"Rachael Myrow","firstName":"Rachael","lastName":"Myrow","slug":"rachael-myrow","email":"rmyrow@kqed.org","display_author_email":false,"staff_mastheads":["news"],"title":"Senior Editor of KQED's Silicon Valley News Desk","bio":"Rachael Myrow is Senior Editor of KQED's Silicon Valley News Desk. 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Gonzalez Rogers’ order also certified a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11958308/dublin-womens-prison-faces-class-action-lawsuit-over-sexual-abuse-scandal\">class-action lawsuit filed by women incarcerated at the East Bay prison\u003c/a> and approved some requests for immediate changes at the facility. The special master will be the first in the Bureau of Prisons history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The judge’s decision, handed down Friday, came less than a week after an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11978878/fbi-raids-dublin-womens-prison-plagued-by-sexual-abuse\">FBI raid at the facility\u003c/a>. The prison’s warden and three other top officials were abruptly replaced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101905064/warden-ousted-as-fbi-raids-federal-womens-prison-in-dublin\">Monday’s Forum episode on the raid\u003c/a>, a woman incarcerated at the prison called into the show. She said the judge’s decision to appoint a special master “a godsend.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Catch up fast: \u003c/strong>Gonzalez Rogers’ order granted, in part, a list of immediate changes requested by plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit, including that the prison submit to an audit of its policies on staff sexual abuse, implement changes based on the audit, submit to quarterly site visits and end the use of solitary confinement until it can be ensured that it isn’t being used as retaliation. Gonzalez Rogers called the prison “a dysfunctional mess.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The situation can no longer be tolerated. The facility is in dire need of immediate change,” she wrote in her order. “The court finds the Bureau of Prisons (“BOP”) has proceeded sluggishly with intentional disregard of the inmates’ constitutional rights despite being fully apprised of the situation for years. The repeated installation of BOP leadership who fail to grasp and address the situation strains credulity. The court is compelled to intercede.”[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"US District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers\"]‘The situation can no longer be tolerated. The facility is in dire need of immediate change.’[/pullquote]The order denied requests to develop a process for the return of non-contraband items seized from cells during searches, the fixing of computer privacy screens and other changes related to access to legal counsel and reporting of staff misconduct.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, hours after an FBI spokesperson confirmed the agency conducted a “court-authorized law enforcement activity” at the prison, government attorneys disclosed in a legal filing that the facility’s acting warden, an associate warden, the executive assistant/satellite camp administrator and the acting captain had all been replaced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Who is running the prison now? \u003c/strong>Nancy T. McKinney was assigned as the interim warden, according to a BOP spokesperson. McKinney began working for the BOP in 1992. At Friday’s hearing, government attorneys disclosed the other officials on the new executive team: Greg Chaffey, acting executive assistant and satellite camp administrator; Charmaine Nash, associate warden, a position she has held since July 2023; and Joel Zaragoza, acting captain.[aside label='More on FCI Dublin' tag='fci-dublin']\u003cstrong>What you need to know:\u003c/strong> In her order, Gonzalez Rogers wrote that while she found the allegation that a sexualized environment persists at FCI Dublin today to be exaggerated, she does not believe the government’s assertion that the issue of sexual misconduct has been eradicated at the facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The truth is somewhere in the middle — allegations of sexual misconduct have lingered, but to characterize it as pervasive goes too far,” the order reads. “However, because of its inability to promptly investigate the allegations that remain and the ongoing retaliation against incarcerated persons who report misconduct, BOP has lost the ability to manage with integrity and trust.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What’s next? \u003c/strong>Choosing a special master. Attorneys for the government and the plaintiffs have until 5 p.m. March 25 to submit a list of five potential candidates. Two days later, attorneys will have the opportunity to strike three names from the opposing side’s list. Gonzalez Rogers will select the special master from the list of remaining names. The judge wrote that she plans to issue further orders “narrowly tailored to address ongoing retaliation.” The special master will assist the court with ensuring compliance with those orders, she wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How we got here: \u003c/strong>This isn’t the first time the FBI has raided FCI Dublin. In July 2021, agents searched then-warden Ray Garcia’s residence, office and vehicle. He was later arrested and convicted of sexually abusing inmates and lying to a government official. Garcia is now serving a nearly six-year sentence in federal prison. Seven other former FCI Dublin officials, including a chaplain, have also been criminally charged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The DOJ’s investigation of sexual abuse at FCI Dublin is ongoing, according to Gonzalez Rogers’ order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What else is happening?\u003c/strong> This month, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11978712/infamous-east-bay-womens-prison-hit-with-12-additional-sexual-assault-lawsuits\">12 people filed lawsuits alleging sexual abuse and retaliation by staff at FCI Dublin\u003c/a>, bringing the total number of claims to 63. The lawsuits allege a wide range of sexual abuse, harassment and retaliation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In January, incarcerated women \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11972346/federal-oversight-of-dublin-womens-prison-highly-doubtful-despite-ongoing-abuse-allegations\">testified at an evidentiary hearing\u003c/a> that they had experienced retaliation from officers when they reported abuse. Some said they have avoided reporting various instances of misconduct, fearing repercussions. Members of former Warden Art Dulgov’s administration testified they had made it easier to report abuse.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Monae, a woman currently incarcerated at FCI Dublin\"]‘The things that we’ve been through, the people that have been here for a very long time, we need help here. … [the judge] actually was very compassionate and she heard everything that we were saying and more.’[/pullquote]Attorneys representing the BOP have argued that some issues raised by plaintiffs’ attorneys have already been fixed or are in the process of being fixed. “Bad actors have been removed, and conditions at FCI Dublin have improved significantly in recent years,” attorneys wrote in a November filing. “Under new leadership, previous depredations will not recur, and conditions and services will continue to improve.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In February, Gonzalez Rogers made an unannounced nine-hour visit to the prison and spoke confidentially with at least 100 incarcerated women. In a subsequent emergency health and safety order, she wrote that some conditions at the prison were well below the required standard of care and ordered officials to fix showers, provide additional blankets and have licensed contractors inspect the facility for a natural gas leak, black mold and asbestos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A woman currently incarcerated at FCI Dublin recalled the visit when she called into Forum, KQED’s daily talk show on Monday. KQED is only identifying her by her first name, Monae, because she expressed fear of retaliation for speaking out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The things that we’ve been through, the people that have been here for a very long time, we need help here,” Monae said. “And it’s like no one really sees us. And the judge that came through she actually was very compassionate, and she heard everything that we were saying and more. She’s seen the retaliation, she’s seen the lies and the coverups, and we appreciate her.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"U.S. District Court Judge will appoint a ‘special master’ to oversee FCI Dublin amid sexual misconduct allegations. The judge also granted immediate changes at the women’s prison. This marks a historic move in the Bureau of Prisons after an FBI raid and replacement of top officials.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1710954171,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":18,"wordCount":1221},"headData":{"title":"What Happened at the Dublin Federal Women's Prison Last Week and What to Expect Next | KQED","description":"U.S. District Court Judge will appoint a ‘special master’ to oversee FCI Dublin amid sexual misconduct allegations. The judge also granted immediate changes at the women’s prison. This marks a historic move in the Bureau of Prisons after an FBI raid and replacement of top officials.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"audioUrl":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/chrt.fm/track/G6C7C3/traffic.megaphone.fm/KQINC7063986346.mp3?updated=1710790579","sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11979936/judge-certifies-class-action-lawsuit-for-women-incarcerated-at-fci-dublin","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11979622/a-dysfunctional-mess-judge-orders-third-party-oversight-for-east-bay-womens-prison-plagued-by-sexual-abuse\">approved a request to appoint a special master to oversee FCI Dublin\u003c/a>, a federal women’s prison that’s been embroiled in sexual misconduct allegations for years. Gonzalez Rogers’ order also certified a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11958308/dublin-womens-prison-faces-class-action-lawsuit-over-sexual-abuse-scandal\">class-action lawsuit filed by women incarcerated at the East Bay prison\u003c/a> and approved some requests for immediate changes at the facility. The special master will be the first in the Bureau of Prisons history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The judge’s decision, handed down Friday, came less than a week after an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11978878/fbi-raids-dublin-womens-prison-plagued-by-sexual-abuse\">FBI raid at the facility\u003c/a>. The prison’s warden and three other top officials were abruptly replaced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101905064/warden-ousted-as-fbi-raids-federal-womens-prison-in-dublin\">Monday’s Forum episode on the raid\u003c/a>, a woman incarcerated at the prison called into the show. She said the judge’s decision to appoint a special master “a godsend.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Catch up fast: \u003c/strong>Gonzalez Rogers’ order granted, in part, a list of immediate changes requested by plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit, including that the prison submit to an audit of its policies on staff sexual abuse, implement changes based on the audit, submit to quarterly site visits and end the use of solitary confinement until it can be ensured that it isn’t being used as retaliation. Gonzalez Rogers called the prison “a dysfunctional mess.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The situation can no longer be tolerated. The facility is in dire need of immediate change,” she wrote in her order. “The court finds the Bureau of Prisons (“BOP”) has proceeded sluggishly with intentional disregard of the inmates’ constitutional rights despite being fully apprised of the situation for years. The repeated installation of BOP leadership who fail to grasp and address the situation strains credulity. The court is compelled to intercede.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘The situation can no longer be tolerated. The facility is in dire need of immediate change.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"US District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The order denied requests to develop a process for the return of non-contraband items seized from cells during searches, the fixing of computer privacy screens and other changes related to access to legal counsel and reporting of staff misconduct.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, hours after an FBI spokesperson confirmed the agency conducted a “court-authorized law enforcement activity” at the prison, government attorneys disclosed in a legal filing that the facility’s acting warden, an associate warden, the executive assistant/satellite camp administrator and the acting captain had all been replaced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Who is running the prison now? \u003c/strong>Nancy T. McKinney was assigned as the interim warden, according to a BOP spokesperson. McKinney began working for the BOP in 1992. At Friday’s hearing, government attorneys disclosed the other officials on the new executive team: Greg Chaffey, acting executive assistant and satellite camp administrator; Charmaine Nash, associate warden, a position she has held since July 2023; and Joel Zaragoza, acting captain.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"label":"More on FCI Dublin ","tag":"fci-dublin"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What you need to know:\u003c/strong> In her order, Gonzalez Rogers wrote that while she found the allegation that a sexualized environment persists at FCI Dublin today to be exaggerated, she does not believe the government’s assertion that the issue of sexual misconduct has been eradicated at the facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The truth is somewhere in the middle — allegations of sexual misconduct have lingered, but to characterize it as pervasive goes too far,” the order reads. “However, because of its inability to promptly investigate the allegations that remain and the ongoing retaliation against incarcerated persons who report misconduct, BOP has lost the ability to manage with integrity and trust.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What’s next? \u003c/strong>Choosing a special master. Attorneys for the government and the plaintiffs have until 5 p.m. March 25 to submit a list of five potential candidates. Two days later, attorneys will have the opportunity to strike three names from the opposing side’s list. Gonzalez Rogers will select the special master from the list of remaining names. The judge wrote that she plans to issue further orders “narrowly tailored to address ongoing retaliation.” The special master will assist the court with ensuring compliance with those orders, she wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How we got here: \u003c/strong>This isn’t the first time the FBI has raided FCI Dublin. In July 2021, agents searched then-warden Ray Garcia’s residence, office and vehicle. He was later arrested and convicted of sexually abusing inmates and lying to a government official. Garcia is now serving a nearly six-year sentence in federal prison. Seven other former FCI Dublin officials, including a chaplain, have also been criminally charged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The DOJ’s investigation of sexual abuse at FCI Dublin is ongoing, according to Gonzalez Rogers’ order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What else is happening?\u003c/strong> This month, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11978712/infamous-east-bay-womens-prison-hit-with-12-additional-sexual-assault-lawsuits\">12 people filed lawsuits alleging sexual abuse and retaliation by staff at FCI Dublin\u003c/a>, bringing the total number of claims to 63. The lawsuits allege a wide range of sexual abuse, harassment and retaliation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In January, incarcerated women \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11972346/federal-oversight-of-dublin-womens-prison-highly-doubtful-despite-ongoing-abuse-allegations\">testified at an evidentiary hearing\u003c/a> that they had experienced retaliation from officers when they reported abuse. Some said they have avoided reporting various instances of misconduct, fearing repercussions. Members of former Warden Art Dulgov’s administration testified they had made it easier to report abuse.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘The things that we’ve been through, the people that have been here for a very long time, we need help here. … [the judge] actually was very compassionate and she heard everything that we were saying and more.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Monae, a woman currently incarcerated at FCI Dublin","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Attorneys representing the BOP have argued that some issues raised by plaintiffs’ attorneys have already been fixed or are in the process of being fixed. “Bad actors have been removed, and conditions at FCI Dublin have improved significantly in recent years,” attorneys wrote in a November filing. “Under new leadership, previous depredations will not recur, and conditions and services will continue to improve.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In February, Gonzalez Rogers made an unannounced nine-hour visit to the prison and spoke confidentially with at least 100 incarcerated women. In a subsequent emergency health and safety order, she wrote that some conditions at the prison were well below the required standard of care and ordered officials to fix showers, provide additional blankets and have licensed contractors inspect the facility for a natural gas leak, black mold and asbestos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A woman currently incarcerated at FCI Dublin recalled the visit when she called into Forum, KQED’s daily talk show on Monday. KQED is only identifying her by her first name, Monae, because she expressed fear of retaliation for speaking out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The things that we’ve been through, the people that have been here for a very long time, we need help here,” Monae said. “And it’s like no one really sees us. And the judge that came through she actually was very compassionate, and she heard everything that we were saying and more. She’s seen the retaliation, she’s seen the lies and the coverups, and we appreciate her.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11979936/judge-certifies-class-action-lawsuit-for-women-incarcerated-at-fci-dublin","authors":["11490"],"categories":["news_8"],"tags":["news_32222","news_33723","news_30638","news_2842","news_1527"],"featImg":"news_11979627","label":"news"},"news_11971786":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11971786","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11971786","score":null,"sort":[1704496129000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"theres-no-support-incarcerated-survivors-testify-in-east-bay-womens-prison-court-hearing","title":"'There's No Support': Incarcerated Survivors Testify in East Bay Women's Prison Court Hearing","publishDate":1704496129,"format":"standard","headTitle":"‘There’s No Support’: Incarcerated Survivors Testify in East Bay Women’s Prison Court Hearing | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>Survivors of sexual abuse at a federal East Bay women’s prison said inappropriate conduct and retaliation persist, multiple women incarcerated at the facility told a federal judge on Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal Correctional Institution Dublin faces 45 civil lawsuits for sexual abuse and retaliation from people currently and formerly incarcerated at the prison. \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/two-more-dublin-federal-correctional-officers-plead-guilty-sexually-abusing-multiple\">Eight FCI Dublin correctional officers\u003c/a>, including the former warden, have been charged already. A federal judge is now considering whether to order changes at FCI Dublin, including requiring an external monitor. [pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"K.D., an incarcerated survivor at FCI Dublin prison\"]‘I should be able to go tell someone when it makes me feel uncomfortable, and I was extremely punished for this.’[/pullquote]This week, currently incarcerated individuals testified before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers that they have difficulty accessing medical and mental health care and face retaliation if they report staff misconduct.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s no support to be sought out,” said K.D., who is currently incarcerated at the lower-security Dublin camp facility, during a public hearing on Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>K.D., whose full name was not used for privacy reasons, described an incident in September when a female guard allegedly “aggressively” patted her down and touched her breasts in a way that made her feel “violated.” K.D. reported the incident to the Department of Justice and then spoke to the psychologist on-site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She told me I could feel safe telling her and that it would not get back to my unit team, and it immediately got back to my unit team,” K.D. said. After the report, K.D. said officers took away her phone, email privileges and visitation rights, as well as access to the commissary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I should be able to go tell someone when it makes me feel uncomfortable, and I was extremely punished for this,” said K.D., adding that she didn’t appeal the restrictions out of fear of further retaliation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The court previously found that multiple women were sent to the isolation unit after reporting sexual violence. Prison officials this week said that the response was intended to protect the women who were put in the segregated unit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11971807\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11971807 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/IMG_5279.jpg\" alt=\"Men in women in business attire stand outside a federal courthouse building and speak into a microphone at a press conference.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/IMG_5279.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/IMG_5279-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/IMG_5279-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/IMG_5279-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/IMG_5279-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Plaintiff attorney Oren Nimni (right), survivor Robin Lucas (second to right), and advocates with the California Coalition for Women Prisoners (left) speak in support of women incarcerated at FCI Dublin outside an Oakland federal courthouse on Friday, Jan. 5, 2024. \u003ccite>(Sydney Johnson/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In August 2023, eight survivors of sexual abuse at FCI Dublin, along with the California Coalition for Women Prisoners, filed a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11958308/dublin-womens-prison-faces-class-action-lawsuit-over-sexual-abuse-scandal\">class-action lawsuit\u003c/a> against the Bureau of Prisons, FCI Dublin Officials and individual officers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plaintiffs are represented by firms Rights Behind Bars, the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice and Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld LLP. [pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Roberta, an incarcerated survivor at FCI Dublin prison\"]‘The repercussions for those of us who are left behind are real. For all that has happened — we are paying for it now.’[/pullquote]This week, Judge Gonzalez Rogers heard testimony from FCI Dublin staff and people incarcerated at the facility about whether abusive conditions have continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She is now considering whether to order temporary changes at the prison to address unsafe conditions that incarcerated survivors and their advocates said have festered due to a lack of independent oversight. That could include bringing in a third-party monitor, called a special master, to monitor progress at the facility — a first in the U.S. Bureau of Prisons history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Survivors and advocates are also pushing for better off-site medical care, improved access to legal counsel and release for sexual assault survivors who are still behind bars. [aside label='More on Law and Justice' tag='womens-prison']Other incarcerated individuals at FCI Dublin said correctional officers have strip-searched them after reporting staff misconduct as punishment for coming forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The way things are right now is not good, and somebody has to do something because the people in charge there are not,” said Roberta, who is currently incarcerated at the FCI Dublin prison. Roberta’s last name was not used for privacy reasons. “The repercussions for those of us who are left behind are real. For all that has happened — we are paying for it now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beth Reese, the chief of internal affairs, testified on Thursday that strip searches after visits are a matter of policy. She said her investigators would not entertain cases of officers simply following policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Government attorneys originally planned to put four incarcerated people on the stand to defend the conditions at the prison. But only two ended up being transferred to the court on Thursday. One changed her mind, and one testified.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sole individual who testified in support of the government said she had no complaints about the current conditions at the facility. She participates in programs and classes — and also revived her spiritual practice with the chaplain. She said she received prompt medical care for her high blood pressure and encountered no obstacles calling her lawyer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also said other incarcerated individuals tried to intimidate her about testifying for the government, saying her name was on a “snitch list.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This week, the government also brought forward associate warden Patrick Deveney, who testified that “the institution was in shambles” when he arrived at FCI Dublin 18 months ago. Morale was low, communication was bad, and the culture was among the worst he had seen. [pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"K.D., an incarcerated survivor at FCI Dublin prison\"]‘There are too many people scared to speak out. … women should not have to suffer like this.’[/pullquote]But, he claimed things are turning around. Deveney said that the facility has increased staffing and training. Allegations of sexual misconduct have gone up since Deveney was brought on, which he said is a good thing because more women believe they will be heard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most people incarcerated at the facility who testified this week said that’s not their experience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>K.D. said she’s seen at least four instances of sexual abuse by three different officers over the past year at her facility, even though several officials have been convicted and left the prison. But, she said she now fears retaliation and didn’t report the other incidents she witnessed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are too many people scared to speak out. I’ve been in other prisons, and it’s not this way. Staff there covers up for each other and bully us,” K.D. said on Friday in court. “My daughter did not want me to [testify in court]. She thinks I’m risking being away from her for longer to do this. But I think it’s the right thing to do, and women should not have to suffer like this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED reporter \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/adembosky\">April Dembosky\u003c/a> contributed to this story. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"A federal judge is now considering whether to order changes at FCI Dublin, including requiring an external monitor. ","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704505251,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":23,"wordCount":1190},"headData":{"title":"'There's No Support': Incarcerated Survivors Testify in East Bay Women's Prison Court Hearing | KQED","description":"A federal judge is now considering whether to order changes at FCI Dublin, including requiring an external monitor. ","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11971786/theres-no-support-incarcerated-survivors-testify-in-east-bay-womens-prison-court-hearing","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Survivors of sexual abuse at a federal East Bay women’s prison said inappropriate conduct and retaliation persist, multiple women incarcerated at the facility told a federal judge on Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal Correctional Institution Dublin faces 45 civil lawsuits for sexual abuse and retaliation from people currently and formerly incarcerated at the prison. \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/two-more-dublin-federal-correctional-officers-plead-guilty-sexually-abusing-multiple\">Eight FCI Dublin correctional officers\u003c/a>, including the former warden, have been charged already. A federal judge is now considering whether to order changes at FCI Dublin, including requiring an external monitor. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘I should be able to go tell someone when it makes me feel uncomfortable, and I was extremely punished for this.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"K.D., an incarcerated survivor at FCI Dublin prison","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>This week, currently incarcerated individuals testified before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers that they have difficulty accessing medical and mental health care and face retaliation if they report staff misconduct.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s no support to be sought out,” said K.D., who is currently incarcerated at the lower-security Dublin camp facility, during a public hearing on Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>K.D., whose full name was not used for privacy reasons, described an incident in September when a female guard allegedly “aggressively” patted her down and touched her breasts in a way that made her feel “violated.” K.D. reported the incident to the Department of Justice and then spoke to the psychologist on-site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She told me I could feel safe telling her and that it would not get back to my unit team, and it immediately got back to my unit team,” K.D. said. After the report, K.D. said officers took away her phone, email privileges and visitation rights, as well as access to the commissary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I should be able to go tell someone when it makes me feel uncomfortable, and I was extremely punished for this,” said K.D., adding that she didn’t appeal the restrictions out of fear of further retaliation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The court previously found that multiple women were sent to the isolation unit after reporting sexual violence. Prison officials this week said that the response was intended to protect the women who were put in the segregated unit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11971807\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11971807 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/IMG_5279.jpg\" alt=\"Men in women in business attire stand outside a federal courthouse building and speak into a microphone at a press conference.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/IMG_5279.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/IMG_5279-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/IMG_5279-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/IMG_5279-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/IMG_5279-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Plaintiff attorney Oren Nimni (right), survivor Robin Lucas (second to right), and advocates with the California Coalition for Women Prisoners (left) speak in support of women incarcerated at FCI Dublin outside an Oakland federal courthouse on Friday, Jan. 5, 2024. \u003ccite>(Sydney Johnson/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In August 2023, eight survivors of sexual abuse at FCI Dublin, along with the California Coalition for Women Prisoners, filed a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11958308/dublin-womens-prison-faces-class-action-lawsuit-over-sexual-abuse-scandal\">class-action lawsuit\u003c/a> against the Bureau of Prisons, FCI Dublin Officials and individual officers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plaintiffs are represented by firms Rights Behind Bars, the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice and Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld LLP. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘The repercussions for those of us who are left behind are real. For all that has happened — we are paying for it now.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Roberta, an incarcerated survivor at FCI Dublin prison","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>This week, Judge Gonzalez Rogers heard testimony from FCI Dublin staff and people incarcerated at the facility about whether abusive conditions have continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She is now considering whether to order temporary changes at the prison to address unsafe conditions that incarcerated survivors and their advocates said have festered due to a lack of independent oversight. That could include bringing in a third-party monitor, called a special master, to monitor progress at the facility — a first in the U.S. Bureau of Prisons history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Survivors and advocates are also pushing for better off-site medical care, improved access to legal counsel and release for sexual assault survivors who are still behind bars. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"label":"More on Law and Justice ","tag":"womens-prison"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Other incarcerated individuals at FCI Dublin said correctional officers have strip-searched them after reporting staff misconduct as punishment for coming forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The way things are right now is not good, and somebody has to do something because the people in charge there are not,” said Roberta, who is currently incarcerated at the FCI Dublin prison. Roberta’s last name was not used for privacy reasons. “The repercussions for those of us who are left behind are real. For all that has happened — we are paying for it now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beth Reese, the chief of internal affairs, testified on Thursday that strip searches after visits are a matter of policy. She said her investigators would not entertain cases of officers simply following policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Government attorneys originally planned to put four incarcerated people on the stand to defend the conditions at the prison. But only two ended up being transferred to the court on Thursday. One changed her mind, and one testified.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sole individual who testified in support of the government said she had no complaints about the current conditions at the facility. She participates in programs and classes — and also revived her spiritual practice with the chaplain. She said she received prompt medical care for her high blood pressure and encountered no obstacles calling her lawyer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also said other incarcerated individuals tried to intimidate her about testifying for the government, saying her name was on a “snitch list.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This week, the government also brought forward associate warden Patrick Deveney, who testified that “the institution was in shambles” when he arrived at FCI Dublin 18 months ago. Morale was low, communication was bad, and the culture was among the worst he had seen. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘There are too many people scared to speak out. … women should not have to suffer like this.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"K.D., an incarcerated survivor at FCI Dublin prison","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But, he claimed things are turning around. Deveney said that the facility has increased staffing and training. Allegations of sexual misconduct have gone up since Deveney was brought on, which he said is a good thing because more women believe they will be heard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most people incarcerated at the facility who testified this week said that’s not their experience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>K.D. said she’s seen at least four instances of sexual abuse by three different officers over the past year at her facility, even though several officials have been convicted and left the prison. But, she said she now fears retaliation and didn’t report the other incidents she witnessed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are too many people scared to speak out. I’ve been in other prisons, and it’s not this way. Staff there covers up for each other and bully us,” K.D. said on Friday in court. “My daughter did not want me to [testify in court]. She thinks I’m risking being away from her for longer to do this. But I think it’s the right thing to do, and women should not have to suffer like this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED reporter \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/adembosky\">April Dembosky\u003c/a> contributed to this story. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11971786/theres-no-support-incarcerated-survivors-testify-in-east-bay-womens-prison-court-hearing","authors":["11840"],"categories":["news_6188","news_8"],"tags":["news_3543","news_32047","news_27626","news_1091","news_1527","news_32043"],"featImg":"news_11971803","label":"news"},"news_11971511":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11971511","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11971511","score":null,"sort":[1704322719000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"judge-considers-federal-oversight-for-dublin-womens-prison-notorious-for-sexual-abuse","title":"Judge Considers Federal Oversight for Dublin Women's Prison Notorious for Sexual Abuse","publishDate":1704322719,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Judge Considers Federal Oversight for Dublin Women’s Prison Notorious for Sexual Abuse | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>A federal judge is hearing testimony this week over an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11958308/dublin-womens-prison-faces-class-action-lawsuit-over-sexual-abuse-scandal\">East Bay federal women’s prison\u003c/a> where inmates have alleged rampant and ongoing sexual abuse by correctional officers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers is now considering whether to appoint a special master to oversee reforms at Federal Correctional Institution Dublin, an all-women’s facility facing more than 45 civil lawsuits over sexual assault and retaliation. \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/two-more-dublin-federal-correctional-officers-plead-guilty-sexually-abusing-multiple\">Eight correctional officers\u003c/a> at FCI Dublin have been charged already, including the facility’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11934639/ex-warden-of-dublin-womens-prison-convicted-of-sexually-abusing-inmates\">former warden\u003c/a> and chaplain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Survivors of abuse at the prison, along with staff, are expected to testify this week in order for the judge to review whether federal oversight is needed or whether the government has improved conditions at the prison, which has become notoriously known as a “rape club.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a lot of misconduct, rampant, throughout the institution,” said Erika Quezada, deputy captain FCI Dublin, who is in charge of correctional services at Dublin, testifying on Wednesday about conditions she saw when she started working there in 2022. There was “a lot of ignorance when it came to what policy really was,” and that many staff lacked proper training, she said, because they started during the COVID-19 pandemic when in-person training was suspended.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Quezada claimed that conditions at the facility have improved. “Once the new team of executive staff arrived, we had a meeting internally and discussed exactly what the allegations were,” she told the judge. “We are establishing zero-tolerance from here on out. It’s unacceptable, and every single allegation is going to be sent up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But attorneys representing plaintiffs in the case said any changes have been insufficient. Survivors are expected to testify later this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the persistence of the problem over many years. It’s how widespread it is in the facility,” Ernest Galvan, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, told KQED. “It’s the fact that the highest investigative officials within the facility, whose job it is to investigate both staff and incarcerated persons misconduct, just allowed this to go on and on for years.” [aside postID=news_11958308 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230816-Dublin-Womens-Prison-Suit-MD-14-KQED-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If appointed, the special master for FCI Dublin would be a first in the history of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. It would entail bringing in a neutral third party to monitor the prison and any potential policy changes, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ktvu.com/news/facing-more-than-40-sex-abuse-suits-judge-could-appoint-special-master-over-fci-dublin-prison\">KTVU reports\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our clients rightly perceive that they are at imminent risk of serious harm because the Bureau of Prisons is still out of control with regard to protecting female prisoners from sexual assault and abuse,” Galvan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld LLP, Rights Behind Bars, the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, and attorneys from the law firm Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP represent plaintiffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In August, attorneys filed a potential class action lawsuit on behalf of eight women incarcerated at FCI Dublin who allege sexual abuse and retaliation from FCI Dublin officials and several individual officers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They also asked the court for a preliminary injunction and to order immediate changes at the facility, including an end to solitary confinement, unless there is sufficient evidence that it’s not used for retaliation against people who report abuse. They are simultaneously seeking improved access to adequate off-site medical and mental health care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a December court hearing, attorneys representing the U.S. government argued that specific people working at FCI Dublin were the problem, rather than broader policies in the Bureau of Prisons and practices at the facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Judge Gonzalez Rogers was unconvinced and requested the four-day hearing before deciding whether to order changes at FCI Dublin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During Wednesday’s hearing, the federal district judge challenged assertions that the facility’s high-security isolation cell, called a Special Housing Unit or SHU, was not used as a disciplinary response to safety concerns and reports.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s hard to say [Special Housing Unit] is not punitive,” Gonzalez Rogers said. “You’re treating them just like someone who is being disciplined.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The court previously found that multiple women were sent to the isolation unit after reporting sexual violence. Quezada said that the response was intended to protect the women who were put in the segregated unit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It seems there should be something that is not SHU that protects the inmates,” the judge asked. “Is there anything in between?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is not,” Quezada replied.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This week’s hearing started on Jan. 3 and is scheduled to continue through Jan. 5, with the possibility of added days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>KQED reporter April Dembosky contributed to this story.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Plaintiffs say a culture of sexualization and abuse at FCI Dublin persists, even after some officials have been charged.\r\n","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1709919504,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":23,"wordCount":816},"headData":{"title":"Judge Considers Federal Oversight for Dublin Women's Prison Notorious for Sexual Abuse | KQED","description":"Plaintiffs say a culture of sexualization and abuse at FCI Dublin persists, even after some officials have been charged.\r\n","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11971511/judge-considers-federal-oversight-for-dublin-womens-prison-notorious-for-sexual-abuse","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A federal judge is hearing testimony this week over an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11958308/dublin-womens-prison-faces-class-action-lawsuit-over-sexual-abuse-scandal\">East Bay federal women’s prison\u003c/a> where inmates have alleged rampant and ongoing sexual abuse by correctional officers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers is now considering whether to appoint a special master to oversee reforms at Federal Correctional Institution Dublin, an all-women’s facility facing more than 45 civil lawsuits over sexual assault and retaliation. \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/two-more-dublin-federal-correctional-officers-plead-guilty-sexually-abusing-multiple\">Eight correctional officers\u003c/a> at FCI Dublin have been charged already, including the facility’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11934639/ex-warden-of-dublin-womens-prison-convicted-of-sexually-abusing-inmates\">former warden\u003c/a> and chaplain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Survivors of abuse at the prison, along with staff, are expected to testify this week in order for the judge to review whether federal oversight is needed or whether the government has improved conditions at the prison, which has become notoriously known as a “rape club.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a lot of misconduct, rampant, throughout the institution,” said Erika Quezada, deputy captain FCI Dublin, who is in charge of correctional services at Dublin, testifying on Wednesday about conditions she saw when she started working there in 2022. There was “a lot of ignorance when it came to what policy really was,” and that many staff lacked proper training, she said, because they started during the COVID-19 pandemic when in-person training was suspended.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Quezada claimed that conditions at the facility have improved. “Once the new team of executive staff arrived, we had a meeting internally and discussed exactly what the allegations were,” she told the judge. “We are establishing zero-tolerance from here on out. It’s unacceptable, and every single allegation is going to be sent up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But attorneys representing plaintiffs in the case said any changes have been insufficient. Survivors are expected to testify later this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the persistence of the problem over many years. It’s how widespread it is in the facility,” Ernest Galvan, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, told KQED. “It’s the fact that the highest investigative officials within the facility, whose job it is to investigate both staff and incarcerated persons misconduct, just allowed this to go on and on for years.” \u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11958308","hero":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230816-Dublin-Womens-Prison-Suit-MD-14-KQED-1020x680.jpg","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If appointed, the special master for FCI Dublin would be a first in the history of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. It would entail bringing in a neutral third party to monitor the prison and any potential policy changes, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ktvu.com/news/facing-more-than-40-sex-abuse-suits-judge-could-appoint-special-master-over-fci-dublin-prison\">KTVU reports\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our clients rightly perceive that they are at imminent risk of serious harm because the Bureau of Prisons is still out of control with regard to protecting female prisoners from sexual assault and abuse,” Galvan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld LLP, Rights Behind Bars, the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, and attorneys from the law firm Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP represent plaintiffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In August, attorneys filed a potential class action lawsuit on behalf of eight women incarcerated at FCI Dublin who allege sexual abuse and retaliation from FCI Dublin officials and several individual officers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They also asked the court for a preliminary injunction and to order immediate changes at the facility, including an end to solitary confinement, unless there is sufficient evidence that it’s not used for retaliation against people who report abuse. They are simultaneously seeking improved access to adequate off-site medical and mental health care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a December court hearing, attorneys representing the U.S. government argued that specific people working at FCI Dublin were the problem, rather than broader policies in the Bureau of Prisons and practices at the facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Judge Gonzalez Rogers was unconvinced and requested the four-day hearing before deciding whether to order changes at FCI Dublin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During Wednesday’s hearing, the federal district judge challenged assertions that the facility’s high-security isolation cell, called a Special Housing Unit or SHU, was not used as a disciplinary response to safety concerns and reports.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s hard to say [Special Housing Unit] is not punitive,” Gonzalez Rogers said. “You’re treating them just like someone who is being disciplined.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The court previously found that multiple women were sent to the isolation unit after reporting sexual violence. Quezada said that the response was intended to protect the women who were put in the segregated unit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It seems there should be something that is not SHU that protects the inmates,” the judge asked. “Is there anything in between?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is not,” Quezada replied.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This week’s hearing started on Jan. 3 and is scheduled to continue through Jan. 5, with the possibility of added days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>KQED reporter April Dembosky contributed to this story.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11971511/judge-considers-federal-oversight-for-dublin-womens-prison-notorious-for-sexual-abuse","authors":["11840"],"categories":["news_6188","news_8"],"tags":["news_3149","news_32047","news_33723","news_1527"],"featImg":"news_11971397","label":"news"},"news_11966365":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11966365","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11966365","score":null,"sort":[1699106449000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"nearly-200-uber-sexual-assault-cases-are-being-grouped-together-in-1-sf-court","title":"Nearly 200 Uber Sexual Assault Cases Are Being Grouped Together in 1 SF Court","publishDate":1699106449,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Nearly 200 Uber Sexual Assault Cases Are Being Grouped Together in 1 SF Court | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>More than 175 individual sexual assault cases against Uber were recently consolidated, each of which similarly claims the San Francisco-based ride-share company hasn’t done enough to protect passengers. And on Friday, the parties involved met for the first time before a federal judge in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Uber’s terms of use preclude class-action lawsuits against the company in cases of sexual assault. But, over the company’s objections, plaintiffs’ attorneys argued the current cases are similar enough to warrant “multidistrict litigation,” which brings together similar cases from multiple court districts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the coming months, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer will hear pretrial matters that pertain to all the cases and ultimately decide whether to take on what’s called a “bellwether trial” or a smaller sampling of lawsuits from a larger group of similar cases. If he declines to do so, the individual cases will ultimately head back to their home states for trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This comes as another consolidated set of lawsuits was recently filed against Uber that also accuses the company of failing to adequately ensure the safety of its passengers in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We think they’re putting profits over safety every day,” said Bret Stanley, a Houston-based personal injury lawyer, whose firm, Kherkher Garcia, is one of about 15 involved in Uber’s “multidistrict litigation” — or as he likes to calls it, “class action’s cousin.”[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"uber\"]In recent years, scores of passengers have alleged being sexually assaulted by drivers while riding with Uber and\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/05/business/lyft-sexual-assault-lawsuit.html\"> Lyft\u003c/a> — with allegations ranging from groping to rape to \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/woman-allegedly-kidnapped-by-fake-uber-driver-rescued-after-slipping-note-to-gas-station-customer-arizona/\">kidnapping\u003c/a> — and sued the companies for failing to provide adequate safeguards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Uber told KQED it could not comment on pending litigation. But it stressed that the vast majority — 99.9% — of the billions of trips it makes are completed without any reported safety incidents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Uber is going to say, ‘99% of the time, we’re good.’ Well, .1% of a billion is 1 million! Right? The numbers are so huge,” Stanley said. “We really do want to force change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said Uber is well aware of the steps it can take to make rides safer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because they know more data about these drivers than anyone,” he said. “Uber collects data on drivers on every single trip. And they should not be exposing people to safety risks if they have reason to believe that this person is unsafe or has done, previously, sexually inappropriate things in the vehicle.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2018, Uber introduced a number of safety features, including an in-app\u003ca href=\"https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/29/uber-adds-911-assistance-to-rider-app/#:~:text=As%20you%20can%20see%20below,shows%20it%20in%20the%20app.\"> 911 button\u003c/a> and location sharing. Last year, it announced a partnership with ADT, a security firm, and added the capacity for passengers to \u003ca href=\"https://techcrunch.com/2021/12/02/uber-pilots-safety-feature-that-allows-users-to-record-audio-during-a-ride/\">record audio\u003c/a> in its app and request\u003ca href=\"https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/30/uber-partners-with-adt-to-let-riders-get-in-touch-with-a-life-safety-agent/\"> live help from an ADT safety agent\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Stanley and other parties suing Uber argue those steps don’t go far enough and say the company should implement stronger safeguards, like tougher background checks and video recordings of every ride. They also say Uber should immediately deactivate the accounts of drivers who have been recorded engaging in inappropriate behavior.\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although Uber has long resisted implementing stricter background checks, it launched last year a\u003ca href=\"https://www.uber.com/newsroom/safety-in-the-drivers-seat/\"> voluntary in-ride video recording pilot program\u003c/a> in a handful of cities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some longtime Uber drivers, like Sergio Avedian, pay for their own dashcams as a personal safety measure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s a huge deterrent,” Avedian said of his dashcam, which he claims has prevented some passengers from behaving inappropriately.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’re on your own as a driver and a passenger,” said Avedian, a senior contributor to \u003ca href=\"https://therideshareguy.com/\">The Rideshare Guy blog and the host of its podcast. \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, roughly half of Uber’s sexual assault allegations involve \u003ca href=\"https://www.uber.com/us/en/about/reports/us-safety-report/\">passengers assaulting drivers\u003c/a>, the company reported.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Avedian said he thinks passengers should have to opt out of allowing video recordings during rides rather than opting in. The cost of installing dashcams in every car is nominal, he said, and in a world where people regularly overshare on social media anyway, the potential privacy concerns seem relatively negligible, particularly if it enhances safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My safety trumps privacy, and passenger safety should trump privacy,” Avedian said. “Because, again, you’re in a car with a stranger. All it takes is one of these instances to change your life forever.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Passengers can't file class-action lawsuits against Uber in cases of sexual assault. But plaintiffs successfully argued that the current cases, filed in multiple courts around the country, are similar enough to bring them together under one roof.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1699058560,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":19,"wordCount":765},"headData":{"title":"Nearly 200 Uber Sexual Assault Cases Are Being Grouped Together in 1 SF Court | KQED","description":"Passengers can't file class-action lawsuits against Uber in cases of sexual assault. But plaintiffs successfully argued that the current cases, filed in multiple courts around the country, are similar enough to bring them together under one roof.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11966365/nearly-200-uber-sexual-assault-cases-are-being-grouped-together-in-1-sf-court","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>More than 175 individual sexual assault cases against Uber were recently consolidated, each of which similarly claims the San Francisco-based ride-share company hasn’t done enough to protect passengers. And on Friday, the parties involved met for the first time before a federal judge in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Uber’s terms of use preclude class-action lawsuits against the company in cases of sexual assault. But, over the company’s objections, plaintiffs’ attorneys argued the current cases are similar enough to warrant “multidistrict litigation,” which brings together similar cases from multiple court districts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the coming months, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer will hear pretrial matters that pertain to all the cases and ultimately decide whether to take on what’s called a “bellwether trial” or a smaller sampling of lawsuits from a larger group of similar cases. If he declines to do so, the individual cases will ultimately head back to their home states for trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This comes as another consolidated set of lawsuits was recently filed against Uber that also accuses the company of failing to adequately ensure the safety of its passengers in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We think they’re putting profits over safety every day,” said Bret Stanley, a Houston-based personal injury lawyer, whose firm, Kherkher Garcia, is one of about 15 involved in Uber’s “multidistrict litigation” — or as he likes to calls it, “class action’s cousin.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"label":"related coverage ","tag":"uber"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In recent years, scores of passengers have alleged being sexually assaulted by drivers while riding with Uber and\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/05/business/lyft-sexual-assault-lawsuit.html\"> Lyft\u003c/a> — with allegations ranging from groping to rape to \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/woman-allegedly-kidnapped-by-fake-uber-driver-rescued-after-slipping-note-to-gas-station-customer-arizona/\">kidnapping\u003c/a> — and sued the companies for failing to provide adequate safeguards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Uber told KQED it could not comment on pending litigation. But it stressed that the vast majority — 99.9% — of the billions of trips it makes are completed without any reported safety incidents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Uber is going to say, ‘99% of the time, we’re good.’ Well, .1% of a billion is 1 million! Right? The numbers are so huge,” Stanley said. “We really do want to force change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said Uber is well aware of the steps it can take to make rides safer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because they know more data about these drivers than anyone,” he said. “Uber collects data on drivers on every single trip. And they should not be exposing people to safety risks if they have reason to believe that this person is unsafe or has done, previously, sexually inappropriate things in the vehicle.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2018, Uber introduced a number of safety features, including an in-app\u003ca href=\"https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/29/uber-adds-911-assistance-to-rider-app/#:~:text=As%20you%20can%20see%20below,shows%20it%20in%20the%20app.\"> 911 button\u003c/a> and location sharing. Last year, it announced a partnership with ADT, a security firm, and added the capacity for passengers to \u003ca href=\"https://techcrunch.com/2021/12/02/uber-pilots-safety-feature-that-allows-users-to-record-audio-during-a-ride/\">record audio\u003c/a> in its app and request\u003ca href=\"https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/30/uber-partners-with-adt-to-let-riders-get-in-touch-with-a-life-safety-agent/\"> live help from an ADT safety agent\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Stanley and other parties suing Uber argue those steps don’t go far enough and say the company should implement stronger safeguards, like tougher background checks and video recordings of every ride. They also say Uber should immediately deactivate the accounts of drivers who have been recorded engaging in inappropriate behavior.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although Uber has long resisted implementing stricter background checks, it launched last year a\u003ca href=\"https://www.uber.com/newsroom/safety-in-the-drivers-seat/\"> voluntary in-ride video recording pilot program\u003c/a> in a handful of cities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some longtime Uber drivers, like Sergio Avedian, pay for their own dashcams as a personal safety measure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s a huge deterrent,” Avedian said of his dashcam, which he claims has prevented some passengers from behaving inappropriately.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’re on your own as a driver and a passenger,” said Avedian, a senior contributor to \u003ca href=\"https://therideshareguy.com/\">The Rideshare Guy blog and the host of its podcast. \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, roughly half of Uber’s sexual assault allegations involve \u003ca href=\"https://www.uber.com/us/en/about/reports/us-safety-report/\">passengers assaulting drivers\u003c/a>, the company reported.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Avedian said he thinks passengers should have to opt out of allowing video recordings during rides rather than opting in. The cost of installing dashcams in every car is nominal, he said, and in a world where people regularly overshare on social media anyway, the potential privacy concerns seem relatively negligible, particularly if it enhances safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My safety trumps privacy, and passenger safety should trump privacy,” Avedian said. “Because, again, you’re in a car with a stranger. All it takes is one of these instances to change your life forever.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11966365/nearly-200-uber-sexual-assault-cases-are-being-grouped-together-in-1-sf-court","authors":["251"],"categories":["news_8"],"tags":["news_4658","news_1527","news_353","news_4523"],"featImg":"news_11852661","label":"news"},"news_11964027":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11964027","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11964027","score":null,"sort":[1697209258000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"california-prisons-fail-to-uphold-transgender-rights-despite-state-law","title":"California Prisons Fail to Uphold Transgender Rights Despite State Law","publishDate":1697209258,"format":"standard","headTitle":"California Prisons Fail to Uphold Transgender Rights Despite State Law | KQED","labelTerm":{"term":26731,"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>\u003cem>Warning: There are descriptions of physical and sexual violence in this piece. Also, where legal names and chosen names differ, we’re using chosen names.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]S[/dropcap]yiaah Skylit had been stuck in solitary confinement at a maximum-security men’s prison for months when, in the fall of 2020, she got the news that gave her hope: Gov. Gavin Newsom had signed the \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB132\">Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Authored by state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), the law requires California prison staff to use the chosen pronouns of incarcerated people who are intersex or identify as nonbinary or transgender, as Skylit does.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It allows those incarcerated people to \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/prea/sb-132-faqs/\">select a gender preference for the guards who search them\u003c/a>. Most significantly, it mandates that prison officials, under most circumstances, honor requests to be housed at the type of facility — male or female — that aligns with the incarcerated person’s gender identity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For six years, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation bounced Skylit from one men’s prison to another. At each, safety proved elusive. By 2020, she was isolated in a cell for her own protection after brutal attacks by people she was incarcerated with and, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23991903-syiaahkvsp2ndamendedcomplaint2022-03-03\">a lawsuit alleges (PDF)\u003c/a>, by guards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The prospect of serving out her remaining sentence in a women’s facility seemed nothing short of a miracle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For me, what it felt like was a sanctuary,” she said in one of several dozen interviews with KQED over the course of a year. “A place to be who you were meant to be without any retaliation, without any violence, without any judgment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Decades have passed since simply \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11917624/how-a-young-gay-man-survived-one-of-the-darkest-eras-in-california-queer-history\">being LGBTQ+ was considered a crime and a mental illness\u003c/a>. But bias and marginalization still lead to high rates of criminalization, especially for \u003ca href=\"https://transequality.org/sites/default/files/docs/resources/NTDS_Report.pdf\">Black trans women (PDF)\u003c/a> like Skylit. Once incarcerated, harsh prison conditions take a serious toll on mental health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://cpb-us-e2.wpmucdn.com/sites.uci.edu/dist/0/1149/files/2013/06/BulletinVol2Issue2.pdf\">Studies (PDF)\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://transequality.org/sites/default/files/docs/usts/USTS%20Full%20Report%20-%20FINAL%201.6.17.pdf\">surveys (PDF)\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/pdca15.pdf\">federal data (PDF)\u003c/a> show that trans women held in men’s prisons are sexually and physically assaulted at rates as much as 13 times higher than cisgender men. When they report assaults or fears for their safety, they’re often met with \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23991938-tni-coalition-letter-to-governor-newsom-71723pdf-2\">staff retaliation (PDF)\u003c/a>. It’s not uncommon for trans women to harm themselves — just to get to the safety of a prison mental health bed. Skylit had lived that, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Syiaah Skylit, transgender woman in California prison\"]‘For me, what it felt like was a sanctuary. A place to be who you were meant to be without any retaliation, without any violence, without any judgment.’[/pullquote]The Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act promised an end to those nightmares.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No more having to hide in fear,” Skylit said. “No more having to be quiet about who I really am. I was excited. I couldn’t wait.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This story is a result of a year-long investigation into the effectiveness of the legislation that aimed to reduce the trauma of transgender women in California’s prisons. KQED’s reporters interviewed a dozen incarcerated people and reviewed data along with several hundred pages of prison grievances, disciplinary records and legal filings. The reporting revealed that trans women like Skylit and many others transferred to a women’s prison under the new law have not found the sanctuary they were seeking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Skylit, the nightmares have only gotten worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Living with secrets\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Skylit grew up in Compton. When she was 5, she and her siblings entered the foster care system after their mother suffered a mental health break. When Skylit was 14, her mother died by apparent suicide, and the following year, she said, “I tried to kill myself by running in front of a moving train.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was physically uninjured but sent to a psychiatric hospital. It wouldn’t be the last time she’d tried to take her own life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964099\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964099\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Free-Syiaah-social-KQED-800x949.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"949\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Free-Syiaah-social-KQED-800x949.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Free-Syiaah-social-KQED-1020x1210.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Free-Syiaah-social-KQED-160x190.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Free-Syiaah-social-KQED-1295x1536.jpg 1295w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Free-Syiaah-social-KQED.jpg 1686w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In August 2020, as Syiaah Skylit sat in solitary confinement at Kern Valley State Prison for her own protection, transgender advocates launched a Change.org campaign urging clemency for her. She helped with the design of the artwork. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Syiaah Skylit, Micah Bazant and Freddie Francis)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Skylit is a slight 5 feet, 5 inches tall with a big, dimpled smile. As a teen and living as a boy, she was bullied for being a flashy dresser, for the way she carried herself. She experimented with a gay relationship, but it left her feeling “confused.” The adults in her life were religious and viewed LGBTQ+ people as sinners. Her brothers were gang members. She did what they asked of her, she said, because “I didn’t want to look weak.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I couldn’t come out and be myself around people like my family and my friends that I grew up with,” Skylit said. “I grew up in a hard-ass neighborhood. That ain’t about to fly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, she harbored a secret she never shared with her brothers, one even she didn’t fully comprehend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would dress up. I would put makeup on. All I understood as a person was, ‘Hey, I like this,’” she said. “So if I like this, why is it so bad? Am I a bad person?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A stint in juvenile detention didn’t stop Skylit from setting her sights on a bright future. She finished high school on time, enrolled in community college, worked multiple jobs and, for a while, paid her rent. But anxiety, depression and drug use interrupted her stability. She’d already been homeless once when, facing eviction in 2012, she and a friend robbed a convenience store in San Bernardino County. It yielded little, so they robbed a Los Angeles County jewelry store — and got caught.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At 22, Skylit was facing criminal trials in both counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Syiaah Skylit, transgender woman in California prison\"]‘I couldn’t come out and be myself around people like my family and my friends that I grew up with. I grew up in a hard-ass neighborhood. That ain’t about to fly.’[/pullquote]Her first stop was a San Bernardino County jail, where she came out as gay to get to the relative safety of what was then called the “alternative lifestyles tank.” According to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23999484-syiaah2015sanbernardinocolawsuit\">class-action lawsuit (DOC)\u003c/a>, the conditions were distressing: discrimination by staff and denial of basic services. Skylit, under her legal name, was among the named plaintiffs. A settlement led to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24002812-sanbernardinoinjunctiverelief\">significant reforms (DOC)\u003c/a>. It was in that jail, she said, where she first learned to advocate for her rights, even in the face of retaliation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s also where she first encountered openly transgender women and was blown away by their courage and joyful confidence. In their midst, Skylit said, she at last felt free of judgment, open to self-acceptance. Her next stop — a stint in the segregated LGBTQ+ tank at the Los Angeles County jail — only reinforced those feelings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s when I got a taste of all the ‘T’ and I was just living it,” she said of the ‘T’ for Transgender in the alphabet soup of LGBTQ+. “It was like discovering myself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was sentenced to 16 years in prison. It may seem paradoxical, but incarceration gave Skylit breathing room to explore her gender identity. In court, she apologized to her robbery victims. Then, she made a promise to herself to use “every second, every minute” of her time inside “to really find out who I am. I mean, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I felt I had.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skylit entered California’s prison system for men in December 2015. Soon, she chose her new name. “Syiaah” is an acronym — sexy, young, intelligent, ambitious, authentic and heroic. She picked “Sky” as “an inspiration to reach higher limits.” And “lit” is a nod to her hip-hop Compton roots “to be vibrant, live.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Put it together, it’s ‘I keep the sky lit’,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In keeping with the up-to-date \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24002874-ama-medical-spectrum-of-gender-d-295312\">medical (DOC)\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/diversity/education/transgender-and-gender-nonconforming-patients\">psychiatric\u003c/a> understanding of gender identity, the Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act doesn’t require incarcerated people to be on hormone replacement therapy or to be interested in gender-affirming surgeries to be transferred to housing that aligns with their sense of safety. During Skylit’s early years in prison, that wasn’t the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11957664 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/110822-KernValleyPrison-LV_CM_04-1020x680.jpg']The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation \u003cem>did\u003c/em> consider such transfer requests. The federal Prison Rape Elimination Act had since 2012 \u003ca href=\"https://www.prearesourcecenter.org/frequently-asked-questions/does-policy-houses-transgender-or-intersex-inmates-based-exclusively\">forbidden\u003c/a> the department from housing prisoners based solely on external genital anatomy. But the CDCR did it on a case-by-case basis, and the tiny number granted all happened to be for trans women who’d had gender-affirming genital surgery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not everybody wants that. Gender identity and gender transition are deeply personal. Skylit’s records show she declared her transgender identity on a special CDCR form about a year after arrival — and soon after started \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24018578-skylit-2019-housing-complaint\">asking to be transferred to a women’s prison (DOC)\u003c/a>. That went nowhere. So Skylit worked to stay true to her transition, even as she was funneled through a series of men’s prisons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I tapped into it, despite the long time I was facing, I was happy,” she said. “But that happiness turned into survival real fast.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Met by violence\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Almost immediately, Skylit’s gender identity and small stature made her a target. On several occasions, she said, correctional officers placed her in cells with large men who specifically requested her and then pressured her for sex. When she filed grievances in an attempt to switch cells or responded to physical assaults by fighting, she said, staff responded with Rule Violation Reports, known as RVRs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The more I would push back,” she said, “the more they would attack me with RVRs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Skylit pressed on. She requested hormone replacement therapy, and by the time those treatments started, in 2018, she’d been moved to Mule Creek State Prison near the small Sierra foothills town of Ione. It’s one of a dozen or so facilities in the state designated as “transgender hubs.” That means, medical and mental services for trans prisoners are concentrated there, as are prison commissary items unavailable elsewhere, such as sports bras and makeup for trans women, and boxer shorts for trans men.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skylit could finally stop MacGyvering her fashion looks. She could style her hair, wear makeup and earrings. On the prison yard, she said she found a sense of belonging with her trans sisters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were out there,” she said. “Having fun, protecting each other.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even at men’s prisons designated as transgender hubs, trans women were mixed with cisgender men in common areas and their assigned cells. The truer Skylit felt to herself, she said, the greater the danger she experienced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yeah, it’s OK to come out and you got a nice little outfit on, but guess what you just did?” she said. “You just called attention to yourself and now you have certain people who are making sexual advances towards you, and some of them don’t stop.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of her trans sisters exchanged sex for safety. But even that was no guarantee of safety. Skylit wept while recounting how a close friend staggered out of her cell “with a huge gash in her skull, busted lip, trying to get out of the room that she placed herself in because she wanted to be \u003cem>herself\u003c/em>. And she couldn’t complain to the officers, because they’re not gonna do anything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Syiaah Skylit, transgender woman in California prison\"]‘Either I’m gonna be who I wanna be or I’m gonna end up dead. Girl, I can’t be dead and be myself at the same time.’[/pullquote]So Skylit found herself facing a soul-crushing choice between her safety and her identity. Skylit drew a line against assault. That meant more fights and more disciplinary write-ups. The hormone treatments caused muscle weakness, so she made another compromise. She began stopping and starting the medications depending on the danger she was facing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Either I’m gonna be who I wanna be or I’m gonna end up dead,” she said. “Girl, I can’t be dead and be myself at the same time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a survival strategy it made sense, but abruptly going on and off hormones brings on acute mood swings. It also heightens \u003ca href=\"https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/diversity/education/transgender-and-gender-nonconforming-patients/gender-dysphoria-diagnosis\">gender dysphoria\u003c/a>, a mental health diagnosis associated with distress a person can feel at being a gender other than the one assigned at birth. Skylit had experienced that for most of her life, as she hid her true gender identity, and it caused depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Skylit juggled these stressors, prison officials transferred her again — this time to Kern Valley State Prison, a maximum-security facility in the Central Valley town of Delano that houses some of the state’s most violent offenders. Among them, transgender advocates \u003ca href=\"https://prisonhealth.news/2021/10/29/lgbtq-prison-testimonies-dakota-rose-in-california/\">note\u003c/a>, are gang members known to target LGBTQ+ people in prisons. That’s where she \u003ca href=\"https://sfbayview.com/2021/05/trans-woman-seeks-release-from-cdcr-custody-after-attacks/\">hit a new low\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Skylit and a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23991903-syiaahkvsp2ndamendedcomplaint2022-03-03\">lawsuit filed on her behalf (DOC),\u003c/a> she was assaulted twice by incarcerated men and witnessed gruesome attacks on two other trans women. Terrified, she says she asked to speak to a sergeant about her safety concerns. Instead, she alleges, two officers followed her into her cell. One pulled down her pants, ran a baton along her bottom and threatened to rape her with it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And I’m just sitting there like this can’t be real,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11954055 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230626-CALIFORNIA-PRISONERS-AP-RP-KQED-1020x735.jpg']That night, she drank from a bottle of laundry detergent in a desperate attempt to get sent to a mental health crisis unit. An officer stripped her of her clothes and left her lying naked in her cell next to the empty bottle. The next day, an officer pepper sprayed her at close range. Others beat her with batons. CDCR does not comment on active litigation. In legal filings, the named officers have denied wrongdoing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finally, Skylit said, a sergeant agreed to isolate her for her protection. That’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.vera.org/news/violence-torture-and-isolation-what-its-like-to-be-trans-in-prison\">a common fate for trans women\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s sad to be thankful for complete solitary confinement, isolation,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She would stay there for seven months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skylit had sought help from various attorneys. One responded. Jen Orthwein is a forensic psychologist who once treated transgender clients behind prison walls. They later co-founded a queer-owned law firm to challenge the harsh conditions they’d witnessed. Orthwein worked with other transgender advocates to launch a \u003ca href=\"https://www.change.org/p/gavin-newsom-call-for-the-immediate-release-of-syiaah-skylit-from-cdcr-custody-blacktranslivesmatter?utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=custom_url&recruited_by_id=cc830240-3ea3-11e9-a4df-e5579d49cec9\">petition\u003c/a> for clemency on Skylit’s behalf.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, with colored pencils and paper, Skylit got to work crafting a series of illustrated \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24018571-its-a-colorful-world-by-syiaah-skylit\">children’s books (DOC)\u003c/a> featuring gender-non-conforming characters. Among them is a rainbow-colored kid named Unique, who is fully embraced by loving parents but bullied on the playground for delighting in toys conventionally meant for both boys and girls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project helped Skylit reimagine her traumatic past. She also hoped her books might make their way into the world and change the mindset of young readers “to where they’re not growing into hatred, but actually out of it.” She finished two, got started on a third. And that’s where she was when Orthewin gave her the good news. The Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act was state law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964104\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964104\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231011-ITS-A-COLORFUL-WORLD-2-KQED-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Scans of two pages of drawing and text from a hand written book.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231011-ITS-A-COLORFUL-WORLD-2-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231011-ITS-A-COLORFUL-WORLD-2-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231011-ITS-A-COLORFUL-WORLD-2-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231011-ITS-A-COLORFUL-WORLD-2-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231011-ITS-A-COLORFUL-WORLD-2-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231011-ITS-A-COLORFUL-WORLD-2-KQED.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Excerpts from ‘It’s a Colorful World.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Syiaah Skylit)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It was like a prayer had been answered,” Skylit said. “Like, ‘This is it!’ This is going to be the beginning of Syiaah Skylit at her best, at completely being herself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>New perils\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Wiener’s bill was years in the making, and he’s quick to note that top CDCR officials were on board. They welcomed advocates to join a working group to brainstorm solutions to unsafe conditions and sought input directly from incarcerated transgender people. The Office of Inspector General detailed in \u003ca href=\"https://www.oig.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Special-Review-Incarcerated-Transgender-Nonbinary-Intersex-Individuals.pdf\">a 2020 report (PDF)\u003c/a> the painful responses to those surveys.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Laws in \u003ca href=\"https://www.acluct.org/en/know-your-rights/know-your-rights-trans-people-who-are-incarcerated-connecticut\">Connecticut\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23991974-952-management-of-gender-diverse-and-intersex-inmates-final-version\">Rhode Island (DOC)\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://lgbtqbar.org/bar-news/tiproject/ma/\">Massachusetts\u003c/a> call for similar reforms, while \u003ca href=\"https://www.aclu-nj.org/en/press-releases/settlement-nj-civil-rights-suit-promises-necessary-reform-affirming-transgender\">New Jersey\u003c/a> has made comparable policy changes in response to litigation. But advocates who helped craft California’s law say it is the most expansive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener said in an interview that he knew at the start that the magnitude of changes mandated by the law required patience and that it would take time to implement. More recently, though, he’s grown deeply concerned about the way his legislation has played out on the ground. Because, he said, even with senior CDCR management on board, “the culture in the individual prisons is just so challenging that it doesn’t translate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964100\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964100\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/SenWienerAtSanQuentinTransRemembranceDay-2019-KQED-800x539.jpg\" alt='A group of people, most wearing the same uniform of blue shirts and pants, stand together holding signs and joined by a person wearing a suit helping to hold a banner reading \"trans lives matter.\"' width=\"800\" height=\"539\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/SenWienerAtSanQuentinTransRemembranceDay-2019-KQED-800x539.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/SenWienerAtSanQuentinTransRemembranceDay-2019-KQED-1020x687.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/SenWienerAtSanQuentinTransRemembranceDay-2019-KQED-160x108.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/SenWienerAtSanQuentinTransRemembranceDay-2019-KQED-1536x1035.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/SenWienerAtSanQuentinTransRemembranceDay-2019-KQED-1920x1294.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/SenWienerAtSanQuentinTransRemembranceDay-2019-KQED.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) attends CDCR’s first Transgender Remembrance Day in 2019, organized jointly by trans and cisgender incarcerated people. Wiener had already authored the bill that would become the Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act, with buy-in from top CDCR officials. \u003ccite>(California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Officials chose the Central California Women’s Facility, or CCWF, in Chowchilla as the prison where all the trans women would go first. It’s a facility with a \u003ca href=\"https://prisonlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/16.08.18-Prison-Law-Office-report-on-CCWF.pdf\">troubled history (PDF)\u003c/a> when it comes to staff accountability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of a dozen CCWF prisoners interviewed by KQED, all said they heard correctional staff express hostility to the new law even before the transfers began, warning the cisgender population that fakers and sexual predators were heading their way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tasha Brown, a cisgender woman, said she heard guards say, “The doors were going to be open for people to come in to violate us, to rape us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tomas Green, a transgender man, said he heard guards “telling women here that the trans women were men and that they were gonna get raped.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11936438 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/1920px-CentralCaliforniaWomensFacility-1020x816.jpeg']Alexanne Danis, a cisgender woman, said she heard a lieutenant openly state that the transfers “don’t belong here, that they have to leave.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officers and fellow cisgender incarcerated people, Danis said, also spoke about driving the new transfers out, “saying that they were gonna stage stuff and that they were gonna make it sound worse than it was if anything did happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michelle Calvin was one of the first transgender women to arrive at CCWF. She helped work on Wiener’s legislation and has since transferred to the lower-security California Institution for Women. She heard the characterizations by staff that trans women were “gonna come over here and rape y’all and beat y’all up and take y’all stuff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The power to reverse the law, she heard officers tell incarcerated people, rested in their hands: “Take your house back. Take your prison back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates who helped craft the law were well aware of this toxic environment. They say they pressed officials to allow them to hold a town hall at the women’s prison to defuse these narratives before the transfers began. It never happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the trans women who began arriving in the first half of 2021 had no idea what they were stepping into.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Orthwein, Skylit’s attorney, was part of the working group that informed the new law and said key CDCR decisions around implementation proved harmful. The new arrivals were held in segregation for their first month. There, they were issued new prison identification numbers beginning with a distinctive two-letter combination. Instead of “some semblance of privacy about their transgender status,” which advocates had pressed for, this immediately outed them, feeding hostility and rejection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CCWF houses people in dorms, as many as eight to a room. Without exception, the trans women interviewed by KQED said they have been refused entry to dorms by prisoners who viewed them as “men.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Skylit’s first day in the general population, in mid-July 2021, guards started writing her up for minor violations. Within a month, she was in solitary confinement, accused of having a consensual relationship with her cisgender female bunkmate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sex is against prison rules systemwide, but every CCWF prisoner interviewed for this piece said it’s extremely common, especially in women’s prisons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Tomas Green, transgender man in California prison\"]‘At the end of the day, we’re humans. I’m not saying every relationship in here is just peachy perfect, no. You have a lot of relationships in here that are toxic — fight, argue. But that’s life in the free world.’[/pullquote]“Yes, you’re not supposed to have sex but it happens. It’s natural and there’s nothing that’s gonna stop it from happening,” said Giovanni Gonzales, a transgender man who runs a group to educate peers about gender identity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Relationships form quickly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the end of the day, we’re humans,” Green said. “I’m not saying every relationship in here is just peachy perfect, no. You have a lot of relationships in here that are toxic — fight, argue. But that’s life in the free world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, while sex and intimacy may be universal, punishment is not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gonzales and Green said staff often turn a blind eye to cisgender women who couple up, especially if they express their gender in stereotypically feminine ways. If a transgender man is caught being amorous, they said, a rule violation is more likely. As for the trans women who were just arriving at CCWF, a harsher set of unwritten rules seemed to apply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One cisgender couple in Skylit’s dorm had been having regular sex without consequence, she said. As Skylit was handcuffed and written up for her relationship, she asked an officer why she was going to isolation and the bunkmate wasn’t. He replied, “Because you’re a man and she’s a woman.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a hearing to discuss her situation, records show that Acting Warden Michael Pallares told her he would push to send her back to men’s prison. She claimed he was hostile, “calling me a predator, saying that I’m preying on women.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In men’s prison, Skylit had lived in constant fear of sexual assault. Now \u003cem>she \u003c/em>was cast as a sexual predator. Her disciplinary paperwork relied on “confidential sources” to suggest she was faking her status because she “displays very masculine behavior when with the inmate population.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In isolation, according to grievances and a government claim filed by Orthwein, Skylit’s gender identity was undermined. She had trouble accessing her hormones and was denied a razor for 40 days straight. She grew a full beard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People screaming at me, yelling at me, calling me a man, and I need to go back to the men’s prison,” she said. “‘Look at the hair on yo’ face.’ [I was] pleading, pleading, pleading, ‘Please give me a razor, please give me a razor,’ and denied every time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A psychologist misgendered Skylit in a report, yet \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24018435-psychologist-note-razors-clothing\">noted (DOC)\u003c/a> that an extended stay in isolation would likely increase her mental health symptoms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the months that followed, Skylit was sent multiple times to a mental health unit for being suicidal. She was bumped up to a more intensive level of mental health care. Yet she remained in solitary confinement for eight months. Then, without explanation, Pallares released her to the general population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her freedom wouldn’t last.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘What did you all do to our homegirl?’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Skylit’s time in isolation had taken a toll. On the yard, she said she made enemies when she responded to threats and harassment with aggressive posturing and language. She said she tried not to engage, hanging out and playing cards every day with a couple of other trans women and one cisgender woman who was sweet on her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We would hold hands,” she said. “We would hug, we would kiss.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prison officials aren’t supposed to penalize trans women more harshly for breaking rules that cisgender prisoners also break, like the one forbidding any behavior that could lead to sex. But the atmosphere around these relationships, interviews and records reveal, was tense and complex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While some cisgender women feared or lashed out at the new arrivals, others were eager to partner with them. Of a half-dozen transgender women at CCWF who were interviewed by KQED, the five who have not had gender-affirming genital surgery, said they’ve been subject to sexual advances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11955680 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/GettyImages-180517172-1020x680.jpg']Meanwhile, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24016207-mossgroup-sb132-cdcr-assessment-report\">a report (DOC)\u003c/a> on the implementation of the new law commissioned by CDCR found that a “sexualized environment, including being sexually pressured or pursued,” was among the reasons given by transgender women who voluntarily returned to men’s prison. Other reasons included “hostile reception from staff or incarcerated individuals,” “false allegations to be removed from room” and “issues with getting hygiene items, such as razors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In men’s prison, Skylit said, consensual sex generally went unpunished. That made it hard for her to imagine just how much the bond with her new “bestie” would cost her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On May 19, 2022, Skylit and her friends were on the yard drinking prison-made wine, disciplinary records show. Skylit and her girlfriend were kissing. A few minutes after Skylit went to use the porta-potty, she said, the girlfriend followed her in and started throwing up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skylit said she was holding her hair back when Calvin, one of the trans friends she played cards with, let her know a guard was approaching. Skylit stepped out and asked a couple of other people to check on the girlfriend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They “opened the door and they say, ‘What did you all do to our homegirl? We don’t know what you two doing, we don’t know what’s going on over here,’” Skylit recounted. “And I said, ‘We just been drinking and she was in the thing throwing up.’ But now, it’s a commotion. It’s a crowd coming up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Skylit and two other witnesses, the girlfriend came out, and the guard scolded them. “She was like, ‘I’m OK bestie, I love you so much,’ and I hugged her and I walked away.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rumors about a rape started circulating. Skylit said she heard it “from like one or two people. It wasn’t \u003cem>big\u003c/em> until the next day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Syiaah Skylit, transgender woman in California prison\"]‘They were surrounding me and pushing me and spitting on me and swinging at me.’[/pullquote]By then, a fictional narrative had taken shape: In those few moments inside the porta-potty, Skylit had committed rape, while Calvin stood guard. To be clear, prison officials never accused her of rape or sexual assault. The girlfriend told them — and KQED — that it never happened. Still, the rumors proved to be Skylit’s undoing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That next day, according to Skylit and five witnesses, as she was returning from a mental health appointment, she was roughed up on the yard by 12 to 15 incarcerated people who called her “nothing but a rapist.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They were surrounding me and pushing me and spitting on me and swinging at me,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED obtained video of the incident through a public records request. There’s no audio, but the grainy image shows Skylit, who had a pass to be on the yard, doing an about-face as a group of incarcerated people in civilian clothes approached her. One appears to throw liquid at her. A few shove and punch her. She gets agitated. At one point, it’s clear that she’s yelling. But she mostly keeps her arms crossed. She never hits back. Still, she is the only one punished.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/nS5qpi-NXfE\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>As Syiaah Skylit, wearing a long-sleeved white shirt under her prison blues, walked through the yard at Central California Women’s Facility in May 2022, she was accosted by incarcerated people who accused her of being a rapist. Courtesy of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’d been out of solitary confinement for just four weeks. She went right back in — and she hasn’t come out in more than a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A sergeant who, the video shows, does not walk out to the yard until Skylit is handcuffed, wrote her \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24018553-referring-to-sexual-intercourse-through-rape\">rule violation report (DOC)\u003c/a>. He states that he heard her yell, “I’m gonna f- you bitches,” and a few variations on that theme. Then, using her legal name, he adds an editorial aside: “It should be known that when [Skylit] mentioned f-, [Skylit] was referring to sexual intercourse through rape.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CCWF initially accused Skylit of “threatening the life of a prisoner,” and referred her to the local district attorney for felony prosecution. It didn’t stick. Ultimately, her writeup was reduced to “behavior which could lead to violence.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Syiaah Skylit, transgender woman in California prison\"]‘It’s sad to be thankful for complete solitary confinement, isolation.’[/pullquote]In her defense, Skylit pointed to the video as evidence that she wasn’t the aggressor and that others had committed violence against \u003cem>her.\u003c/em> Records show that the senior hearing officer called the video “irrelevant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CDCR does not comment on specific incarcerated people. Asked to respond to the behavior of the sergeant, it said state regulations forbid discrimination by staff and grant incarcerated people the right to be treated “respectfully, impartially, and fairly by all employees.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skylit was far from alone in experiencing false allegations. Of the trans women at CCWF interviewed by KQED, each said they had been similarly targeted by others who were incarcerated and even by staff. Most were sent to solitary confinement pending investigations. Some were already there when they said they were framed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fancy Lipsey, records show, spent seven months in isolation after she was physically assaulted by other incarcerated people. As soon as she got out, a cisgender woman “went over to the officers and told them that I touched her vagina and her breasts in the dayroom.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They reviewed the video on the spot “and saw that I was nowhere near this woman.” Still, they told Lipsey they were taking her back to solitary confinement. That’s when she cut her wrists, ending up on suicide watch instead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Calvin said she was punished after a roommate “went up to the program office and said I supposedly choked” another cisgender woman in their dorm in the middle of the night. The allegation came days after the alleged assault, which no one witnessed or reported at the time. Calvin said it took months to clear her name.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tremayne Carroll, a trans woman who uses a wheelchair, said that after she rebuffed sexual advances from a cisgender woman, that woman yelled to guards that Carroll had sexually assaulted her. When that went nowhere, the woman changed her story and said the two had had consensual sex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Freddy Fox, an intersex prisoner who identifies as a trans woman and goes by “Foxy,” said she landed in solitary confinement after being assaulted. Alone in her cell in the weeks that followed, she was verbally harassed and accused of sexual impropriety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They would allege that I had exposed myself, then I’d have to go to the cameras to show that I did not expose myself,” Foxy said. The officers would then reduce the write-up to a lesser violation, she said, “but it’s still a sexual misconduct! That was the go-to thing in 2021 when we first arrived.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Porta-potty rapist’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Skylit’s case stands out in one crucial way: The false rape allegation went viral. Her chosen and legal names ended up all \u003ca href=\"https://reduxx.info/exclusive-female-inmate-reports-rape-occurred-in-california-womens-prison/\">over the internet.\u003c/a> One outlet called her the perpetrator of a “\u003ca href=\"https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/alleged-port-potty-rape-throws-harsh-glare-california-coed-prison-law-after\">port-a-potty rape\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because, as soon as the Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act went into effect, an anti-trans organization called the Women’s Liberation Front started working to roll it back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In November 2021, it filed \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22276203-chandlervcdcrcomplaint\">a lawsuit (DOC)\u003c/a> in federal court alleging the law violates the constitutional rights of cisgender women by forcing them to be housed with trans women who still have male genitalia. Simply having them there, the pending suit alleges, “substantially” increases the risk “of sexual harassment, sexual assault, rape, and physical violence, and to psychological fear of such harms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Women’s Liberation Front was looking for a villain. The rumors about Skylit fit its narrative perfectly. Even though there were no eyewitnesses, no prison investigation and a girlfriend who \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22276218-43-3-asia-davis-declaration\">said the rape never happened (DOC)\u003c/a>, attorneys for the organization gathered hearsay declarations. The attorney handed them over to anti-trans websites and \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22276220-decl-of-plaintiff-supporter-mimi-lee-alleging-rape-of-ad-in-opposition-to-dismissal-033113109979\">attached them to a motion in the legal docket (DOC)\u003c/a>, making the declarations public record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the tier in solitary confinement, the taunts of “porta-potty rapist” have been endless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='More on LGBTQI+ Rights' tag='transgender-rights']“I tell people, stop calling me that,” Skylit said. “Then, I’m a problem because I say things like, ‘Well, if I’m a rapist, then you a rapist,’ and then it’s like, ‘Oh, now he’s a threat, he’s arguing, he’s aggressive.’ I’m in a cage. By myself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skylit said cisgender incarcerated people have threatened to stab her, even chop off her penis. They’ve done it in front of officers without consequence. Yet just about every time she has erupted with verbal threats, she is written up. Prison officials have used the outbursts, and the enemies she’s made, as justification to keep her in solitary confinement, labeling her a “threat to the management and security of the institution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some prisoners in solitary confinement — what CDCR calls restricted housing — are allowed cellmates for company. Skylit has had to cell alone. Some are allowed onto an open yard. But Skylit was designated a potential threat to others, so she has had to exercise in a cage that’s about 12-by-8 feet, often surrounded by other incarcerated people who insult her. When she attends her mental health groups, she is among those who must sit in a cage the size of a telephone booth called a “therapeutic module.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Multiple \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6987940/\">studies \u003c/a>confirm how damaging long-term solitary confinement is to mental health. So it’s no surprise that Skylit has struggled. Records show she has harmed herself on several occasions, once punching the wall until her hand bled. After that incident, for a few weeks in August 2022, she was medicated against her will with high doses of antipsychotic drugs. Too drugged to mount a defense, she was found guilty of multiple rule violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A judge determined the prison violated her civil rights by force-medicating her. For Skylit, it was an important victory. But the whole experience eroded her faith in the prison mental health system. As the months ticked by, she went off all her medications — not just the hormones, but also the ones that treat depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Shattered trust\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It’s important to note that many cisgender incarcerated people at CCWF with histories of sexual victimization were truly scared of the newly arriving transgender women. Some still are. The fear-mongering from staff and outside anti-trans groups has not helped. But those fears appear to be unfounded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED requested discipline data from CCWF. In the two years after the new law took effect, staff did not issue a single rule violation for physical or sexual violence to the trans women who came over from men’s prisons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, write-ups for violence were common in the rest of the prison population, including for fighting, assault and battery on prisoners and staff, and even inciting a riot. The data also show that the new arrivals under the law were six times more likely than other CCWF prisoners to be punished for behavior that could lead to consensual sex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As it happens, there was a violent predator at CCWF. Allegedly, there was more than one and they weren’t transgender women. They were cisgender men, employees of the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In May 2023, as Skylit struggled to hold onto herself in her solitary cell, she heard the news that Gregory Rodriguez, a longtime guard at CCWF, was facing a 96-count criminal complaint for allegedly sexually assaulting more than a dozen incarcerated women over the course of years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’d been allowed to retire in August 2022 while under investigation. In addition to those charges, six women filed lawsuits under Jane Roe or Jane Doe pseudonyms against Rodriguez in federal court, contending he lured them to a suite of offices where there are no cameras and forcibly raped them. One of these alleged assaults took place on May 20, 2022, the same day that the crowd surrounded Skylit and called \u003cem>her\u003c/em> a rapist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CDCR \u003ca href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article280162624.html\">settled those suits\u003c/a> earlier this month for $3.7 million. More lawsuits have been filed alleging sexual assaults by CCWF employees. Four of the named victims are transgender women, Skylit among them. Her \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24018568-skylitsexabusecomplaintaug14_2023\">lawsuit (DOC)\u003c/a> contends that Rodriguez and Pallares, the warden who called her a predator, each demanded sexual favors from her in the spring of 2022 “for the purpose of humiliating, degrading and demeaning” her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For him to have me come into that room, it’s just so dirty,” Skylit said. “I feel dirty.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pallares was demoted in January after the Rodriguez scandal broke. Currently, an associate warden at Pleasant Valley State Prison, he declined comment. Prison officials wouldn’t say whether Pallares was under investigation. But in a statement, officials said CDCR investigates all sexual assault allegations, and “resolutely condemns any staff member who violates their oath and shatters the trust of the public.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Syiaah Skylit, transgender woman in California prison\"]‘I don’t even understand who I am anymore. I’m full of anger. Hatred, ooh, hatred is huge for me right now. I’m lost, I’m completely lost.’[/pullquote]The totality of Skylit’s experience has left \u003cem>her \u003c/em>shattered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They come to my door every day asking me if I want to take my hormones. No, I don’t want to take no hormones,” she told KQED in March after 10 months of isolation. “I don’t even understand who I am anymore. I’m full of anger. Hatred, ooh, hatred is huge for me right now. I’m lost, I’m completely lost.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spending more than two years in solitary confinement means she hasn’t had access to the kind of programming that would earn her good-time credits and earlier release, like school, work and vocational training. She has never laid a finger on another prisoner or an officer, but her disciplinary write-ups have nevertheless added more than a year to her original 16-year sentence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prison officials are again recommending that Skylit be returned to a men’s prison. It requires a hearing that’s already been postponed for 17 months. She’s flip-flopped on whether to go back voluntarily. Being stuck in a box is destroying her, she said, and getting back into the general population may help her get out sooner. But with being falsely labeled a rapist, she’s terrified.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They will kill me,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If she does end up back in men’s prison, she shared in an emotional phone call, she plans to keep her gender identity secret. To prepare for the possibility, she started working out so she could fight for her life. She sold her earrings. And she cut off all her hair. She’d been growing it out for more than eight years, ever since those trans women in county jail lit a fire inside her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Making herself “bald-headed” as she said, was a painful act of surrender.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skylit also threw away the trans-friendly children’s books she’d worked so hard to bring to life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I told myself, I’m not gonna get emotional or emo with this stuff no more,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A path forward\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California’s law was meant to protect transgender women, but the culture at CCWF and rising anti-trans fervor all over the country have exposed them to new traumas. Implementation has been slow. A \u003ca href=\"https://www.oig.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Special-Review-No.-22-01.pdf\">report (PDF)\u003c/a> issued in late August by the current inspector general noted a “significant backlog” in transfer requests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of nearly 400 incarcerated people who’ve requested housing transfers under the law — the vast majority transgender women asking to move to women’s prison — more than 300 are still waiting for a committee to hear their case. Many live in daily fear of sexual and physical assault, said A.D. Lewis, an attorney who runs Trans Beyond Bars, a project for the Berkeley-based Prison Law Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A transgender man, Lewis regularly communicates with trans-incarcerated people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The three dozen or so trans women who made it to CCWF — most during the first six months of implementation — are the vanguard. Many, like Skylit, have suffered. A small number have been transferred to the California Institution for Women, a lower security prison in San Bernardino County, where they say conditions are slightly better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Jen Orthwein, forensic psychologist, co-founder of Medina Orthwein LLP\"]‘These systems are so built to destroy people, and if they survive and get out, they’re not better and they’re often much worse.’[/pullquote]In a statement, CDCR said it is working to implement some of the changes \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24016207-mossgroup-sb132-cdcr-assessment-report\">recommended by outside consultants (DOC)\u003c/a> earlier this year and is committed to providing “a safe, humane, respectful and rehabilitative environment for all incarcerated people, including the transgender, non-binary and intersex community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates acknowledge that the cycles of harm continue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Instead of respecting trans people’s self-determination and prioritizing their safety, as the law requires,” Lewis said, correctional staff and other incarcerated people have used it “to put a target on trans peoples’ back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shortly after prison officials received KQED’s questions for this story in September, CCWF revoked all phone privileges for Skylit and others in solitary confinement. In an email to KQED after the initial publication of this story, a CDCR official said the revocation of phone privileges was a policy change ending what had been a temporary, more liberal phone privileges policy instituted in the early days of the COVID pandemic. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skylit’s attorney worries about the impact of the trauma on her future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These systems are so built to destroy people, and if they survive and get out, they’re not better and they’re often much worse,” Orthwein said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a letter sent in July 2023 to Newsom, nearly two-dozen advocacy and legal organizations pressing for better treatment for transgender, nonbinary and intersex prisoners \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23991938-tni-coalition-letter-to-governor-newsom-71723pdf-2\">urged clemency (DOC)\u003c/a> for those who have experienced harm in prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener, meanwhile, expressed deep frustration with the pace of implementation. In response to KQED’s findings, he said he was “horrified to hear how trans women are being treated in women’s prison, both by the prisons and by other inmates. The fact that they’re being treated harshly and slandered, called rapists when they’re not, it’s terrifying and we’re not going to just let this go.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Lee Romney is a longtime journalist who spent 23 years at the \u003c/em>Los Angeles Times\u003cem>. Jennifer Johnson is a former career public defender who helped launch San Francisco’s Behavioral Health Court. This reporting, supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism and the California Health Care Foundation, is part of a forthcoming podcast they’re co-creating. Called \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.novemberinmysoul.com/\">\u003cem>November In My Soul\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, it explores the way bias makes its way into our intertwined mental health and criminal legal systems.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story has been updated.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"California’s Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act was meant to protect transgender people, but the culture at state prisons and rising anti-trans fervor throughout the country have exposed them to new traumas.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1698096184,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":155,"wordCount":7792},"headData":{"title":"California Prisons Fail to Uphold Transgender Rights Despite State Law | KQED","description":"California’s Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act was meant to protect transgender people, but the culture at state prisons and rising anti-trans fervor throughout the country have exposed them to new traumas.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"audioUrl":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/chrt.fm/track/G6C7C3/traffic.megaphone.fm/KQINC2105203052.mp3?updated=1697154277","nprByline":"\u003ca href=\"https://www.novemberinmysoul.com/about/#62b093f21c801819ce513743\">Lee Romney and Jenny Johnson\u003c/a>","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","showOnAuthorArchivePages":"No","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11964027/california-prisons-fail-to-uphold-transgender-rights-despite-state-law","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Warning: There are descriptions of physical and sexual violence in this piece. Also, where legal names and chosen names differ, we’re using chosen names.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">S\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>yiaah Skylit had been stuck in solitary confinement at a maximum-security men’s prison for months when, in the fall of 2020, she got the news that gave her hope: Gov. Gavin Newsom had signed the \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB132\">Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Authored by state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), the law requires California prison staff to use the chosen pronouns of incarcerated people who are intersex or identify as nonbinary or transgender, as Skylit does.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It allows those incarcerated people to \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/prea/sb-132-faqs/\">select a gender preference for the guards who search them\u003c/a>. Most significantly, it mandates that prison officials, under most circumstances, honor requests to be housed at the type of facility — male or female — that aligns with the incarcerated person’s gender identity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For six years, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation bounced Skylit from one men’s prison to another. At each, safety proved elusive. By 2020, she was isolated in a cell for her own protection after brutal attacks by people she was incarcerated with and, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23991903-syiaahkvsp2ndamendedcomplaint2022-03-03\">a lawsuit alleges (PDF)\u003c/a>, by guards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The prospect of serving out her remaining sentence in a women’s facility seemed nothing short of a miracle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For me, what it felt like was a sanctuary,” she said in one of several dozen interviews with KQED over the course of a year. “A place to be who you were meant to be without any retaliation, without any violence, without any judgment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Decades have passed since simply \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11917624/how-a-young-gay-man-survived-one-of-the-darkest-eras-in-california-queer-history\">being LGBTQ+ was considered a crime and a mental illness\u003c/a>. But bias and marginalization still lead to high rates of criminalization, especially for \u003ca href=\"https://transequality.org/sites/default/files/docs/resources/NTDS_Report.pdf\">Black trans women (PDF)\u003c/a> like Skylit. Once incarcerated, harsh prison conditions take a serious toll on mental health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://cpb-us-e2.wpmucdn.com/sites.uci.edu/dist/0/1149/files/2013/06/BulletinVol2Issue2.pdf\">Studies (PDF)\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://transequality.org/sites/default/files/docs/usts/USTS%20Full%20Report%20-%20FINAL%201.6.17.pdf\">surveys (PDF)\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/pdca15.pdf\">federal data (PDF)\u003c/a> show that trans women held in men’s prisons are sexually and physically assaulted at rates as much as 13 times higher than cisgender men. When they report assaults or fears for their safety, they’re often met with \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23991938-tni-coalition-letter-to-governor-newsom-71723pdf-2\">staff retaliation (PDF)\u003c/a>. It’s not uncommon for trans women to harm themselves — just to get to the safety of a prison mental health bed. Skylit had lived that, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘For me, what it felt like was a sanctuary. A place to be who you were meant to be without any retaliation, without any violence, without any judgment.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Syiaah Skylit, transgender woman in California prison","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act promised an end to those nightmares.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No more having to hide in fear,” Skylit said. “No more having to be quiet about who I really am. I was excited. I couldn’t wait.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This story is a result of a year-long investigation into the effectiveness of the legislation that aimed to reduce the trauma of transgender women in California’s prisons. KQED’s reporters interviewed a dozen incarcerated people and reviewed data along with several hundred pages of prison grievances, disciplinary records and legal filings. The reporting revealed that trans women like Skylit and many others transferred to a women’s prison under the new law have not found the sanctuary they were seeking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Skylit, the nightmares have only gotten worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Living with secrets\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Skylit grew up in Compton. When she was 5, she and her siblings entered the foster care system after their mother suffered a mental health break. When Skylit was 14, her mother died by apparent suicide, and the following year, she said, “I tried to kill myself by running in front of a moving train.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was physically uninjured but sent to a psychiatric hospital. It wouldn’t be the last time she’d tried to take her own life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964099\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964099\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Free-Syiaah-social-KQED-800x949.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"949\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Free-Syiaah-social-KQED-800x949.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Free-Syiaah-social-KQED-1020x1210.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Free-Syiaah-social-KQED-160x190.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Free-Syiaah-social-KQED-1295x1536.jpg 1295w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Free-Syiaah-social-KQED.jpg 1686w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In August 2020, as Syiaah Skylit sat in solitary confinement at Kern Valley State Prison for her own protection, transgender advocates launched a Change.org campaign urging clemency for her. She helped with the design of the artwork. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Syiaah Skylit, Micah Bazant and Freddie Francis)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Skylit is a slight 5 feet, 5 inches tall with a big, dimpled smile. As a teen and living as a boy, she was bullied for being a flashy dresser, for the way she carried herself. She experimented with a gay relationship, but it left her feeling “confused.” The adults in her life were religious and viewed LGBTQ+ people as sinners. Her brothers were gang members. She did what they asked of her, she said, because “I didn’t want to look weak.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I couldn’t come out and be myself around people like my family and my friends that I grew up with,” Skylit said. “I grew up in a hard-ass neighborhood. That ain’t about to fly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, she harbored a secret she never shared with her brothers, one even she didn’t fully comprehend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would dress up. I would put makeup on. All I understood as a person was, ‘Hey, I like this,’” she said. “So if I like this, why is it so bad? Am I a bad person?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A stint in juvenile detention didn’t stop Skylit from setting her sights on a bright future. She finished high school on time, enrolled in community college, worked multiple jobs and, for a while, paid her rent. But anxiety, depression and drug use interrupted her stability. She’d already been homeless once when, facing eviction in 2012, she and a friend robbed a convenience store in San Bernardino County. It yielded little, so they robbed a Los Angeles County jewelry store — and got caught.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At 22, Skylit was facing criminal trials in both counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘I couldn’t come out and be myself around people like my family and my friends that I grew up with. I grew up in a hard-ass neighborhood. That ain’t about to fly.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Syiaah Skylit, transgender woman in California prison","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Her first stop was a San Bernardino County jail, where she came out as gay to get to the relative safety of what was then called the “alternative lifestyles tank.” According to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23999484-syiaah2015sanbernardinocolawsuit\">class-action lawsuit (DOC)\u003c/a>, the conditions were distressing: discrimination by staff and denial of basic services. Skylit, under her legal name, was among the named plaintiffs. A settlement led to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24002812-sanbernardinoinjunctiverelief\">significant reforms (DOC)\u003c/a>. It was in that jail, she said, where she first learned to advocate for her rights, even in the face of retaliation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s also where she first encountered openly transgender women and was blown away by their courage and joyful confidence. In their midst, Skylit said, she at last felt free of judgment, open to self-acceptance. Her next stop — a stint in the segregated LGBTQ+ tank at the Los Angeles County jail — only reinforced those feelings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s when I got a taste of all the ‘T’ and I was just living it,” she said of the ‘T’ for Transgender in the alphabet soup of LGBTQ+. “It was like discovering myself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was sentenced to 16 years in prison. It may seem paradoxical, but incarceration gave Skylit breathing room to explore her gender identity. In court, she apologized to her robbery victims. Then, she made a promise to herself to use “every second, every minute” of her time inside “to really find out who I am. I mean, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I felt I had.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skylit entered California’s prison system for men in December 2015. Soon, she chose her new name. “Syiaah” is an acronym — sexy, young, intelligent, ambitious, authentic and heroic. She picked “Sky” as “an inspiration to reach higher limits.” And “lit” is a nod to her hip-hop Compton roots “to be vibrant, live.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Put it together, it’s ‘I keep the sky lit’,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In keeping with the up-to-date \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24002874-ama-medical-spectrum-of-gender-d-295312\">medical (DOC)\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/diversity/education/transgender-and-gender-nonconforming-patients\">psychiatric\u003c/a> understanding of gender identity, the Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act doesn’t require incarcerated people to be on hormone replacement therapy or to be interested in gender-affirming surgeries to be transferred to housing that aligns with their sense of safety. During Skylit’s early years in prison, that wasn’t the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11957664","hero":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/110822-KernValleyPrison-LV_CM_04-1020x680.jpg","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation \u003cem>did\u003c/em> consider such transfer requests. The federal Prison Rape Elimination Act had since 2012 \u003ca href=\"https://www.prearesourcecenter.org/frequently-asked-questions/does-policy-houses-transgender-or-intersex-inmates-based-exclusively\">forbidden\u003c/a> the department from housing prisoners based solely on external genital anatomy. But the CDCR did it on a case-by-case basis, and the tiny number granted all happened to be for trans women who’d had gender-affirming genital surgery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not everybody wants that. Gender identity and gender transition are deeply personal. Skylit’s records show she declared her transgender identity on a special CDCR form about a year after arrival — and soon after started \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24018578-skylit-2019-housing-complaint\">asking to be transferred to a women’s prison (DOC)\u003c/a>. That went nowhere. So Skylit worked to stay true to her transition, even as she was funneled through a series of men’s prisons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I tapped into it, despite the long time I was facing, I was happy,” she said. “But that happiness turned into survival real fast.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Met by violence\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Almost immediately, Skylit’s gender identity and small stature made her a target. On several occasions, she said, correctional officers placed her in cells with large men who specifically requested her and then pressured her for sex. When she filed grievances in an attempt to switch cells or responded to physical assaults by fighting, she said, staff responded with Rule Violation Reports, known as RVRs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The more I would push back,” she said, “the more they would attack me with RVRs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Skylit pressed on. She requested hormone replacement therapy, and by the time those treatments started, in 2018, she’d been moved to Mule Creek State Prison near the small Sierra foothills town of Ione. It’s one of a dozen or so facilities in the state designated as “transgender hubs.” That means, medical and mental services for trans prisoners are concentrated there, as are prison commissary items unavailable elsewhere, such as sports bras and makeup for trans women, and boxer shorts for trans men.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skylit could finally stop MacGyvering her fashion looks. She could style her hair, wear makeup and earrings. On the prison yard, she said she found a sense of belonging with her trans sisters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were out there,” she said. “Having fun, protecting each other.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even at men’s prisons designated as transgender hubs, trans women were mixed with cisgender men in common areas and their assigned cells. The truer Skylit felt to herself, she said, the greater the danger she experienced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yeah, it’s OK to come out and you got a nice little outfit on, but guess what you just did?” she said. “You just called attention to yourself and now you have certain people who are making sexual advances towards you, and some of them don’t stop.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of her trans sisters exchanged sex for safety. But even that was no guarantee of safety. Skylit wept while recounting how a close friend staggered out of her cell “with a huge gash in her skull, busted lip, trying to get out of the room that she placed herself in because she wanted to be \u003cem>herself\u003c/em>. And she couldn’t complain to the officers, because they’re not gonna do anything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘Either I’m gonna be who I wanna be or I’m gonna end up dead. Girl, I can’t be dead and be myself at the same time.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Syiaah Skylit, transgender woman in California prison","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>So Skylit found herself facing a soul-crushing choice between her safety and her identity. Skylit drew a line against assault. That meant more fights and more disciplinary write-ups. The hormone treatments caused muscle weakness, so she made another compromise. She began stopping and starting the medications depending on the danger she was facing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Either I’m gonna be who I wanna be or I’m gonna end up dead,” she said. “Girl, I can’t be dead and be myself at the same time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a survival strategy it made sense, but abruptly going on and off hormones brings on acute mood swings. It also heightens \u003ca href=\"https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/diversity/education/transgender-and-gender-nonconforming-patients/gender-dysphoria-diagnosis\">gender dysphoria\u003c/a>, a mental health diagnosis associated with distress a person can feel at being a gender other than the one assigned at birth. Skylit had experienced that for most of her life, as she hid her true gender identity, and it caused depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Skylit juggled these stressors, prison officials transferred her again — this time to Kern Valley State Prison, a maximum-security facility in the Central Valley town of Delano that houses some of the state’s most violent offenders. Among them, transgender advocates \u003ca href=\"https://prisonhealth.news/2021/10/29/lgbtq-prison-testimonies-dakota-rose-in-california/\">note\u003c/a>, are gang members known to target LGBTQ+ people in prisons. That’s where she \u003ca href=\"https://sfbayview.com/2021/05/trans-woman-seeks-release-from-cdcr-custody-after-attacks/\">hit a new low\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Skylit and a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23991903-syiaahkvsp2ndamendedcomplaint2022-03-03\">lawsuit filed on her behalf (DOC),\u003c/a> she was assaulted twice by incarcerated men and witnessed gruesome attacks on two other trans women. Terrified, she says she asked to speak to a sergeant about her safety concerns. Instead, she alleges, two officers followed her into her cell. One pulled down her pants, ran a baton along her bottom and threatened to rape her with it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And I’m just sitting there like this can’t be real,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11954055","hero":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230626-CALIFORNIA-PRISONERS-AP-RP-KQED-1020x735.jpg","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>That night, she drank from a bottle of laundry detergent in a desperate attempt to get sent to a mental health crisis unit. An officer stripped her of her clothes and left her lying naked in her cell next to the empty bottle. The next day, an officer pepper sprayed her at close range. Others beat her with batons. CDCR does not comment on active litigation. In legal filings, the named officers have denied wrongdoing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finally, Skylit said, a sergeant agreed to isolate her for her protection. That’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.vera.org/news/violence-torture-and-isolation-what-its-like-to-be-trans-in-prison\">a common fate for trans women\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s sad to be thankful for complete solitary confinement, isolation,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She would stay there for seven months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skylit had sought help from various attorneys. One responded. Jen Orthwein is a forensic psychologist who once treated transgender clients behind prison walls. They later co-founded a queer-owned law firm to challenge the harsh conditions they’d witnessed. Orthwein worked with other transgender advocates to launch a \u003ca href=\"https://www.change.org/p/gavin-newsom-call-for-the-immediate-release-of-syiaah-skylit-from-cdcr-custody-blacktranslivesmatter?utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=custom_url&recruited_by_id=cc830240-3ea3-11e9-a4df-e5579d49cec9\">petition\u003c/a> for clemency on Skylit’s behalf.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, with colored pencils and paper, Skylit got to work crafting a series of illustrated \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24018571-its-a-colorful-world-by-syiaah-skylit\">children’s books (DOC)\u003c/a> featuring gender-non-conforming characters. Among them is a rainbow-colored kid named Unique, who is fully embraced by loving parents but bullied on the playground for delighting in toys conventionally meant for both boys and girls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project helped Skylit reimagine her traumatic past. She also hoped her books might make their way into the world and change the mindset of young readers “to where they’re not growing into hatred, but actually out of it.” She finished two, got started on a third. And that’s where she was when Orthewin gave her the good news. The Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act was state law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964104\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964104\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231011-ITS-A-COLORFUL-WORLD-2-KQED-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Scans of two pages of drawing and text from a hand written book.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231011-ITS-A-COLORFUL-WORLD-2-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231011-ITS-A-COLORFUL-WORLD-2-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231011-ITS-A-COLORFUL-WORLD-2-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231011-ITS-A-COLORFUL-WORLD-2-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231011-ITS-A-COLORFUL-WORLD-2-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231011-ITS-A-COLORFUL-WORLD-2-KQED.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Excerpts from ‘It’s a Colorful World.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Syiaah Skylit)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It was like a prayer had been answered,” Skylit said. “Like, ‘This is it!’ This is going to be the beginning of Syiaah Skylit at her best, at completely being herself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>New perils\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Wiener’s bill was years in the making, and he’s quick to note that top CDCR officials were on board. They welcomed advocates to join a working group to brainstorm solutions to unsafe conditions and sought input directly from incarcerated transgender people. The Office of Inspector General detailed in \u003ca href=\"https://www.oig.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Special-Review-Incarcerated-Transgender-Nonbinary-Intersex-Individuals.pdf\">a 2020 report (PDF)\u003c/a> the painful responses to those surveys.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Laws in \u003ca href=\"https://www.acluct.org/en/know-your-rights/know-your-rights-trans-people-who-are-incarcerated-connecticut\">Connecticut\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23991974-952-management-of-gender-diverse-and-intersex-inmates-final-version\">Rhode Island (DOC)\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://lgbtqbar.org/bar-news/tiproject/ma/\">Massachusetts\u003c/a> call for similar reforms, while \u003ca href=\"https://www.aclu-nj.org/en/press-releases/settlement-nj-civil-rights-suit-promises-necessary-reform-affirming-transgender\">New Jersey\u003c/a> has made comparable policy changes in response to litigation. But advocates who helped craft California’s law say it is the most expansive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener said in an interview that he knew at the start that the magnitude of changes mandated by the law required patience and that it would take time to implement. More recently, though, he’s grown deeply concerned about the way his legislation has played out on the ground. Because, he said, even with senior CDCR management on board, “the culture in the individual prisons is just so challenging that it doesn’t translate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964100\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964100\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/SenWienerAtSanQuentinTransRemembranceDay-2019-KQED-800x539.jpg\" alt='A group of people, most wearing the same uniform of blue shirts and pants, stand together holding signs and joined by a person wearing a suit helping to hold a banner reading \"trans lives matter.\"' width=\"800\" height=\"539\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/SenWienerAtSanQuentinTransRemembranceDay-2019-KQED-800x539.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/SenWienerAtSanQuentinTransRemembranceDay-2019-KQED-1020x687.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/SenWienerAtSanQuentinTransRemembranceDay-2019-KQED-160x108.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/SenWienerAtSanQuentinTransRemembranceDay-2019-KQED-1536x1035.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/SenWienerAtSanQuentinTransRemembranceDay-2019-KQED-1920x1294.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/SenWienerAtSanQuentinTransRemembranceDay-2019-KQED.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) attends CDCR’s first Transgender Remembrance Day in 2019, organized jointly by trans and cisgender incarcerated people. Wiener had already authored the bill that would become the Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act, with buy-in from top CDCR officials. \u003ccite>(California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Officials chose the Central California Women’s Facility, or CCWF, in Chowchilla as the prison where all the trans women would go first. It’s a facility with a \u003ca href=\"https://prisonlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/16.08.18-Prison-Law-Office-report-on-CCWF.pdf\">troubled history (PDF)\u003c/a> when it comes to staff accountability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of a dozen CCWF prisoners interviewed by KQED, all said they heard correctional staff express hostility to the new law even before the transfers began, warning the cisgender population that fakers and sexual predators were heading their way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tasha Brown, a cisgender woman, said she heard guards say, “The doors were going to be open for people to come in to violate us, to rape us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tomas Green, a transgender man, said he heard guards “telling women here that the trans women were men and that they were gonna get raped.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11936438","hero":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/1920px-CentralCaliforniaWomensFacility-1020x816.jpeg","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Alexanne Danis, a cisgender woman, said she heard a lieutenant openly state that the transfers “don’t belong here, that they have to leave.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officers and fellow cisgender incarcerated people, Danis said, also spoke about driving the new transfers out, “saying that they were gonna stage stuff and that they were gonna make it sound worse than it was if anything did happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michelle Calvin was one of the first transgender women to arrive at CCWF. She helped work on Wiener’s legislation and has since transferred to the lower-security California Institution for Women. She heard the characterizations by staff that trans women were “gonna come over here and rape y’all and beat y’all up and take y’all stuff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The power to reverse the law, she heard officers tell incarcerated people, rested in their hands: “Take your house back. Take your prison back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates who helped craft the law were well aware of this toxic environment. They say they pressed officials to allow them to hold a town hall at the women’s prison to defuse these narratives before the transfers began. It never happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the trans women who began arriving in the first half of 2021 had no idea what they were stepping into.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Orthwein, Skylit’s attorney, was part of the working group that informed the new law and said key CDCR decisions around implementation proved harmful. The new arrivals were held in segregation for their first month. There, they were issued new prison identification numbers beginning with a distinctive two-letter combination. Instead of “some semblance of privacy about their transgender status,” which advocates had pressed for, this immediately outed them, feeding hostility and rejection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CCWF houses people in dorms, as many as eight to a room. Without exception, the trans women interviewed by KQED said they have been refused entry to dorms by prisoners who viewed them as “men.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Skylit’s first day in the general population, in mid-July 2021, guards started writing her up for minor violations. Within a month, she was in solitary confinement, accused of having a consensual relationship with her cisgender female bunkmate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sex is against prison rules systemwide, but every CCWF prisoner interviewed for this piece said it’s extremely common, especially in women’s prisons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘At the end of the day, we’re humans. I’m not saying every relationship in here is just peachy perfect, no. You have a lot of relationships in here that are toxic — fight, argue. But that’s life in the free world.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Tomas Green, transgender man in California prison","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Yes, you’re not supposed to have sex but it happens. It’s natural and there’s nothing that’s gonna stop it from happening,” said Giovanni Gonzales, a transgender man who runs a group to educate peers about gender identity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Relationships form quickly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the end of the day, we’re humans,” Green said. “I’m not saying every relationship in here is just peachy perfect, no. You have a lot of relationships in here that are toxic — fight, argue. But that’s life in the free world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, while sex and intimacy may be universal, punishment is not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gonzales and Green said staff often turn a blind eye to cisgender women who couple up, especially if they express their gender in stereotypically feminine ways. If a transgender man is caught being amorous, they said, a rule violation is more likely. As for the trans women who were just arriving at CCWF, a harsher set of unwritten rules seemed to apply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One cisgender couple in Skylit’s dorm had been having regular sex without consequence, she said. As Skylit was handcuffed and written up for her relationship, she asked an officer why she was going to isolation and the bunkmate wasn’t. He replied, “Because you’re a man and she’s a woman.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a hearing to discuss her situation, records show that Acting Warden Michael Pallares told her he would push to send her back to men’s prison. She claimed he was hostile, “calling me a predator, saying that I’m preying on women.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In men’s prison, Skylit had lived in constant fear of sexual assault. Now \u003cem>she \u003c/em>was cast as a sexual predator. Her disciplinary paperwork relied on “confidential sources” to suggest she was faking her status because she “displays very masculine behavior when with the inmate population.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In isolation, according to grievances and a government claim filed by Orthwein, Skylit’s gender identity was undermined. She had trouble accessing her hormones and was denied a razor for 40 days straight. She grew a full beard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People screaming at me, yelling at me, calling me a man, and I need to go back to the men’s prison,” she said. “‘Look at the hair on yo’ face.’ [I was] pleading, pleading, pleading, ‘Please give me a razor, please give me a razor,’ and denied every time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A psychologist misgendered Skylit in a report, yet \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24018435-psychologist-note-razors-clothing\">noted (DOC)\u003c/a> that an extended stay in isolation would likely increase her mental health symptoms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the months that followed, Skylit was sent multiple times to a mental health unit for being suicidal. She was bumped up to a more intensive level of mental health care. Yet she remained in solitary confinement for eight months. Then, without explanation, Pallares released her to the general population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her freedom wouldn’t last.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘What did you all do to our homegirl?’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Skylit’s time in isolation had taken a toll. On the yard, she said she made enemies when she responded to threats and harassment with aggressive posturing and language. She said she tried not to engage, hanging out and playing cards every day with a couple of other trans women and one cisgender woman who was sweet on her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We would hold hands,” she said. “We would hug, we would kiss.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prison officials aren’t supposed to penalize trans women more harshly for breaking rules that cisgender prisoners also break, like the one forbidding any behavior that could lead to sex. But the atmosphere around these relationships, interviews and records reveal, was tense and complex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While some cisgender women feared or lashed out at the new arrivals, others were eager to partner with them. Of a half-dozen transgender women at CCWF who were interviewed by KQED, the five who have not had gender-affirming genital surgery, said they’ve been subject to sexual advances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11955680","hero":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/GettyImages-180517172-1020x680.jpg","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Meanwhile, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24016207-mossgroup-sb132-cdcr-assessment-report\">a report (DOC)\u003c/a> on the implementation of the new law commissioned by CDCR found that a “sexualized environment, including being sexually pressured or pursued,” was among the reasons given by transgender women who voluntarily returned to men’s prison. Other reasons included “hostile reception from staff or incarcerated individuals,” “false allegations to be removed from room” and “issues with getting hygiene items, such as razors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In men’s prison, Skylit said, consensual sex generally went unpunished. That made it hard for her to imagine just how much the bond with her new “bestie” would cost her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On May 19, 2022, Skylit and her friends were on the yard drinking prison-made wine, disciplinary records show. Skylit and her girlfriend were kissing. A few minutes after Skylit went to use the porta-potty, she said, the girlfriend followed her in and started throwing up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skylit said she was holding her hair back when Calvin, one of the trans friends she played cards with, let her know a guard was approaching. Skylit stepped out and asked a couple of other people to check on the girlfriend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They “opened the door and they say, ‘What did you all do to our homegirl? We don’t know what you two doing, we don’t know what’s going on over here,’” Skylit recounted. “And I said, ‘We just been drinking and she was in the thing throwing up.’ But now, it’s a commotion. It’s a crowd coming up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Skylit and two other witnesses, the girlfriend came out, and the guard scolded them. “She was like, ‘I’m OK bestie, I love you so much,’ and I hugged her and I walked away.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rumors about a rape started circulating. Skylit said she heard it “from like one or two people. It wasn’t \u003cem>big\u003c/em> until the next day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘They were surrounding me and pushing me and spitting on me and swinging at me.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Syiaah Skylit, transgender woman in California prison","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>By then, a fictional narrative had taken shape: In those few moments inside the porta-potty, Skylit had committed rape, while Calvin stood guard. To be clear, prison officials never accused her of rape or sexual assault. The girlfriend told them — and KQED — that it never happened. Still, the rumors proved to be Skylit’s undoing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That next day, according to Skylit and five witnesses, as she was returning from a mental health appointment, she was roughed up on the yard by 12 to 15 incarcerated people who called her “nothing but a rapist.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They were surrounding me and pushing me and spitting on me and swinging at me,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED obtained video of the incident through a public records request. There’s no audio, but the grainy image shows Skylit, who had a pass to be on the yard, doing an about-face as a group of incarcerated people in civilian clothes approached her. One appears to throw liquid at her. A few shove and punch her. She gets agitated. At one point, it’s clear that she’s yelling. But she mostly keeps her arms crossed. She never hits back. Still, she is the only one punished.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/nS5qpi-NXfE'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/nS5qpi-NXfE'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>As Syiaah Skylit, wearing a long-sleeved white shirt under her prison blues, walked through the yard at Central California Women’s Facility in May 2022, she was accosted by incarcerated people who accused her of being a rapist. Courtesy of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’d been out of solitary confinement for just four weeks. She went right back in — and she hasn’t come out in more than a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A sergeant who, the video shows, does not walk out to the yard until Skylit is handcuffed, wrote her \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24018553-referring-to-sexual-intercourse-through-rape\">rule violation report (DOC)\u003c/a>. He states that he heard her yell, “I’m gonna f- you bitches,” and a few variations on that theme. Then, using her legal name, he adds an editorial aside: “It should be known that when [Skylit] mentioned f-, [Skylit] was referring to sexual intercourse through rape.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CCWF initially accused Skylit of “threatening the life of a prisoner,” and referred her to the local district attorney for felony prosecution. It didn’t stick. Ultimately, her writeup was reduced to “behavior which could lead to violence.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘It’s sad to be thankful for complete solitary confinement, isolation.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Syiaah Skylit, transgender woman in California prison","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In her defense, Skylit pointed to the video as evidence that she wasn’t the aggressor and that others had committed violence against \u003cem>her.\u003c/em> Records show that the senior hearing officer called the video “irrelevant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CDCR does not comment on specific incarcerated people. Asked to respond to the behavior of the sergeant, it said state regulations forbid discrimination by staff and grant incarcerated people the right to be treated “respectfully, impartially, and fairly by all employees.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skylit was far from alone in experiencing false allegations. Of the trans women at CCWF interviewed by KQED, each said they had been similarly targeted by others who were incarcerated and even by staff. Most were sent to solitary confinement pending investigations. Some were already there when they said they were framed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fancy Lipsey, records show, spent seven months in isolation after she was physically assaulted by other incarcerated people. As soon as she got out, a cisgender woman “went over to the officers and told them that I touched her vagina and her breasts in the dayroom.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They reviewed the video on the spot “and saw that I was nowhere near this woman.” Still, they told Lipsey they were taking her back to solitary confinement. That’s when she cut her wrists, ending up on suicide watch instead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Calvin said she was punished after a roommate “went up to the program office and said I supposedly choked” another cisgender woman in their dorm in the middle of the night. The allegation came days after the alleged assault, which no one witnessed or reported at the time. Calvin said it took months to clear her name.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tremayne Carroll, a trans woman who uses a wheelchair, said that after she rebuffed sexual advances from a cisgender woman, that woman yelled to guards that Carroll had sexually assaulted her. When that went nowhere, the woman changed her story and said the two had had consensual sex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Freddy Fox, an intersex prisoner who identifies as a trans woman and goes by “Foxy,” said she landed in solitary confinement after being assaulted. Alone in her cell in the weeks that followed, she was verbally harassed and accused of sexual impropriety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They would allege that I had exposed myself, then I’d have to go to the cameras to show that I did not expose myself,” Foxy said. The officers would then reduce the write-up to a lesser violation, she said, “but it’s still a sexual misconduct! That was the go-to thing in 2021 when we first arrived.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Porta-potty rapist’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Skylit’s case stands out in one crucial way: The false rape allegation went viral. Her chosen and legal names ended up all \u003ca href=\"https://reduxx.info/exclusive-female-inmate-reports-rape-occurred-in-california-womens-prison/\">over the internet.\u003c/a> One outlet called her the perpetrator of a “\u003ca href=\"https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/alleged-port-potty-rape-throws-harsh-glare-california-coed-prison-law-after\">port-a-potty rape\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because, as soon as the Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act went into effect, an anti-trans organization called the Women’s Liberation Front started working to roll it back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In November 2021, it filed \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22276203-chandlervcdcrcomplaint\">a lawsuit (DOC)\u003c/a> in federal court alleging the law violates the constitutional rights of cisgender women by forcing them to be housed with trans women who still have male genitalia. Simply having them there, the pending suit alleges, “substantially” increases the risk “of sexual harassment, sexual assault, rape, and physical violence, and to psychological fear of such harms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Women’s Liberation Front was looking for a villain. The rumors about Skylit fit its narrative perfectly. Even though there were no eyewitnesses, no prison investigation and a girlfriend who \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22276218-43-3-asia-davis-declaration\">said the rape never happened (DOC)\u003c/a>, attorneys for the organization gathered hearsay declarations. The attorney handed them over to anti-trans websites and \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22276220-decl-of-plaintiff-supporter-mimi-lee-alleging-rape-of-ad-in-opposition-to-dismissal-033113109979\">attached them to a motion in the legal docket (DOC)\u003c/a>, making the declarations public record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the tier in solitary confinement, the taunts of “porta-potty rapist” have been endless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"label":"More on LGBTQI+ Rights ","tag":"transgender-rights"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I tell people, stop calling me that,” Skylit said. “Then, I’m a problem because I say things like, ‘Well, if I’m a rapist, then you a rapist,’ and then it’s like, ‘Oh, now he’s a threat, he’s arguing, he’s aggressive.’ I’m in a cage. By myself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skylit said cisgender incarcerated people have threatened to stab her, even chop off her penis. They’ve done it in front of officers without consequence. Yet just about every time she has erupted with verbal threats, she is written up. Prison officials have used the outbursts, and the enemies she’s made, as justification to keep her in solitary confinement, labeling her a “threat to the management and security of the institution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some prisoners in solitary confinement — what CDCR calls restricted housing — are allowed cellmates for company. Skylit has had to cell alone. Some are allowed onto an open yard. But Skylit was designated a potential threat to others, so she has had to exercise in a cage that’s about 12-by-8 feet, often surrounded by other incarcerated people who insult her. When she attends her mental health groups, she is among those who must sit in a cage the size of a telephone booth called a “therapeutic module.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Multiple \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6987940/\">studies \u003c/a>confirm how damaging long-term solitary confinement is to mental health. So it’s no surprise that Skylit has struggled. Records show she has harmed herself on several occasions, once punching the wall until her hand bled. After that incident, for a few weeks in August 2022, she was medicated against her will with high doses of antipsychotic drugs. Too drugged to mount a defense, she was found guilty of multiple rule violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A judge determined the prison violated her civil rights by force-medicating her. For Skylit, it was an important victory. But the whole experience eroded her faith in the prison mental health system. As the months ticked by, she went off all her medications — not just the hormones, but also the ones that treat depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Shattered trust\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It’s important to note that many cisgender incarcerated people at CCWF with histories of sexual victimization were truly scared of the newly arriving transgender women. Some still are. The fear-mongering from staff and outside anti-trans groups has not helped. But those fears appear to be unfounded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED requested discipline data from CCWF. In the two years after the new law took effect, staff did not issue a single rule violation for physical or sexual violence to the trans women who came over from men’s prisons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, write-ups for violence were common in the rest of the prison population, including for fighting, assault and battery on prisoners and staff, and even inciting a riot. The data also show that the new arrivals under the law were six times more likely than other CCWF prisoners to be punished for behavior that could lead to consensual sex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As it happens, there was a violent predator at CCWF. Allegedly, there was more than one and they weren’t transgender women. They were cisgender men, employees of the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In May 2023, as Skylit struggled to hold onto herself in her solitary cell, she heard the news that Gregory Rodriguez, a longtime guard at CCWF, was facing a 96-count criminal complaint for allegedly sexually assaulting more than a dozen incarcerated women over the course of years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’d been allowed to retire in August 2022 while under investigation. In addition to those charges, six women filed lawsuits under Jane Roe or Jane Doe pseudonyms against Rodriguez in federal court, contending he lured them to a suite of offices where there are no cameras and forcibly raped them. One of these alleged assaults took place on May 20, 2022, the same day that the crowd surrounded Skylit and called \u003cem>her\u003c/em> a rapist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CDCR \u003ca href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article280162624.html\">settled those suits\u003c/a> earlier this month for $3.7 million. More lawsuits have been filed alleging sexual assaults by CCWF employees. Four of the named victims are transgender women, Skylit among them. Her \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24018568-skylitsexabusecomplaintaug14_2023\">lawsuit (DOC)\u003c/a> contends that Rodriguez and Pallares, the warden who called her a predator, each demanded sexual favors from her in the spring of 2022 “for the purpose of humiliating, degrading and demeaning” her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For him to have me come into that room, it’s just so dirty,” Skylit said. “I feel dirty.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pallares was demoted in January after the Rodriguez scandal broke. Currently, an associate warden at Pleasant Valley State Prison, he declined comment. Prison officials wouldn’t say whether Pallares was under investigation. But in a statement, officials said CDCR investigates all sexual assault allegations, and “resolutely condemns any staff member who violates their oath and shatters the trust of the public.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘I don’t even understand who I am anymore. I’m full of anger. Hatred, ooh, hatred is huge for me right now. I’m lost, I’m completely lost.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Syiaah Skylit, transgender woman in California prison","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The totality of Skylit’s experience has left \u003cem>her \u003c/em>shattered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They come to my door every day asking me if I want to take my hormones. No, I don’t want to take no hormones,” she told KQED in March after 10 months of isolation. “I don’t even understand who I am anymore. I’m full of anger. Hatred, ooh, hatred is huge for me right now. I’m lost, I’m completely lost.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spending more than two years in solitary confinement means she hasn’t had access to the kind of programming that would earn her good-time credits and earlier release, like school, work and vocational training. She has never laid a finger on another prisoner or an officer, but her disciplinary write-ups have nevertheless added more than a year to her original 16-year sentence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prison officials are again recommending that Skylit be returned to a men’s prison. It requires a hearing that’s already been postponed for 17 months. She’s flip-flopped on whether to go back voluntarily. Being stuck in a box is destroying her, she said, and getting back into the general population may help her get out sooner. But with being falsely labeled a rapist, she’s terrified.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They will kill me,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If she does end up back in men’s prison, she shared in an emotional phone call, she plans to keep her gender identity secret. To prepare for the possibility, she started working out so she could fight for her life. She sold her earrings. And she cut off all her hair. She’d been growing it out for more than eight years, ever since those trans women in county jail lit a fire inside her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Making herself “bald-headed” as she said, was a painful act of surrender.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skylit also threw away the trans-friendly children’s books she’d worked so hard to bring to life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I told myself, I’m not gonna get emotional or emo with this stuff no more,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A path forward\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California’s law was meant to protect transgender women, but the culture at CCWF and rising anti-trans fervor all over the country have exposed them to new traumas. Implementation has been slow. A \u003ca href=\"https://www.oig.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Special-Review-No.-22-01.pdf\">report (PDF)\u003c/a> issued in late August by the current inspector general noted a “significant backlog” in transfer requests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of nearly 400 incarcerated people who’ve requested housing transfers under the law — the vast majority transgender women asking to move to women’s prison — more than 300 are still waiting for a committee to hear their case. Many live in daily fear of sexual and physical assault, said A.D. Lewis, an attorney who runs Trans Beyond Bars, a project for the Berkeley-based Prison Law Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A transgender man, Lewis regularly communicates with trans-incarcerated people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The three dozen or so trans women who made it to CCWF — most during the first six months of implementation — are the vanguard. Many, like Skylit, have suffered. A small number have been transferred to the California Institution for Women, a lower security prison in San Bernardino County, where they say conditions are slightly better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘These systems are so built to destroy people, and if they survive and get out, they’re not better and they’re often much worse.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Jen Orthwein, forensic psychologist, co-founder of Medina Orthwein LLP","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In a statement, CDCR said it is working to implement some of the changes \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24016207-mossgroup-sb132-cdcr-assessment-report\">recommended by outside consultants (DOC)\u003c/a> earlier this year and is committed to providing “a safe, humane, respectful and rehabilitative environment for all incarcerated people, including the transgender, non-binary and intersex community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates acknowledge that the cycles of harm continue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Instead of respecting trans people’s self-determination and prioritizing their safety, as the law requires,” Lewis said, correctional staff and other incarcerated people have used it “to put a target on trans peoples’ back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shortly after prison officials received KQED’s questions for this story in September, CCWF revoked all phone privileges for Skylit and others in solitary confinement. In an email to KQED after the initial publication of this story, a CDCR official said the revocation of phone privileges was a policy change ending what had been a temporary, more liberal phone privileges policy instituted in the early days of the COVID pandemic. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skylit’s attorney worries about the impact of the trauma on her future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These systems are so built to destroy people, and if they survive and get out, they’re not better and they’re often much worse,” Orthwein said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a letter sent in July 2023 to Newsom, nearly two-dozen advocacy and legal organizations pressing for better treatment for transgender, nonbinary and intersex prisoners \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23991938-tni-coalition-letter-to-governor-newsom-71723pdf-2\">urged clemency (DOC)\u003c/a> for those who have experienced harm in prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener, meanwhile, expressed deep frustration with the pace of implementation. In response to KQED’s findings, he said he was “horrified to hear how trans women are being treated in women’s prison, both by the prisons and by other inmates. The fact that they’re being treated harshly and slandered, called rapists when they’re not, it’s terrifying and we’re not going to just let this go.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Lee Romney is a longtime journalist who spent 23 years at the \u003c/em>Los Angeles Times\u003cem>. Jennifer Johnson is a former career public defender who helped launch San Francisco’s Behavioral Health Court. This reporting, supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism and the California Health Care Foundation, is part of a forthcoming podcast they’re co-creating. Called \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.novemberinmysoul.com/\">\u003cem>November In My Soul\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, it explores the way bias makes its way into our intertwined mental health and criminal legal systems.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story has been updated.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11964027/california-prisons-fail-to-uphold-transgender-rights-despite-state-law","authors":["byline_news_11964027"],"programs":["news_72","news_26731"],"categories":["news_6188","news_8"],"tags":["news_18538","news_32222","news_2729","news_616","news_3149","news_1629","news_19984","news_28871","news_27626","news_20004","news_25373","news_24732","news_2717","news_1527","news_30804","news_20851","news_30162","news_2486","news_29386"],"featImg":"news_11964041","label":"news_26731"},"news_11958888":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11958888","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11958888","score":null,"sort":[1693220483000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"is-a-san-francisco-sex-cult-subjecting-people-to-sexual-abuse-onetaste-welcomed-consensus","title":"Is a San Francisco 'Sex Cult' Subjecting People to Abuse?","publishDate":1693220483,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Is a San Francisco ‘Sex Cult’ Subjecting People to Abuse? | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>\u003cem>Warning: This story contains descriptions of sexual abuse.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]A[/dropcap]n alleged San Francisco sex cult has attempted to groom new members, multiple sources told KQED, even as one of their most well-known former “students” now faces federal charges for practices many past members say she learned while living with the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On June 6, \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/onetaste-founder-and-former-head-sales-indicted-forced-labor-conspiracy\">Nicole Daedone was indicted on forced labor charges\u003c/a> that include \u003ca href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-06-18/the-dark-side-of-onetaste-the-orgasmic-meditation-company\">allegations of sexual and emotional abuse at her company, OneTaste\u003c/a>, which she founded in San Francisco. The commune and sexual wellness company sold courses and coaching promoting sexual empowerment and so-called “orgasmic meditation,” a ritual where a group of women would lie naked from the waist down while men wearing clothes would stroke the women’s genitals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Former employees said OneTaste took advantage of people with sexual trauma, subjecting members and employees to surveillance, plus emotional, physical and psychological abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But before her “orgasmic meditation” startup \u003ca href=\"https://www.lamag.com/culturefiles/inside-hollywoods-orgasm-cult/\">took off in Hollywood circles\u003c/a> — and recently came crashing down — Daedone learned the basis for her business model and orgasmic meditation techniques, former affiliates told KQED, while living for two years with the San Francisco-based\u003ca href=\"https://www.welcomed.com/\"> The Welcomed Consensus\u003c/a>, a much older organization that sold thousand-dollar courses promising sexual pleasure, social empowerment and freedom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rather than enlightenment, however, nearly a dozen ex-members, students and other affiliates have come forward to tell KQED about a consistent pattern of psychological and sexual abuse at the hands of the Welcomed Consensus, and its leader Robert “RJ” Testerman, over the past three decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Nicole news, I mean, it made me feel like RJ has done all of this times a hundred, and he’s still doing it,” said Sasha Nelson, who lived with the Welcomed Consensus for about four months at their house in the Glen Park neighborhood in 2018, after a member recruited her via Tinder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956149\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956149\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67129_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-03-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two people with long hair sit next to each other at a table and look and look at the camera.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67129_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-03-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67129_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-03-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67129_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-03-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67129_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-03-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67129_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-03-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67129_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-03-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Christine Talbott Acosta (left) and Sasha Nelson sit in Christine’s home in San Francisco. Nelson and Talbott Acosta were part of a San Francisco-based alleged sex cult known as The Welcome Consensus and are now trying to warn people about abuse within the group. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>KQED made multiple attempts to reach Testerman at the Welcomed Consensus’ properties in San Francisco and Siskiyou County, but phone calls and emails were not returned. An unnamed person who picked up the phone at a Siskiyou County ranch owned by the Welcomed Consensus declined to comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Similar to OneTaste, the Welcomed Consensus sold courses on sex and held gatherings where men would stroke undressed women. At its classes and recruiting events, the Welcomed Consensus taught “DOing,” essentially stroking a person’s genitals — most often it would be a man touching a woman. “DO” stood for “deliberate orgasm,” a term still actively trademarked by the Welcomed Consensus, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23892105-trademark-electronic-search-system-tess\">according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Former affiliates of Daedone’s say the model was the foundation for her company’s orgasmic meditation or “OMing” practice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While keeping a lower profile these days, the Welcomed Consensus has continued recruiting for a different era, now through social media, online dating apps and volunteer programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘The Wild West’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Christine Talbott Acosta was a member and former recruiter for the Welcomed Consensus. Born and raised in Redwood City, she was initially connected to Testerman while babysitting for a woman who was a family friend of his, while he was working in San Francisco as a hairdresser.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He was 32 and I was 12, and the first time we had sex, it was three months after my 13th birthday,” said Talbott Acosta, who is now 57 and continues to live in San Francisco. “At 16, my life kind of crumbled.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the early ’80s, Talbott Acosta was kicked out of her high school and left home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was free drug use where I babysat, and I smoked and drank with RJ. They gave me acid when I was 15,” Talbott Acosta said. “They treated me like an adult and encouraged it. He taught me to lie, and I couldn’t tell anybody.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She briefly lived in the Tenderloin near Post and Polk Streets. Testerman helped Talbott Acosta acquire birth control, then began prostituting her when she turned 17, she claims. At 18, she also began working as a hairdresser for Testerman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Their belief was that you’re born fully responsible [to have sex],” Talbott Acosta said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During this time, Talbott Acosta grew estranged from her family, something common among Welcomed Consensus members she has encountered over the years. The distance strengthened the pull Testerman had over her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He was my world. I worked for him and he was my lover and my dad and my family, really, my family,” Talbott Acosta said. “RJ referred to that time as the Wild West. We didn’t have any structure, it was just a sex commune with lots of drinking and drugs and violence and drama.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956148\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956148\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67128_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-05-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person with long hair looks out of a window in a residential setting.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67128_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-05-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67128_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-05-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67128_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-05-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67128_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-05-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67128_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-05-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67128_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-05-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Christine Talbott Acosta stands in her home in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Talbott Acosta then moved into a house near Oak and Fell streets that was affiliated with an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11913686/this-bay-area-sex-loving-commune-is-still-going-strong\">East Bay sex commune\u003c/a> called Lafayette Morehouse, which taught and sold sex classes through its so-called More University that began in 1977.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Everyone at her new house was taking classes from More University, with topics ranging from “Advanced Sensuality” to “Expansion of Sexual Potential.” Elite members of Morehouse lived at the commune’s larger property in Lafayette.[aside postID=news_11913686 label='More on Lafayette Morehouse']At around age 20, Talbott Acosta began living with Testerman at a house on Joost Avenue in San Francisco’s Glen Park neighborhood with about seven others while working for him at the hair salon. It was there in the early ’90s that Testerman formed the Welcomed Consensus, using the teachings and financial models he learned with More University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was word for word,” Talbott Acosta said of how the Welcomed Consensus model is based on More University. She added, however, that she never experienced the rigid rules over sex, food, clothing or pressure to leave family with More University as she did with Welcomed Consensus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Years later, Daedone would also become affiliated with both Morehouse and the Welcomed Consensus before launching her own version.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Members of the Welcomed Consensus’ inner circle had to pass what was referred to as “validation,” which required performing a three-hour long orgasm in private with Welcomed Consensus members as well as a one-hour orgasm demonstration as part of a public course offering, Talbott Acosta said. Women in the house would take turns performing DOing at workshops, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Members of the inner circle typically lived at the Glen Park house. The group later bought a ranch in far Northern California near the community of Klamath River in rural Siskiyou County, called A Madrone Ranch and Gardens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Former members described typical Welcomed Consensus lessons as a scene where a group of men and women would gather in a room, and men would practice stroking the clitoris of an assigned female partner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He would get the guys to come in and then all the women in the house would be who they practice on,” Talbott Acosta recalled.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Christine Talbott Acosta, former Welcomed Consensus member\"]‘That was the big hook. These guys who had been coming and ogling at you could do this. If you lived in the house, you were a shill they used as bait to bring guys in.’[/pullquote]For years, Talbott Acosta floated in and out of the Welcomed Consensus community, recruiting new members and participating in classes even as she moved out with a spouse and focused on having her own children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She remembers one particular meeting with Testerman that influenced her split from the group, but it still took years to leave behind that life, even after moving out of the Glen Park house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“RJ just hit me so hard… that I couldn’t imagine doing it again,” Talbott Acosta said of one particular DOing session where he repeatedly slapped her genitals. “The idea of taking my clothes off all of a sudden in public just had me really scared.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was also a “touch and look” course, where Welcomed Consensus students who reached a certain level in the courses could stroke and touch women who lived at the house, like Talbott Acosta, on the floor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That was the big hook,” Talbott Acosta said. “These guys who had been coming and ogling at you could do this. If you lived in the house, you were a shill they used as bait to bring guys in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956446\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11956446 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67218_230724-WelcomeConensusHouse-03-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A house in a residential neighborhoods with a verdant front garden.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67218_230724-WelcomeConensusHouse-03-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67218_230724-WelcomeConensusHouse-03-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67218_230724-WelcomeConensusHouse-03-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67218_230724-WelcomeConensusHouse-03-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67218_230724-WelcomeConensusHouse-03-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67218_230724-WelcomeConensusHouse-03-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">827 Joost Avenue in San Francisco’s Sunnyside neighborhood, the house owned by the Welcomed Consensus where members of the group’s inner circle typically lived. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She tried to take on other roles at the house, like cooking, but even then she was required to wear a French maid’s outfit. Any time she objected, she said, “I was told this is my resistance to pleasure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Years after leaving the group, Talbott Acosta reported the abuses she faced there to local police in Redwood City and San Francisco. Her reports fell beyond California’s statute of limitations, so she says police told her she would need evidence of Testerman admitting to the abuse, which she did not have. The cases went nowhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She later tried reaching out to five different law firms to see if she had a civil case she could try, but hit wall after wall with the justice system.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The Welcomed Consensus and OneTaste\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Sasha Nelson grew up in Berlin and traveled all over the world before landing a corporate job in Sonoma County. She didn’t like her static lifestyle, and heard about OneTaste from friends taking workshops. She wanted the freedom and sexual empowerment it advertised.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She attended an OMing workshop with OneTaste and said their sorority-rush-like efforts to recruit her were “intoxicating” at first. She described the group as “a typical cult vibe, everyone was euphoric and excited and giddy and making friends.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she arrived at her first gathering, “you do this horrifying exercise and all these women are taking off their pants in a warehouse of 200 people, getting stroked in front of everybody,” Nelson said. “My first experience was with a man I had an aversion to the entire weekend, but after I felt really close to him and felt like ‘wow, there’s something really to this.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as time went on, she became less charmed by the large group events and felt disconnected from the strangers she was having sexual encounters with at the workshops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then in the fall of 2017, she matched with a man named Bill Berndt on Tinder. Text messages shared with KQED show he told her that he was in a sensuality community, and she was curious about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had liked the concept that was taught in Nicole [Daedone’s] workshop, but I didn’t like the scene,” Nelson said of the OneTaste event. “I thought, ‘Oh, here’s maybe another way to explore that. Like a little smaller group.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Welcomed Consensus pushed much harder to recruit Nelson, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was hard for me to believe these women would mislead me,” she told KQED. “It was a higher level of recruiting and grooming” than she experienced at the OneTaste workshops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She began traveling to San Francisco for weekly “BenchMarks,” essentially cocktail-party-like recruitment gatherings led by Testerman and women who lived at Welcomed Consensus’ house on Joost in Glen Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BenchMarks were the first step in recruitment. Before each meeting, members would discuss who would be in attendance that night, remind each other to be happy and bubbly and not share any negatives about the group, and ultimately, bring in new members with money to spend, multiple former affiliates told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A primary viewpoint of the group is that fun, turned-on women always enthusiastically say ‘Yes’ to offers,” Nelson told KQED. “By saying, ‘No, thank you,’ you are seen as out of agreement, resistant, or just plain unfun… Nobody wants to be deemed unattractive or unfun.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956150\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956150\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67132_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-07-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person with long hair looks out of a window in a residential setting.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67132_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-07-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67132_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-07-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67132_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-07-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67132_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-07-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67132_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-07-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67132_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-07-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sasha Nelson sits in the home of Christine Talbott Acosta in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nelson was persuaded to move into the Welcomed Consensus’ San Francisco house in 2018, but left after four months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was often physically exhausted while living there — something other former members said was common in the early days of living among the Welcomed Consensus. Like sex, food was strictly controlled in the house, and women’s bodies were heavily scrutinized around weight, Nelson remembers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“RJ likes skinny girls, that was one of the unspoken rules,” Nelson said. “You would really be pressured to eat the food being made, yet you were also not allowed to be fat.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another former student named Allyson told KQED she witnessed Testerman, wearing cowboy boots, repeatedly kick a household member who was on the floor. KQED is only using Allyson’s first name due to personal safety concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time Nelson was being groomed by the Welcomed Consensus, OneTaste was booming. It was still edgy, but good marketing helped it inch its way toward mainstream acceptance with \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/fashion/15commune.html\">profiles in publications like \u003cem>The New York Times\u003c/em>\u003c/a> — and it made lots of money along the way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Daedone herself was a student with the Welcomed Consensus in the late 1990s and early 2000s, multiple sources told KQED, including a former housemate of hers and a colleague at OneTaste. Talbott Acosta described her mission with OneTaste as attempting to make the courses scalable, startup-style.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nicole took the Welcomed Consensus information and put her own twist on it. She used a lot of the same stuff, the basic business plan, but did change some of it,” Talbott Acosta said. “Her goal was to bring it to the masses.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘So much social punishment’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>After graduating with a degree in ecology during the COVID-19 pandemic, Nat Jennings, then 23, was eager to get out into a world beyond screens to put it to use. In September 2022, she headed to California from Texas to volunteer with A Madrone Ranch and Gardens, which she found through a website that connects volunteers with organic farms to work in exchange for boarding, called Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jennings signed up to work at the farm — a remote property in rural Siskiyou County owned by the Welcomed Consensus — not knowing anything about the group. These days, she describes the experience as, “accidentally signing up to go live in a sex cult.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956925\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956925\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-Nat-Jennings-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person with glasses inside a room with clothes and chairs and a tall fan.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-Nat-Jennings-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-Nat-Jennings-02-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-Nat-Jennings-02-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-Nat-Jennings-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-Nat-Jennings-02-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-Nat-Jennings-02-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nat Jennings stands in her bedroom at A Madrone Ranch and Gardens in Sept. 2022, a property in Klamath River, Siskiyou County, owned by the Welcomed Consensus. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Nat Jennings)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s really hard to realize what is happening, and to leave,” Jennings told KQED. “If I didn’t have friends on the outside, if I didn’t have a car there, I could have been trapped and I could have, like, not believed myself because I was struggling with sleep deprivation, overworking, like all these factors that were just kind of convincing me I was the crazy one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few red flags stood out to her during her stay. First was early into her stay when women at the house began insisting that she wear a dress to dinner. When she replied she had come to work and didn’t bring a dress, they gave her one to put on. Jennings said she complied out of pressure, but said the dress felt “horribly inappropriate” and the experience made her feel “very uncomfortable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another day, she went berry picking with one of the house mates, an older man, and he flashed his gun before asking her to go swimming with him and taking off his shirt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a lot of love bombing and then taking it away, that type of thing,” Jennings said. Love bombing refers to lavishing someone with affection, and usually revoking that kindness later to manipulate them. “There was so much social punishment if you do anything out of line.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956924\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1501px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956924\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-Nat-Jennings-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person with glasses holds a plastic container full of blackberries in a wooded area.\" width=\"1501\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-Nat-Jennings-01-KQED.jpg 1501w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-Nat-Jennings-01-KQED-800x1066.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-Nat-Jennings-01-KQED-1020x1359.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-Nat-Jennings-01-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-Nat-Jennings-01-KQED-1153x1536.jpg 1153w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1501px) 100vw, 1501px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nat Jennings holds a container of blackberries she picked near A Madrone Ranch and Gardens in Sept. 2022. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Nat Jennings)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Something felt off. So she and another volunteer in the work-away program dug around online and came across Talbott Acosta’s blog, \u003ca href=\"https://www.truthaboutrj.com/\">TruthAboutRJ.com\u003c/a>, where they saw the faces of several people they were staying with and read stories that started similar to their own — but ended badly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We read all that and had this mutual panic attack like, ‘We have to leave tomorrow. This is ridiculous,’” Jennings said. “So on day 12, we woke up at 4:45 a.m., packed our bags and ran out to our cars.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear exactly how many members are still active with the Welcomed Consensus community. Jennings said at least five people were living at the house while she was there and Talbott Acosta believes two new members were validated in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Talbot Acosta said she reported the group and its ranch to WWOOF, but no action was taken. As of publication, \u003ca href=\"https://wwoofusa.org/en/host/20952-homestead-garden-vegetables-community-ranchlivestock\">the ranch listing was still active on the volunteer farming program’s website\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>WWOOF did not respond to KQED’s requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As young women like Jennings have come forward more recently, Talbott Acosta and Nelson fear a new generation of Welcomed Consensus leaders are being elevated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Testerman’s daughter, Ginger Mueller-Testerman, completed a master’s thesis in 2021 titled “\u003ca href=\"https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/downloads/x633f6180\">Clitoral Analysis: Analysis of Pleasure in Contemporary Sex Instruction Materials\u003c/a>” at San Francisco State in Human Sexuality Studies, where she also taught a course. In Spring 2023, Mueller-Testerman taught a critical studies course including topics on gender and sexual identity at the California College of the Arts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Upon hearing the news about Daedone and discovering Mueller-Testerman was teaching a course related to sex, Talbott Acosta contacted SF State and CCA to report personal experiences of abuse and recruiting for the Welcomed Consensus alongside Mueller-Testerman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SF State and CCA also declined to comment on Talbott Acosta’s reports, but both schools confirmed she taught courses there last spring and said she was not signed up to teach this fall. Mueller-Testerman declined to comment when reached by phone.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>California, cults and the Welcomed Consensus\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It took decades before Talbott Acosta and her husband Dennis, who she met at the Welcomed Consensus, to fully cut ties with the group. She said it wasn’t until beginning intensive therapy, and having a total emotional breakdown, that she began to see more clearly the abuse that she encountered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For me, it was learning about trauma and learning about PTSD and getting the mental health care that I needed to start seeing what was really happening.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Poulomi Saha, a UC Berkeley professor who teaches a course called Cults in Popular Culture, said that type of groupthink and pressure that keeps many members inside groups like the Welcomed Consensus is not uncommon in cults or other intentional communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The first thing you have to ask is ‘Why do people join?’ without diagnosing some kind of brainwashing, mis-recognition or stupidity,” Saha told KQED. “If we begin by believing that followers are already in the wrong, we can’t understand what gets someone somewhere.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These groups draw followers by offering big-ticket items. Bliss. Salvation. Wild financial success. But also things that are big-ticket items that we make mundane like true belonging,” she said. “You also have a structure of authority, and huge financial outlays. People have bought in on every level of their social being. And there’s a leader whose power you actually somewhere really begin to adhere to.”[aside postID=news_11705963]California is often the backdrop to popular culture’s obsession with cults, from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/manson-family-murders-what-need-to-know-180972655/\">Manson Family\u003c/a> to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11705963/do-you-really-want-to-know-one-mans-search-for-family-from-jonestown-and-beyond\">People’s Temple\u003c/a> and more. But there’s been a noticeable shift toward financial exploitation of group members, Saha said, which her research shows took off in the 1980s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Groups like the Welcomed Consensus sold their offerings for thousands of dollars. \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Suit-It-s-hooking-not-sex-training-3055850.php\">One former member, Erwan Davon, even tried to sue Testerman\u003c/a>, court records show, for putting him out of at least $136,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Allyson, who worked as a computer programmer before the Welcomed Consensus recruited her, estimated she spent at least $30,000 on courses with the Welcomed Consensus, plus buying a van for their food program. To get OneTaste up and moving, Daedone later convinced her to hand over the $5,000 she had saved in her 401K plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the Welcomed Consensus ran a nonprofit out of the house called \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/freetheneed/\">Free the Need\u003c/a>, through which it claimed to help distribute surplus groceries to hungry families. But multiple former affiliates that spoke to KQED said most of the donated food was kept to feed members of the Welcomed Consensus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two male sources who were associated with the group told KQED that it was common for leaders to probe recruits about their finances and convince students to pay up. In return, they promised to revolutionize their sex life and relationship to women.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you couldn’t pay, they would find work for you to do to pay off your debts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I refinished the hardwood floors. We wanted to build a subterranean brewery in the backyard, so we literally dug like 15 feet down,” said Dennis Acosta. “Then we realized we were totally insane and covered it all up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Testerman sold freedom from mainstream power dynamics and markets, but, Saha argues, groups like his often recreate them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You are not outside of the market logic at all. In fact, it’s a place where the market logic is perfected,” said Saha. “How do you draw someone in? Go out and bring four friends.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These days, Talbott Acosta is spreading a different message.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It makes people very uncomfortable. But it is important to talk about,” she said. “It’s the only way to let people know that it exists and that it can happen to anyone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"The Welcomed Consensus, which inspired the now-indicted founder of the sexual wellness company OneTaste, has engaged in a pattern of psychological and sexual abuse for decades, according to nearly a dozen ex-members, students and others.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1693441953,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":84,"wordCount":3886},"headData":{"title":"Is a San Francisco 'Sex Cult' Subjecting People to Abuse? | KQED","description":"The Welcomed Consensus, which inspired the now-indicted founder of the sexual wellness company OneTaste, has engaged in a pattern of psychological and sexual abuse for decades, according to nearly a dozen ex-members, students and others.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"audioUrl":"https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/0af137ef-751e-4b19-a055-aaef00d2d578/ffca7e9f-6831-41c5-bcaf-aaef00f5a073/38a6a09b-2b18-4bf5-8e58-b06e0185cea5/audio.mp3","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11958888/is-a-san-francisco-sex-cult-subjecting-people-to-sexual-abuse-onetaste-welcomed-consensus","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Warning: This story contains descriptions of sexual abuse.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">A\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>n alleged San Francisco sex cult has attempted to groom new members, multiple sources told KQED, even as one of their most well-known former “students” now faces federal charges for practices many past members say she learned while living with the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On June 6, \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/onetaste-founder-and-former-head-sales-indicted-forced-labor-conspiracy\">Nicole Daedone was indicted on forced labor charges\u003c/a> that include \u003ca href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-06-18/the-dark-side-of-onetaste-the-orgasmic-meditation-company\">allegations of sexual and emotional abuse at her company, OneTaste\u003c/a>, which she founded in San Francisco. The commune and sexual wellness company sold courses and coaching promoting sexual empowerment and so-called “orgasmic meditation,” a ritual where a group of women would lie naked from the waist down while men wearing clothes would stroke the women’s genitals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Former employees said OneTaste took advantage of people with sexual trauma, subjecting members and employees to surveillance, plus emotional, physical and psychological abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But before her “orgasmic meditation” startup \u003ca href=\"https://www.lamag.com/culturefiles/inside-hollywoods-orgasm-cult/\">took off in Hollywood circles\u003c/a> — and recently came crashing down — Daedone learned the basis for her business model and orgasmic meditation techniques, former affiliates told KQED, while living for two years with the San Francisco-based\u003ca href=\"https://www.welcomed.com/\"> The Welcomed Consensus\u003c/a>, a much older organization that sold thousand-dollar courses promising sexual pleasure, social empowerment and freedom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rather than enlightenment, however, nearly a dozen ex-members, students and other affiliates have come forward to tell KQED about a consistent pattern of psychological and sexual abuse at the hands of the Welcomed Consensus, and its leader Robert “RJ” Testerman, over the past three decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Nicole news, I mean, it made me feel like RJ has done all of this times a hundred, and he’s still doing it,” said Sasha Nelson, who lived with the Welcomed Consensus for about four months at their house in the Glen Park neighborhood in 2018, after a member recruited her via Tinder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956149\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956149\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67129_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-03-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two people with long hair sit next to each other at a table and look and look at the camera.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67129_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-03-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67129_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-03-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67129_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-03-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67129_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-03-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67129_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-03-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67129_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-03-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Christine Talbott Acosta (left) and Sasha Nelson sit in Christine’s home in San Francisco. Nelson and Talbott Acosta were part of a San Francisco-based alleged sex cult known as The Welcome Consensus and are now trying to warn people about abuse within the group. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>KQED made multiple attempts to reach Testerman at the Welcomed Consensus’ properties in San Francisco and Siskiyou County, but phone calls and emails were not returned. An unnamed person who picked up the phone at a Siskiyou County ranch owned by the Welcomed Consensus declined to comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Similar to OneTaste, the Welcomed Consensus sold courses on sex and held gatherings where men would stroke undressed women. At its classes and recruiting events, the Welcomed Consensus taught “DOing,” essentially stroking a person’s genitals — most often it would be a man touching a woman. “DO” stood for “deliberate orgasm,” a term still actively trademarked by the Welcomed Consensus, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23892105-trademark-electronic-search-system-tess\">according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Former affiliates of Daedone’s say the model was the foundation for her company’s orgasmic meditation or “OMing” practice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While keeping a lower profile these days, the Welcomed Consensus has continued recruiting for a different era, now through social media, online dating apps and volunteer programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘The Wild West’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Christine Talbott Acosta was a member and former recruiter for the Welcomed Consensus. Born and raised in Redwood City, she was initially connected to Testerman while babysitting for a woman who was a family friend of his, while he was working in San Francisco as a hairdresser.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He was 32 and I was 12, and the first time we had sex, it was three months after my 13th birthday,” said Talbott Acosta, who is now 57 and continues to live in San Francisco. “At 16, my life kind of crumbled.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the early ’80s, Talbott Acosta was kicked out of her high school and left home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was free drug use where I babysat, and I smoked and drank with RJ. They gave me acid when I was 15,” Talbott Acosta said. “They treated me like an adult and encouraged it. He taught me to lie, and I couldn’t tell anybody.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She briefly lived in the Tenderloin near Post and Polk Streets. Testerman helped Talbott Acosta acquire birth control, then began prostituting her when she turned 17, she claims. At 18, she also began working as a hairdresser for Testerman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Their belief was that you’re born fully responsible [to have sex],” Talbott Acosta said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During this time, Talbott Acosta grew estranged from her family, something common among Welcomed Consensus members she has encountered over the years. The distance strengthened the pull Testerman had over her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He was my world. I worked for him and he was my lover and my dad and my family, really, my family,” Talbott Acosta said. “RJ referred to that time as the Wild West. We didn’t have any structure, it was just a sex commune with lots of drinking and drugs and violence and drama.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956148\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956148\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67128_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-05-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person with long hair looks out of a window in a residential setting.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67128_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-05-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67128_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-05-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67128_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-05-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67128_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-05-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67128_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-05-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67128_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-05-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Christine Talbott Acosta stands in her home in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Talbott Acosta then moved into a house near Oak and Fell streets that was affiliated with an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11913686/this-bay-area-sex-loving-commune-is-still-going-strong\">East Bay sex commune\u003c/a> called Lafayette Morehouse, which taught and sold sex classes through its so-called More University that began in 1977.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Everyone at her new house was taking classes from More University, with topics ranging from “Advanced Sensuality” to “Expansion of Sexual Potential.” Elite members of Morehouse lived at the commune’s larger property in Lafayette.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11913686","label":"More on Lafayette Morehouse "},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>At around age 20, Talbott Acosta began living with Testerman at a house on Joost Avenue in San Francisco’s Glen Park neighborhood with about seven others while working for him at the hair salon. It was there in the early ’90s that Testerman formed the Welcomed Consensus, using the teachings and financial models he learned with More University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was word for word,” Talbott Acosta said of how the Welcomed Consensus model is based on More University. She added, however, that she never experienced the rigid rules over sex, food, clothing or pressure to leave family with More University as she did with Welcomed Consensus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Years later, Daedone would also become affiliated with both Morehouse and the Welcomed Consensus before launching her own version.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Members of the Welcomed Consensus’ inner circle had to pass what was referred to as “validation,” which required performing a three-hour long orgasm in private with Welcomed Consensus members as well as a one-hour orgasm demonstration as part of a public course offering, Talbott Acosta said. Women in the house would take turns performing DOing at workshops, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Members of the inner circle typically lived at the Glen Park house. The group later bought a ranch in far Northern California near the community of Klamath River in rural Siskiyou County, called A Madrone Ranch and Gardens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Former members described typical Welcomed Consensus lessons as a scene where a group of men and women would gather in a room, and men would practice stroking the clitoris of an assigned female partner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He would get the guys to come in and then all the women in the house would be who they practice on,” Talbott Acosta recalled.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘That was the big hook. These guys who had been coming and ogling at you could do this. If you lived in the house, you were a shill they used as bait to bring guys in.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Christine Talbott Acosta, former Welcomed Consensus member","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>For years, Talbott Acosta floated in and out of the Welcomed Consensus community, recruiting new members and participating in classes even as she moved out with a spouse and focused on having her own children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She remembers one particular meeting with Testerman that influenced her split from the group, but it still took years to leave behind that life, even after moving out of the Glen Park house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“RJ just hit me so hard… that I couldn’t imagine doing it again,” Talbott Acosta said of one particular DOing session where he repeatedly slapped her genitals. “The idea of taking my clothes off all of a sudden in public just had me really scared.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was also a “touch and look” course, where Welcomed Consensus students who reached a certain level in the courses could stroke and touch women who lived at the house, like Talbott Acosta, on the floor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That was the big hook,” Talbott Acosta said. “These guys who had been coming and ogling at you could do this. If you lived in the house, you were a shill they used as bait to bring guys in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956446\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11956446 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67218_230724-WelcomeConensusHouse-03-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A house in a residential neighborhoods with a verdant front garden.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67218_230724-WelcomeConensusHouse-03-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67218_230724-WelcomeConensusHouse-03-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67218_230724-WelcomeConensusHouse-03-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67218_230724-WelcomeConensusHouse-03-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67218_230724-WelcomeConensusHouse-03-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67218_230724-WelcomeConensusHouse-03-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">827 Joost Avenue in San Francisco’s Sunnyside neighborhood, the house owned by the Welcomed Consensus where members of the group’s inner circle typically lived. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She tried to take on other roles at the house, like cooking, but even then she was required to wear a French maid’s outfit. Any time she objected, she said, “I was told this is my resistance to pleasure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Years after leaving the group, Talbott Acosta reported the abuses she faced there to local police in Redwood City and San Francisco. Her reports fell beyond California’s statute of limitations, so she says police told her she would need evidence of Testerman admitting to the abuse, which she did not have. The cases went nowhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She later tried reaching out to five different law firms to see if she had a civil case she could try, but hit wall after wall with the justice system.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The Welcomed Consensus and OneTaste\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Sasha Nelson grew up in Berlin and traveled all over the world before landing a corporate job in Sonoma County. She didn’t like her static lifestyle, and heard about OneTaste from friends taking workshops. She wanted the freedom and sexual empowerment it advertised.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She attended an OMing workshop with OneTaste and said their sorority-rush-like efforts to recruit her were “intoxicating” at first. She described the group as “a typical cult vibe, everyone was euphoric and excited and giddy and making friends.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she arrived at her first gathering, “you do this horrifying exercise and all these women are taking off their pants in a warehouse of 200 people, getting stroked in front of everybody,” Nelson said. “My first experience was with a man I had an aversion to the entire weekend, but after I felt really close to him and felt like ‘wow, there’s something really to this.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as time went on, she became less charmed by the large group events and felt disconnected from the strangers she was having sexual encounters with at the workshops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then in the fall of 2017, she matched with a man named Bill Berndt on Tinder. Text messages shared with KQED show he told her that he was in a sensuality community, and she was curious about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had liked the concept that was taught in Nicole [Daedone’s] workshop, but I didn’t like the scene,” Nelson said of the OneTaste event. “I thought, ‘Oh, here’s maybe another way to explore that. Like a little smaller group.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Welcomed Consensus pushed much harder to recruit Nelson, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was hard for me to believe these women would mislead me,” she told KQED. “It was a higher level of recruiting and grooming” than she experienced at the OneTaste workshops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She began traveling to San Francisco for weekly “BenchMarks,” essentially cocktail-party-like recruitment gatherings led by Testerman and women who lived at Welcomed Consensus’ house on Joost in Glen Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BenchMarks were the first step in recruitment. Before each meeting, members would discuss who would be in attendance that night, remind each other to be happy and bubbly and not share any negatives about the group, and ultimately, bring in new members with money to spend, multiple former affiliates told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A primary viewpoint of the group is that fun, turned-on women always enthusiastically say ‘Yes’ to offers,” Nelson told KQED. “By saying, ‘No, thank you,’ you are seen as out of agreement, resistant, or just plain unfun… Nobody wants to be deemed unattractive or unfun.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956150\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956150\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67132_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-07-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person with long hair looks out of a window in a residential setting.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67132_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-07-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67132_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-07-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67132_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-07-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67132_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-07-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67132_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-07-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS67132_230710-OneTasteChristineSasha-07-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sasha Nelson sits in the home of Christine Talbott Acosta in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nelson was persuaded to move into the Welcomed Consensus’ San Francisco house in 2018, but left after four months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was often physically exhausted while living there — something other former members said was common in the early days of living among the Welcomed Consensus. Like sex, food was strictly controlled in the house, and women’s bodies were heavily scrutinized around weight, Nelson remembers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“RJ likes skinny girls, that was one of the unspoken rules,” Nelson said. “You would really be pressured to eat the food being made, yet you were also not allowed to be fat.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another former student named Allyson told KQED she witnessed Testerman, wearing cowboy boots, repeatedly kick a household member who was on the floor. KQED is only using Allyson’s first name due to personal safety concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time Nelson was being groomed by the Welcomed Consensus, OneTaste was booming. It was still edgy, but good marketing helped it inch its way toward mainstream acceptance with \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/fashion/15commune.html\">profiles in publications like \u003cem>The New York Times\u003c/em>\u003c/a> — and it made lots of money along the way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Daedone herself was a student with the Welcomed Consensus in the late 1990s and early 2000s, multiple sources told KQED, including a former housemate of hers and a colleague at OneTaste. Talbott Acosta described her mission with OneTaste as attempting to make the courses scalable, startup-style.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nicole took the Welcomed Consensus information and put her own twist on it. She used a lot of the same stuff, the basic business plan, but did change some of it,” Talbott Acosta said. “Her goal was to bring it to the masses.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘So much social punishment’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>After graduating with a degree in ecology during the COVID-19 pandemic, Nat Jennings, then 23, was eager to get out into a world beyond screens to put it to use. In September 2022, she headed to California from Texas to volunteer with A Madrone Ranch and Gardens, which she found through a website that connects volunteers with organic farms to work in exchange for boarding, called Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jennings signed up to work at the farm — a remote property in rural Siskiyou County owned by the Welcomed Consensus — not knowing anything about the group. These days, she describes the experience as, “accidentally signing up to go live in a sex cult.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956925\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956925\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-Nat-Jennings-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person with glasses inside a room with clothes and chairs and a tall fan.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-Nat-Jennings-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-Nat-Jennings-02-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-Nat-Jennings-02-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-Nat-Jennings-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-Nat-Jennings-02-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-Nat-Jennings-02-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nat Jennings stands in her bedroom at A Madrone Ranch and Gardens in Sept. 2022, a property in Klamath River, Siskiyou County, owned by the Welcomed Consensus. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Nat Jennings)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s really hard to realize what is happening, and to leave,” Jennings told KQED. “If I didn’t have friends on the outside, if I didn’t have a car there, I could have been trapped and I could have, like, not believed myself because I was struggling with sleep deprivation, overworking, like all these factors that were just kind of convincing me I was the crazy one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few red flags stood out to her during her stay. First was early into her stay when women at the house began insisting that she wear a dress to dinner. When she replied she had come to work and didn’t bring a dress, they gave her one to put on. Jennings said she complied out of pressure, but said the dress felt “horribly inappropriate” and the experience made her feel “very uncomfortable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another day, she went berry picking with one of the house mates, an older man, and he flashed his gun before asking her to go swimming with him and taking off his shirt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a lot of love bombing and then taking it away, that type of thing,” Jennings said. Love bombing refers to lavishing someone with affection, and usually revoking that kindness later to manipulate them. “There was so much social punishment if you do anything out of line.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956924\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1501px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956924\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-Nat-Jennings-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person with glasses holds a plastic container full of blackberries in a wooded area.\" width=\"1501\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-Nat-Jennings-01-KQED.jpg 1501w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-Nat-Jennings-01-KQED-800x1066.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-Nat-Jennings-01-KQED-1020x1359.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-Nat-Jennings-01-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-Nat-Jennings-01-KQED-1153x1536.jpg 1153w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1501px) 100vw, 1501px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nat Jennings holds a container of blackberries she picked near A Madrone Ranch and Gardens in Sept. 2022. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Nat Jennings)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Something felt off. So she and another volunteer in the work-away program dug around online and came across Talbott Acosta’s blog, \u003ca href=\"https://www.truthaboutrj.com/\">TruthAboutRJ.com\u003c/a>, where they saw the faces of several people they were staying with and read stories that started similar to their own — but ended badly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We read all that and had this mutual panic attack like, ‘We have to leave tomorrow. This is ridiculous,’” Jennings said. “So on day 12, we woke up at 4:45 a.m., packed our bags and ran out to our cars.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear exactly how many members are still active with the Welcomed Consensus community. Jennings said at least five people were living at the house while she was there and Talbott Acosta believes two new members were validated in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Talbot Acosta said she reported the group and its ranch to WWOOF, but no action was taken. As of publication, \u003ca href=\"https://wwoofusa.org/en/host/20952-homestead-garden-vegetables-community-ranchlivestock\">the ranch listing was still active on the volunteer farming program’s website\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>WWOOF did not respond to KQED’s requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As young women like Jennings have come forward more recently, Talbott Acosta and Nelson fear a new generation of Welcomed Consensus leaders are being elevated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Testerman’s daughter, Ginger Mueller-Testerman, completed a master’s thesis in 2021 titled “\u003ca href=\"https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/downloads/x633f6180\">Clitoral Analysis: Analysis of Pleasure in Contemporary Sex Instruction Materials\u003c/a>” at San Francisco State in Human Sexuality Studies, where she also taught a course. In Spring 2023, Mueller-Testerman taught a critical studies course including topics on gender and sexual identity at the California College of the Arts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Upon hearing the news about Daedone and discovering Mueller-Testerman was teaching a course related to sex, Talbott Acosta contacted SF State and CCA to report personal experiences of abuse and recruiting for the Welcomed Consensus alongside Mueller-Testerman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SF State and CCA also declined to comment on Talbott Acosta’s reports, but both schools confirmed she taught courses there last spring and said she was not signed up to teach this fall. Mueller-Testerman declined to comment when reached by phone.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>California, cults and the Welcomed Consensus\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It took decades before Talbott Acosta and her husband Dennis, who she met at the Welcomed Consensus, to fully cut ties with the group. She said it wasn’t until beginning intensive therapy, and having a total emotional breakdown, that she began to see more clearly the abuse that she encountered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For me, it was learning about trauma and learning about PTSD and getting the mental health care that I needed to start seeing what was really happening.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Poulomi Saha, a UC Berkeley professor who teaches a course called Cults in Popular Culture, said that type of groupthink and pressure that keeps many members inside groups like the Welcomed Consensus is not uncommon in cults or other intentional communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The first thing you have to ask is ‘Why do people join?’ without diagnosing some kind of brainwashing, mis-recognition or stupidity,” Saha told KQED. “If we begin by believing that followers are already in the wrong, we can’t understand what gets someone somewhere.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These groups draw followers by offering big-ticket items. Bliss. Salvation. Wild financial success. But also things that are big-ticket items that we make mundane like true belonging,” she said. “You also have a structure of authority, and huge financial outlays. People have bought in on every level of their social being. And there’s a leader whose power you actually somewhere really begin to adhere to.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11705963","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>California is often the backdrop to popular culture’s obsession with cults, from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/manson-family-murders-what-need-to-know-180972655/\">Manson Family\u003c/a> to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11705963/do-you-really-want-to-know-one-mans-search-for-family-from-jonestown-and-beyond\">People’s Temple\u003c/a> and more. But there’s been a noticeable shift toward financial exploitation of group members, Saha said, which her research shows took off in the 1980s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Groups like the Welcomed Consensus sold their offerings for thousands of dollars. \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Suit-It-s-hooking-not-sex-training-3055850.php\">One former member, Erwan Davon, even tried to sue Testerman\u003c/a>, court records show, for putting him out of at least $136,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Allyson, who worked as a computer programmer before the Welcomed Consensus recruited her, estimated she spent at least $30,000 on courses with the Welcomed Consensus, plus buying a van for their food program. To get OneTaste up and moving, Daedone later convinced her to hand over the $5,000 she had saved in her 401K plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the Welcomed Consensus ran a nonprofit out of the house called \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/freetheneed/\">Free the Need\u003c/a>, through which it claimed to help distribute surplus groceries to hungry families. But multiple former affiliates that spoke to KQED said most of the donated food was kept to feed members of the Welcomed Consensus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two male sources who were associated with the group told KQED that it was common for leaders to probe recruits about their finances and convince students to pay up. In return, they promised to revolutionize their sex life and relationship to women.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you couldn’t pay, they would find work for you to do to pay off your debts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I refinished the hardwood floors. We wanted to build a subterranean brewery in the backyard, so we literally dug like 15 feet down,” said Dennis Acosta. “Then we realized we were totally insane and covered it all up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Testerman sold freedom from mainstream power dynamics and markets, but, Saha argues, groups like his often recreate them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You are not outside of the market logic at all. In fact, it’s a place where the market logic is perfected,” said Saha. “How do you draw someone in? Go out and bring four friends.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These days, Talbott Acosta is spreading a different message.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It makes people very uncomfortable. But it is important to talk about,” she said. “It’s the only way to let people know that it exists and that it can happen to anyone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11958888/is-a-san-francisco-sex-cult-subjecting-people-to-sexual-abuse-onetaste-welcomed-consensus","authors":["11840"],"categories":["news_457","news_6188","news_8"],"tags":["news_18538","news_17725","news_27626","news_33071","news_33069","news_33072","news_38","news_2700","news_1527","news_5657","news_33070"],"featImg":"news_11958914","label":"news"},"news_11958308":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11958308","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11958308","score":null,"sort":[1692226323000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"dublin-womens-prison-faces-class-action-lawsuit-over-sexual-abuse-scandal","title":"Dublin Women’s Prison Faces Class-Action Lawsuit Over Sexual Abuse Scandal","publishDate":1692226323,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Dublin Women’s Prison Faces Class-Action Lawsuit Over Sexual Abuse Scandal | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>Survivors of sexual abuse on Wednesday filed a class-action lawsuit against guards and officials at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11904298/ap-investigation-dublin-womens-prison-fostered-culture-of-abuse\">FCI Dublin\u003c/a>, a federal women’s prison where plaintiffs argue there are inadequate systems for preventing, detecting, investigating and responding to rape and sexual assault at the facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23911040-ccwp-v-bop-complaint\">putative class-action suit\u003c/a> comes after \u003ca href=\"https://www.ktvu.com/news/2-more-women-sue-3-dublin-prison-officers-for-illegal-sexual-behavior\">nearly a dozen individual lawsuits\u003c/a> were lodged against guards and officials at the facility. Last month, two additional guards who worked at the federal prison, pled guilty to sexually abusing multiple incarcerated women, bringing the total to \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/two-more-dublin-federal-correctional-officers-plead-guilty-sexually-abusing-multiple\">eight staff members at FCI Dublin\u003c/a> who have been charged in the scandal.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Amaris Montes, attorney, Rights Behind Bars\"]‘Our clients allege that they were forced to engage in various sex acts with officers under threat of retaliation or by being promised basic necessities or special privileges.’[/pullquote]“This litigation shines a light on the systemic nature of the abuse,” said Amaris Montes, an attorney with Rights Behind Bars, one of the law firms representing the eight plaintiffs in the lawsuit. “It was not only the individual officers who were at fault for the abuse, but the whole Bureau of Prisons system where officers at every level literally watched as other officers assaulted incarcerated people and helped to keep survivors silent through retaliation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit alleges that for years, people incarcerated at the low-security women’s prison were subject to rampant and ongoing sexual abuse, including rape and sexual assault, drugging, groping and being forced to take explicit photos. It also claims women incarcerated at the facility were subject to abuse during medical exams and that immigrants were threatened with deportation if they did not comply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It further alleges that the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) was aware of the problems for decades at FCI Dublin, but that the agency failed to respond to the heinous acts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our clients allege that they were forced to engage in various sex acts with officers under threat of retaliation or by being promised basic necessities or special privileges,” Montes said at a press conference on Wednesday. “Others were forced to act as lookouts while officers sexually abused their friends and cellmates.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit calls for a jury trial and names the eight individuals charged so far, as well as FCI Dublin Warden Thahesha Jusino, BOP Director Colette Peters and other officers at the facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit alleges that the prison staff’s sexual abuse of incarcerated people at FCI Dublin violates the Eighth Amendment, prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, as well as the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"G.M., survivor, plaintiff\"]‘We are someone’s mom, we are someone’s daughter. We are here to be rehabilitated, but when we are abused, we cannot be.’[/pullquote]One plaintiff in the case is cited as having to remove her clothes while officers masturbated in front of her. Another was forced to strip and dance for an officer who was “well known for trading food and basic goods with incarcerated individuals in exchange for sexual acts,” the complaint reads. Multiple plaintiffs said that officers subjected them to relentless harassment, assault and rape, or that they witnessed such behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are someone’s mom, we are someone’s daughter. We are here to be rehabilitated, but when we are abused, we cannot be,” a plaintiff in the suit named G.M. said in a press release. “We are asking for change, and for these officers and this system to be held accountable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maria, who experienced abuse while incarcerated at FCI Dublin, was sent to solitary confinement for nearly two weeks after a guard who abused her friend was exposed. Maria did not use her last name due to privacy and safety concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was abused and I saw my friends abused by guards,” Maria told reporters through a translator on Wednesday. “They were supposed to protect us. I saw them abusing, grabbing and groping.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11958362\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11958362\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230816-Dublin-Womens-Prison-Suit-MD-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person in sunglasses speaks into a microphone in an outdoor setting.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230816-Dublin-Womens-Prison-Suit-MD-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230816-Dublin-Womens-Prison-Suit-MD-02-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230816-Dublin-Womens-Prison-Suit-MD-02-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230816-Dublin-Womens-Prison-Suit-MD-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230816-Dublin-Womens-Prison-Suit-MD-02-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230816-Dublin-Womens-Prison-Suit-MD-02-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Robin Lucas, who was formerly incarcerated at FCI Dublin, and also a survivor of sexual abuse at the prison, speaks in front of the Federal Courthouse in Oakland about the challenges of changing the violence and culture at the facility. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Robin Lucas, who was formerly incarcerated at FCI Dublin, spoke to reporters on Wednesday about the challenges of changing the violence and culture at the facility, where she also experienced sexual abuse decades ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1995, Lucas said she was assaulted while placed in the segregated housing unit for men, the facility’s maximum-security confinement. She, along with two others incarcerated at the Dublin prison, sued and reached a $500,000 settlement in 1998.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Robin Lucas, survivor\"]‘I remember what it was like when I see these young girls get up there. They well up with fear and intimidation and hurt, but there is a drive within them to speak up and say this is not right.’[/pullquote]As part of the settlement, the Bureau of Prisons agreed to no longer house women in the men’s maximum security unit at the Dublin facility. It also required the BOP to set up new training policies for staff and to better inform people who are incarcerated about how to report assault.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But now, almost 30 years later, Lucas said little has changed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I remember what it was like when I see these young girls get up there,” and come forward to report abuses, Lucas told KQED. “They well up with fear and intimidation and hurt, but there is a drive within them to speak up and say this is not right.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11934639/ex-warden-of-dublin-womens-prison-convicted-of-sexually-abusing-inmates\">Five former FCI Dublin staff members were already convicted\u003c/a> of sexually abusing incarcerated women in the Department of Justice’s ongoing investigation into the notorious facility. They include Chaplain James Highhouse, Warden Ray J. Garcia and three correctional officers. A case is still pending for charges against correctional officer Darrell Smith, according to federal officials.[aside label='More on Criminal Justice' tag='criminal-justice']Highhouse was sentenced to 84 months in prison and Garcia was sentenced to a 70-month term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nakie Nunley of Fairfield, who pleaded guilty in July, was charged with having sex with five victims while working as a supervisor for UNICOR, a call center staffed by women incarcerated at the prison. Nunley threatened to transfer women or strip them of their employment when confronted about the behavior, according to federal officials. He was also charged with lying to federal investigators with the U.S. attorney’s office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nunley admitted that he told another victim that if she wanted to keep her job at UNICOR, she needed to pull down her underwear and bend over,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/two-more-dublin-federal-correctional-officers-plead-guilty-sexually-abusing-multiple\">the U.S. attorney’s office said in a release\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Andrew Jones of Pleasanton, who oversaw the prison’s Food Services Department, also pleaded guilty in July to sexually abusing incarcerated people in multiple places near the FCI Dublin kitchen, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This Office’s ongoing investigation into FCI Dublin has revealed significant findings of wrongdoing by multiple correctional officers at that facility,” said U.S. Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey of the Northern District of California in a July press release announcing the latest charges. “The Department of Justice has repeatedly warned that criminal misconduct in the care and safety of incarcerated persons will not be tolerated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Plaintiffs filed the class-action suit on Wednesday on behalf of all people incarcerated at FCI Dublin, a federal women’s prison.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1692226323,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":21,"wordCount":1287},"headData":{"title":"Dublin Women’s Prison Faces Class-Action Lawsuit Over Sexual Abuse Scandal | KQED","description":"Plaintiffs filed the class-action suit on Wednesday on behalf of all people incarcerated at FCI Dublin, a federal women’s prison.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11958308/dublin-womens-prison-faces-class-action-lawsuit-over-sexual-abuse-scandal","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Survivors of sexual abuse on Wednesday filed a class-action lawsuit against guards and officials at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11904298/ap-investigation-dublin-womens-prison-fostered-culture-of-abuse\">FCI Dublin\u003c/a>, a federal women’s prison where plaintiffs argue there are inadequate systems for preventing, detecting, investigating and responding to rape and sexual assault at the facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23911040-ccwp-v-bop-complaint\">putative class-action suit\u003c/a> comes after \u003ca href=\"https://www.ktvu.com/news/2-more-women-sue-3-dublin-prison-officers-for-illegal-sexual-behavior\">nearly a dozen individual lawsuits\u003c/a> were lodged against guards and officials at the facility. Last month, two additional guards who worked at the federal prison, pled guilty to sexually abusing multiple incarcerated women, bringing the total to \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/two-more-dublin-federal-correctional-officers-plead-guilty-sexually-abusing-multiple\">eight staff members at FCI Dublin\u003c/a> who have been charged in the scandal.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘Our clients allege that they were forced to engage in various sex acts with officers under threat of retaliation or by being promised basic necessities or special privileges.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Amaris Montes, attorney, Rights Behind Bars","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“This litigation shines a light on the systemic nature of the abuse,” said Amaris Montes, an attorney with Rights Behind Bars, one of the law firms representing the eight plaintiffs in the lawsuit. “It was not only the individual officers who were at fault for the abuse, but the whole Bureau of Prisons system where officers at every level literally watched as other officers assaulted incarcerated people and helped to keep survivors silent through retaliation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit alleges that for years, people incarcerated at the low-security women’s prison were subject to rampant and ongoing sexual abuse, including rape and sexual assault, drugging, groping and being forced to take explicit photos. It also claims women incarcerated at the facility were subject to abuse during medical exams and that immigrants were threatened with deportation if they did not comply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It further alleges that the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) was aware of the problems for decades at FCI Dublin, but that the agency failed to respond to the heinous acts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our clients allege that they were forced to engage in various sex acts with officers under threat of retaliation or by being promised basic necessities or special privileges,” Montes said at a press conference on Wednesday. “Others were forced to act as lookouts while officers sexually abused their friends and cellmates.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit calls for a jury trial and names the eight individuals charged so far, as well as FCI Dublin Warden Thahesha Jusino, BOP Director Colette Peters and other officers at the facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit alleges that the prison staff’s sexual abuse of incarcerated people at FCI Dublin violates the Eighth Amendment, prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, as well as the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘We are someone’s mom, we are someone’s daughter. We are here to be rehabilitated, but when we are abused, we cannot be.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"G.M., survivor, plaintiff","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>One plaintiff in the case is cited as having to remove her clothes while officers masturbated in front of her. Another was forced to strip and dance for an officer who was “well known for trading food and basic goods with incarcerated individuals in exchange for sexual acts,” the complaint reads. Multiple plaintiffs said that officers subjected them to relentless harassment, assault and rape, or that they witnessed such behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are someone’s mom, we are someone’s daughter. We are here to be rehabilitated, but when we are abused, we cannot be,” a plaintiff in the suit named G.M. said in a press release. “We are asking for change, and for these officers and this system to be held accountable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maria, who experienced abuse while incarcerated at FCI Dublin, was sent to solitary confinement for nearly two weeks after a guard who abused her friend was exposed. Maria did not use her last name due to privacy and safety concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was abused and I saw my friends abused by guards,” Maria told reporters through a translator on Wednesday. “They were supposed to protect us. I saw them abusing, grabbing and groping.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11958362\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11958362\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230816-Dublin-Womens-Prison-Suit-MD-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person in sunglasses speaks into a microphone in an outdoor setting.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230816-Dublin-Womens-Prison-Suit-MD-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230816-Dublin-Womens-Prison-Suit-MD-02-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230816-Dublin-Womens-Prison-Suit-MD-02-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230816-Dublin-Womens-Prison-Suit-MD-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230816-Dublin-Womens-Prison-Suit-MD-02-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230816-Dublin-Womens-Prison-Suit-MD-02-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Robin Lucas, who was formerly incarcerated at FCI Dublin, and also a survivor of sexual abuse at the prison, speaks in front of the Federal Courthouse in Oakland about the challenges of changing the violence and culture at the facility. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Robin Lucas, who was formerly incarcerated at FCI Dublin, spoke to reporters on Wednesday about the challenges of changing the violence and culture at the facility, where she also experienced sexual abuse decades ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1995, Lucas said she was assaulted while placed in the segregated housing unit for men, the facility’s maximum-security confinement. She, along with two others incarcerated at the Dublin prison, sued and reached a $500,000 settlement in 1998.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘I remember what it was like when I see these young girls get up there. They well up with fear and intimidation and hurt, but there is a drive within them to speak up and say this is not right.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Robin Lucas, survivor","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>As part of the settlement, the Bureau of Prisons agreed to no longer house women in the men’s maximum security unit at the Dublin facility. It also required the BOP to set up new training policies for staff and to better inform people who are incarcerated about how to report assault.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But now, almost 30 years later, Lucas said little has changed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I remember what it was like when I see these young girls get up there,” and come forward to report abuses, Lucas told KQED. “They well up with fear and intimidation and hurt, but there is a drive within them to speak up and say this is not right.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11934639/ex-warden-of-dublin-womens-prison-convicted-of-sexually-abusing-inmates\">Five former FCI Dublin staff members were already convicted\u003c/a> of sexually abusing incarcerated women in the Department of Justice’s ongoing investigation into the notorious facility. They include Chaplain James Highhouse, Warden Ray J. Garcia and three correctional officers. A case is still pending for charges against correctional officer Darrell Smith, according to federal officials.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"label":"More on Criminal Justice ","tag":"criminal-justice"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Highhouse was sentenced to 84 months in prison and Garcia was sentenced to a 70-month term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nakie Nunley of Fairfield, who pleaded guilty in July, was charged with having sex with five victims while working as a supervisor for UNICOR, a call center staffed by women incarcerated at the prison. Nunley threatened to transfer women or strip them of their employment when confronted about the behavior, according to federal officials. He was also charged with lying to federal investigators with the U.S. attorney’s office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nunley admitted that he told another victim that if she wanted to keep her job at UNICOR, she needed to pull down her underwear and bend over,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/two-more-dublin-federal-correctional-officers-plead-guilty-sexually-abusing-multiple\">the U.S. attorney’s office said in a release\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Andrew Jones of Pleasanton, who oversaw the prison’s Food Services Department, also pleaded guilty in July to sexually abusing incarcerated people in multiple places near the FCI Dublin kitchen, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This Office’s ongoing investigation into FCI Dublin has revealed significant findings of wrongdoing by multiple correctional officers at that facility,” said U.S. Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey of the Northern District of California in a July press release announcing the latest charges. “The Department of Justice has repeatedly warned that criminal misconduct in the care and safety of incarcerated persons will not be tolerated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11958308/dublin-womens-prison-faces-class-action-lawsuit-over-sexual-abuse-scandal","authors":["11840"],"categories":["news_6188","news_8"],"tags":["news_3543","news_32047","news_18352","news_27626","news_32048","news_2700","news_1527"],"featImg":"news_11958368","label":"news"},"news_11957801":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11957801","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11957801","score":null,"sort":[1691665203000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"east-bay-priests-accused-of-abuse-still-active","title":"Court Records Reveal Names of Active East Bay Priests Accused of Abuse","publishDate":1691665203,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Court Records Reveal Names of Active East Bay Priests Accused of Abuse | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>A Catholic priest in Rodeo remains the active head of a church and parochial school while he faces accusations of molesting a child parishioner decades ago, KQED has learned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A lawsuit filed in Alameda County in September alleges ongoing abuse in the mid-1980s, including that the priest secluded the unnamed plaintiff in an office and groped his genitals underneath his clothing when he was a parishioner at St. Raymond Catholic Church in Dublin. The plaintiff was around 6 and 7 years old at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The priest is not named in the lawsuit. But documents filed in federal bankruptcy court and records from a special proceeding in state court reveal who the priest is: Father Larry Young.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Young was parochial vicar at St. Raymond’s from September 1984 to June 1987, according to the Oakland diocese.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He is the current pastor of St. Patrick Catholic Church in Rodeo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reached by phone on July 24, Young initially declined to comment. After he and his attorneys were presented with information identifying him as the unnamed defendant, Young sent an Aug. 8 emailed statement calling the accusation against him “absolutely false.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is a defamation of my name and character for something I did not — and would not — do to any child of God,” Young said in his statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956782\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956782\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-01-KQED.jpg\" alt='A brightly colored sign hanging on a chain link fence that reads \"Saint Patrick School Now Enrolling.\"' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-01-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-01-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-01-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-01-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Signage outside the St. Patrick Catholic Church in Rodeo on July 27, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The allegation in the lawsuit is not proven.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit against Young is among over a thousand claims filed in Northern California courts on behalf of survivors of alleged childhood sexual abuse by clergy under a recent California law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys defending the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland and two accused clergy who remain in active ministry — Young and another East Bay priest — have been fighting for several months to keep their identities sealed in court and out of public view.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They argue that the diocese’s internal investigation found the allegations are without merit and that the priests’ identities have been uncovered in violation of the law. [pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Rick Simons, attorney for victims’ cases against clergy in Northern California\"]‘The reason that the bishop and his lawyers want to keep names of alleged perpetrators confidential is they know that once the name gets out in the public, other potential victims will come forward.’[/pullquote] “This matter has not been deemed credible,” Oakland diocese spokesperson Helen Osman wrote in an email to KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A former assistant U.S. attorney hired by the diocese found the allegations were not credible, Osman said. The diocese declined to identify the former prosecutor or provide documentation of their findings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bankruptcy proceedings effectively froze all the state court cases filed against the Oakland diocese, its facilities and its clergy. Advocates say the diocese is using the bankruptcy process to delay the lawsuits, and that the lack of transparency undermines the diocese’s public stance of compassion for survivors of abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is absolutely abhorrent and irresponsible,” said Rick Simons, one of the lead attorneys managing victims’ cases against clergy in Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reason that the bishop and his lawyers want to keep names of alleged perpetrators confidential is they know that once the name gets out in the public, other potential victims will come forward,” Simons said. “It’s like the #MeToo movement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Oakland diocese sought Chapter 11 protection in federal bankruptcy court in May as it faced more than 330 claims filed by the survivors of alleged child sexual abuse under a 2019 state law, the California Child Victims Act, or \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB218\">Assembly Bill 218\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law waived all time limits for those claims from 2020 through the end of last year, and it permanently extended age limits to sue for childhood molestation — from age 26 to 40 years old, or within five years after the discovery of the abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Oakland diocese was the second California diocese to file for bankruptcy this year in the wake of lawsuits brought under AB 218. The Diocese of Santa Rosa sought Chapter 11 protection in March. The Archdiocese of San Francisco announced Friday it will “very likely” follow suit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956783\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956783\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-03-KQED.jpg\" alt='A wooden sign outside a large building that reads \"Welcome: St. Patrick Catholic Church\" and listing the times of services.' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-03-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-03-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-03-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-03-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-03-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Signage outside the St. Patrick Catholic Church in Rodeo on July 27, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Attorneys representing survivors of alleged molestation are “alarmed that two priests accused of sexual abuse remain currently employed by the [diocese],” according to a recent filing in federal court. “An immediate investigation is necessary with respect to the Accused Employees because they (i) remain in contact with children, and (ii) are continuing to collect a salary and benefits from assets of the [diocese’s] estate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A bankruptcy judge granted the diocese’s request last month to keep the names of the two current employees under seal in federal court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys have also sought to keep the priests’ names out of state court filings — and the press.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Referencing him in a story now is improper and would severely and recklessly harm Father Young and his reputation,” Young’s attorney, Dan Webb, wrote in a June 27 email to KQED.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Father George Mockel, pastor, Santa Maria Church in Orinda\"]‘I have never been involved in any disciplinary action, criminal case, or civil matter and have never been accused of assault or any such wrongdoing in my lifetime. I am deeply saddened and distressed by this maligning of my name and reputation.’[/pullquote] Webb, along with the diocese, argue that naming Young violates rules of civil proceedings created by the California Child Victims Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These very issues are in litigation now,” Webb wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law prohibits accused abusers sued as defendants from being named in lawsuits until supporting evidence is presented. It does not apply to the press.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Father George Mockel, another active East Bay priest, has also been accused of sexually abusing a child in a civil case brought under AB 218.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a lawsuit filed in December, a plaintiff alleges they were sexually abused by a priest in the mid-1970s. A filing in the case directly identifies Father George Mockel as the alleged perpetrator, as \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/east-bay-priests-accused-child-sex-abuse-suits/3263850/\">NBC Bay Area reported\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mockel is the pastor of Santa Maria Church in Orinda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://santamariaorinda.com/fr-george-statement\">a statement that was posted to the church’s website\u003c/a>, but has since been taken down, Mockel denied the allegations:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have never abused anyone in any way at any time. That is not who I am,” Mockel said. “I have never been involved in any disciplinary action, criminal case, or civil matter and have never been accused of assault or any such wrongdoing in my lifetime. I am deeply saddened and distressed by this maligning of my name and reputation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plaintiffs’ attorneys in both cases either did not respond to a request for comment or declined to comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This effort to leave them in ministry is an effort to intimidate other victims from coming forward,” said Dan McNevin, Oakland leader of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People are afraid of powerful priests. Larry Young is a very powerful man within the diocese,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ordained in 1981, Young served at several parishes in the East Bay, including in San Leandro, Fremont and Richmond, according to church records, before becoming pastor of St. Patrick Catholic Church in Rodeo over 20 years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956785\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956785\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-06-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A large and circular modern-looking building sitting beside a body of water.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-06-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-06-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-06-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-06-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-06-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-06-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Cathedral of Christ the Light and Catholic Diocese of Oakland in Oakland on July 28, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Mockel was previously the vicar general of the diocese, a role that directly supports the bishop in the governance of the diocese.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both priests were listed among diocesan consultors in the 2021 Official Catholic Directory, meaning they are advisors to the bishop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://holyspiritfremont.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/July-2019-Appointments.pdf\">2019 memo (PDF)\u003c/a> includes Mockel and Young among members of the diocese’s Priests Personnel Board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know them both, I know them fairly well,” said Tim Stier, a former priest with the Oakland diocese who was an associate pastor at St. Raymond in the early 1990s.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Tim Stier, former priest, outspoken critic, Oakland diocese\"]‘When a priest is accused, he’s supposed to be suspended by the bishop while an investigation takes place.’[/pullquote] “I like Larry. I’ve always found him somewhat peculiar and eccentric, but he’s always been nice to me. But then, priests are always nice to fellow priests, generally,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stier has been an outspoken critic of the Oakland diocese’s handling of sexual abuse by its priests. Last year, the Vatican \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/07/09/vatican-defrocks-priest-who-scolded-oakland-diocese-over-sex-abuse/?clearUserState=true\">officially removed\u003c/a> him from the priesthood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When a priest is accused, he’s supposed to be suspended by the bishop while an investigation takes place,” Stier said, referring to the Oakland diocese’s process for \u003ca href=\"https://oakdiocese.org/victims-assistance#:~:text=When%20the%20diocese%20receives%20an,temporary%20suspension%20of%20all%20ministry.\">responding to allegations of sexual abuse\u003c/a> by clergy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The procedures also require the diocese to report any allegations that a priest is sexually abusing a child to law enforcement and the priest’s parish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The diocese has not reported the allegation against Young to law enforcement. He has not been suspended and parishioners of St. Patrick Catholic Church have not been notified.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because the diocese’s policies don’t apply to historical allegations brought through a lawsuit, according to spokesperson Helen Osman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Diocese was not aware of the alleged abuse when it allegedly occurred,” Osman said in an email. “We have no records of being contacted. The Diocese also sought to speak with the plaintiff about the allegations after the filing of the complaint and the plaintiff refused.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Young is also not included in the Oakland diocese’s \u003ca href=\"https://oakdiocese.org/credible-accusations\">list of credibly accused clergy\u003c/a> released in 2019, because, Osman said, he has not been credibly accused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Bishop has expressed his support for me and has stated I deserve to maintain my good name,” Young said, adding that he has been advised not to speak about the case beyond his emailed statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I appreciate your understanding, but especially your prayers, not just for me but for everyone involved,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How the priests’ identities were revealed\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In a June 21 conference call in the bankruptcy case, a representative of the Oakland diocese said that two priests recently accused of child abuse in the East Bay remain in active ministry, without naming them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The diocese initially requested that the names of all accused priests and anyone involved in a cover-up of abuse, along with the survivors of alleged abuse, be kept under seal or redacted from the bankruptcy proceedings. The diocese had argued its employees are entitled to protection from identity theft and harassment.[aside label='More on the Oakland Diocese' tag='oakland-diocese']Lawyers representing the survivors among other “unsecured creditors” in the case, opposed the request. The request for confidentiality was later narrowed to just the two priests in active ministry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The public should be aware. What we’re doing should not be done behind closed doors,” Jeff Prol, an attorney for the survivors and other creditors in the bankruptcy case, said in an interview with KQED on July 7.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The public interest requires that the priests’ names be disclosed,” he said. “They’re potentially a danger to society.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bankruptcy Judge William J. Lafferty granted the diocese’s request last month, sealing the names of the two active priests in the bankruptcy case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But cross-referencing filings by the diocese in bankruptcy court and documents filed in state court reveal the identities of the priests and the accusations against them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A routine filing in bankruptcy court in early July disclosed that two active priests with the Oakland diocese hired an attorney to address potential violations of California privacy law. That document referenced two Alameda County Superior Court case numbers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case numbers relate to two lawsuits filed in state court alleging sexual abuse by priests. Mockel is identified as the alleged perpetrator in one of those cases, but Young is not named.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, a statement filed monthly in state court includes a chart with information from over 1,500 lawsuits filed in the three-year window created by the California Child Victims Act. The chart displays case numbers, attorney names, time periods of the alleged abuse and the names of the alleged perpetrator in hundreds of the cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Young and Mockel are listed as alleged perpetrators in the chart, buried among the names of hundreds of other accused clergy. Searching by the two case numbers the diocese identified in bankruptcy court, however, highlights Mockel and Young as the two recently accused priests who remain actively leading parishioners.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Pushing for secrecy\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Oakland diocese spokesperson Osman said attorneys for survivors “ignored the law” when they named Young in the chart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California law requires that certain criteria be met before an alleged childhood sexual abuser can be publicly named as a defendant in a lawsuit,” Osman wrote. “Those criteria have not been met in this case.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Simons, the plaintiffs’ attorney manager in the special proceeding, said lawyers are required by court order to provide information from their cases for use in the chart.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Dan McNevin, Oakland leader, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP)\"]‘I think it really defeats justice when these cases are not publicized and we have no visibility into the process that caused a priest to remain in ministry.’[/pullquote] Attorneys representing the priests have pushed to keep Young and Mockel’s names confidential in state court filings as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dan Webb, the attorney representing the two priests, asked an Alameda County Superior Court clerk in late June to seal the chart, blocking public access, while he prepared a motion requesting the priests’ names be removed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The court responded that no action would be taken based on Webb’s emailed request, but that the priests could file a motion to seal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To date, no motion has been filed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it really defeats justice when these cases are not publicized and we have no visibility into the process that caused a priest to remain in ministry,” said McNevin of SNAP.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Young] should be suspended. His parish should be informed. All of the parishes where he worked should be informed, and survivors should be invited to come forward from all of those places. That would be the compassionate response to an accusation like this,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Advocates say the Oakland diocese is using a bankruptcy bid to stall claims of alleged abuse. The diocese argues the allegations are not credible.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1691666194,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":66,"wordCount":2499},"headData":{"title":"Court Records Reveal Names of Active East Bay Priests Accused of Abuse | KQED","description":"Advocates say the Oakland diocese is using a bankruptcy bid to stall claims of alleged abuse. The diocese argues the allegations are not credible.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11957801/east-bay-priests-accused-of-abuse-still-active","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A Catholic priest in Rodeo remains the active head of a church and parochial school while he faces accusations of molesting a child parishioner decades ago, KQED has learned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A lawsuit filed in Alameda County in September alleges ongoing abuse in the mid-1980s, including that the priest secluded the unnamed plaintiff in an office and groped his genitals underneath his clothing when he was a parishioner at St. Raymond Catholic Church in Dublin. The plaintiff was around 6 and 7 years old at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The priest is not named in the lawsuit. But documents filed in federal bankruptcy court and records from a special proceeding in state court reveal who the priest is: Father Larry Young.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Young was parochial vicar at St. Raymond’s from September 1984 to June 1987, according to the Oakland diocese.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He is the current pastor of St. Patrick Catholic Church in Rodeo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reached by phone on July 24, Young initially declined to comment. After he and his attorneys were presented with information identifying him as the unnamed defendant, Young sent an Aug. 8 emailed statement calling the accusation against him “absolutely false.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is a defamation of my name and character for something I did not — and would not — do to any child of God,” Young said in his statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956782\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956782\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-01-KQED.jpg\" alt='A brightly colored sign hanging on a chain link fence that reads \"Saint Patrick School Now Enrolling.\"' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-01-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-01-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-01-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-01-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Signage outside the St. Patrick Catholic Church in Rodeo on July 27, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The allegation in the lawsuit is not proven.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit against Young is among over a thousand claims filed in Northern California courts on behalf of survivors of alleged childhood sexual abuse by clergy under a recent California law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys defending the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland and two accused clergy who remain in active ministry — Young and another East Bay priest — have been fighting for several months to keep their identities sealed in court and out of public view.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They argue that the diocese’s internal investigation found the allegations are without merit and that the priests’ identities have been uncovered in violation of the law. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘The reason that the bishop and his lawyers want to keep names of alleged perpetrators confidential is they know that once the name gets out in the public, other potential victims will come forward.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Rick Simons, attorney for victims’ cases against clergy in Northern California","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> “This matter has not been deemed credible,” Oakland diocese spokesperson Helen Osman wrote in an email to KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A former assistant U.S. attorney hired by the diocese found the allegations were not credible, Osman said. The diocese declined to identify the former prosecutor or provide documentation of their findings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bankruptcy proceedings effectively froze all the state court cases filed against the Oakland diocese, its facilities and its clergy. Advocates say the diocese is using the bankruptcy process to delay the lawsuits, and that the lack of transparency undermines the diocese’s public stance of compassion for survivors of abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is absolutely abhorrent and irresponsible,” said Rick Simons, one of the lead attorneys managing victims’ cases against clergy in Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reason that the bishop and his lawyers want to keep names of alleged perpetrators confidential is they know that once the name gets out in the public, other potential victims will come forward,” Simons said. “It’s like the #MeToo movement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Oakland diocese sought Chapter 11 protection in federal bankruptcy court in May as it faced more than 330 claims filed by the survivors of alleged child sexual abuse under a 2019 state law, the California Child Victims Act, or \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB218\">Assembly Bill 218\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law waived all time limits for those claims from 2020 through the end of last year, and it permanently extended age limits to sue for childhood molestation — from age 26 to 40 years old, or within five years after the discovery of the abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Oakland diocese was the second California diocese to file for bankruptcy this year in the wake of lawsuits brought under AB 218. The Diocese of Santa Rosa sought Chapter 11 protection in March. The Archdiocese of San Francisco announced Friday it will “very likely” follow suit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956783\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956783\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-03-KQED.jpg\" alt='A wooden sign outside a large building that reads \"Welcome: St. Patrick Catholic Church\" and listing the times of services.' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-03-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-03-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-03-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-03-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-03-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Signage outside the St. Patrick Catholic Church in Rodeo on July 27, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Attorneys representing survivors of alleged molestation are “alarmed that two priests accused of sexual abuse remain currently employed by the [diocese],” according to a recent filing in federal court. “An immediate investigation is necessary with respect to the Accused Employees because they (i) remain in contact with children, and (ii) are continuing to collect a salary and benefits from assets of the [diocese’s] estate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A bankruptcy judge granted the diocese’s request last month to keep the names of the two current employees under seal in federal court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys have also sought to keep the priests’ names out of state court filings — and the press.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Referencing him in a story now is improper and would severely and recklessly harm Father Young and his reputation,” Young’s attorney, Dan Webb, wrote in a June 27 email to KQED.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘I have never been involved in any disciplinary action, criminal case, or civil matter and have never been accused of assault or any such wrongdoing in my lifetime. I am deeply saddened and distressed by this maligning of my name and reputation.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Father George Mockel, pastor, Santa Maria Church in Orinda","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> Webb, along with the diocese, argue that naming Young violates rules of civil proceedings created by the California Child Victims Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These very issues are in litigation now,” Webb wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law prohibits accused abusers sued as defendants from being named in lawsuits until supporting evidence is presented. It does not apply to the press.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Father George Mockel, another active East Bay priest, has also been accused of sexually abusing a child in a civil case brought under AB 218.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a lawsuit filed in December, a plaintiff alleges they were sexually abused by a priest in the mid-1970s. A filing in the case directly identifies Father George Mockel as the alleged perpetrator, as \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/east-bay-priests-accused-child-sex-abuse-suits/3263850/\">NBC Bay Area reported\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mockel is the pastor of Santa Maria Church in Orinda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://santamariaorinda.com/fr-george-statement\">a statement that was posted to the church’s website\u003c/a>, but has since been taken down, Mockel denied the allegations:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have never abused anyone in any way at any time. That is not who I am,” Mockel said. “I have never been involved in any disciplinary action, criminal case, or civil matter and have never been accused of assault or any such wrongdoing in my lifetime. I am deeply saddened and distressed by this maligning of my name and reputation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plaintiffs’ attorneys in both cases either did not respond to a request for comment or declined to comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This effort to leave them in ministry is an effort to intimidate other victims from coming forward,” said Dan McNevin, Oakland leader of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People are afraid of powerful priests. Larry Young is a very powerful man within the diocese,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ordained in 1981, Young served at several parishes in the East Bay, including in San Leandro, Fremont and Richmond, according to church records, before becoming pastor of St. Patrick Catholic Church in Rodeo over 20 years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956785\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956785\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-06-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A large and circular modern-looking building sitting beside a body of water.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-06-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-06-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-06-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-06-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-06-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230727-Oakland-Diocese-Sexual-Abuse-MHN-06-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Cathedral of Christ the Light and Catholic Diocese of Oakland in Oakland on July 28, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Mockel was previously the vicar general of the diocese, a role that directly supports the bishop in the governance of the diocese.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both priests were listed among diocesan consultors in the 2021 Official Catholic Directory, meaning they are advisors to the bishop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://holyspiritfremont.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/July-2019-Appointments.pdf\">2019 memo (PDF)\u003c/a> includes Mockel and Young among members of the diocese’s Priests Personnel Board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know them both, I know them fairly well,” said Tim Stier, a former priest with the Oakland diocese who was an associate pastor at St. Raymond in the early 1990s.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘When a priest is accused, he’s supposed to be suspended by the bishop while an investigation takes place.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Tim Stier, former priest, outspoken critic, Oakland diocese","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> “I like Larry. I’ve always found him somewhat peculiar and eccentric, but he’s always been nice to me. But then, priests are always nice to fellow priests, generally,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stier has been an outspoken critic of the Oakland diocese’s handling of sexual abuse by its priests. Last year, the Vatican \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/07/09/vatican-defrocks-priest-who-scolded-oakland-diocese-over-sex-abuse/?clearUserState=true\">officially removed\u003c/a> him from the priesthood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When a priest is accused, he’s supposed to be suspended by the bishop while an investigation takes place,” Stier said, referring to the Oakland diocese’s process for \u003ca href=\"https://oakdiocese.org/victims-assistance#:~:text=When%20the%20diocese%20receives%20an,temporary%20suspension%20of%20all%20ministry.\">responding to allegations of sexual abuse\u003c/a> by clergy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The procedures also require the diocese to report any allegations that a priest is sexually abusing a child to law enforcement and the priest’s parish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The diocese has not reported the allegation against Young to law enforcement. He has not been suspended and parishioners of St. Patrick Catholic Church have not been notified.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because the diocese’s policies don’t apply to historical allegations brought through a lawsuit, according to spokesperson Helen Osman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Diocese was not aware of the alleged abuse when it allegedly occurred,” Osman said in an email. “We have no records of being contacted. The Diocese also sought to speak with the plaintiff about the allegations after the filing of the complaint and the plaintiff refused.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Young is also not included in the Oakland diocese’s \u003ca href=\"https://oakdiocese.org/credible-accusations\">list of credibly accused clergy\u003c/a> released in 2019, because, Osman said, he has not been credibly accused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Bishop has expressed his support for me and has stated I deserve to maintain my good name,” Young said, adding that he has been advised not to speak about the case beyond his emailed statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I appreciate your understanding, but especially your prayers, not just for me but for everyone involved,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How the priests’ identities were revealed\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In a June 21 conference call in the bankruptcy case, a representative of the Oakland diocese said that two priests recently accused of child abuse in the East Bay remain in active ministry, without naming them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The diocese initially requested that the names of all accused priests and anyone involved in a cover-up of abuse, along with the survivors of alleged abuse, be kept under seal or redacted from the bankruptcy proceedings. The diocese had argued its employees are entitled to protection from identity theft and harassment.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"label":"More on the Oakland Diocese ","tag":"oakland-diocese"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Lawyers representing the survivors among other “unsecured creditors” in the case, opposed the request. The request for confidentiality was later narrowed to just the two priests in active ministry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The public should be aware. What we’re doing should not be done behind closed doors,” Jeff Prol, an attorney for the survivors and other creditors in the bankruptcy case, said in an interview with KQED on July 7.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The public interest requires that the priests’ names be disclosed,” he said. “They’re potentially a danger to society.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bankruptcy Judge William J. Lafferty granted the diocese’s request last month, sealing the names of the two active priests in the bankruptcy case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But cross-referencing filings by the diocese in bankruptcy court and documents filed in state court reveal the identities of the priests and the accusations against them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A routine filing in bankruptcy court in early July disclosed that two active priests with the Oakland diocese hired an attorney to address potential violations of California privacy law. That document referenced two Alameda County Superior Court case numbers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case numbers relate to two lawsuits filed in state court alleging sexual abuse by priests. Mockel is identified as the alleged perpetrator in one of those cases, but Young is not named.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, a statement filed monthly in state court includes a chart with information from over 1,500 lawsuits filed in the three-year window created by the California Child Victims Act. The chart displays case numbers, attorney names, time periods of the alleged abuse and the names of the alleged perpetrator in hundreds of the cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Young and Mockel are listed as alleged perpetrators in the chart, buried among the names of hundreds of other accused clergy. Searching by the two case numbers the diocese identified in bankruptcy court, however, highlights Mockel and Young as the two recently accused priests who remain actively leading parishioners.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Pushing for secrecy\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Oakland diocese spokesperson Osman said attorneys for survivors “ignored the law” when they named Young in the chart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California law requires that certain criteria be met before an alleged childhood sexual abuser can be publicly named as a defendant in a lawsuit,” Osman wrote. “Those criteria have not been met in this case.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Simons, the plaintiffs’ attorney manager in the special proceeding, said lawyers are required by court order to provide information from their cases for use in the chart.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘I think it really defeats justice when these cases are not publicized and we have no visibility into the process that caused a priest to remain in ministry.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Dan McNevin, Oakland leader, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP)","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> Attorneys representing the priests have pushed to keep Young and Mockel’s names confidential in state court filings as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dan Webb, the attorney representing the two priests, asked an Alameda County Superior Court clerk in late June to seal the chart, blocking public access, while he prepared a motion requesting the priests’ names be removed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The court responded that no action would be taken based on Webb’s emailed request, but that the priests could file a motion to seal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To date, no motion has been filed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it really defeats justice when these cases are not publicized and we have no visibility into the process that caused a priest to remain in ministry,” said McNevin of SNAP.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Young] should be suspended. His parish should be informed. All of the parishes where he worked should be informed, and survivors should be invited to come forward from all of those places. That would be the compassionate response to an accusation like this,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11957801/east-bay-priests-accused-of-abuse-still-active","authors":["11490"],"categories":["news_6188","news_8"],"tags":["news_33003","news_32196","news_18538","news_33001","news_30069","news_25609","news_25349","news_33002","news_3543","news_18352","news_27626","news_66","news_33004","news_32999","news_5930","news_4361","news_26944","news_2701","news_579","news_6032","news_24208","news_23276","news_33005","news_24079","news_1527","news_31616","news_33000","news_32998","news_33006"],"featImg":"news_11956784","label":"news"},"news_11938282":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11938282","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11938282","score":null,"sort":[1674482510000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"at-an-oakland-art-school-a-teachers-arrest-for-alleged-sexual-abuse-reopens-a-painful-history","title":"At an Oakland Art School, a Teacher's Arrest for Alleged Sexual Abuse Reopens a Painful History","publishDate":1674482510,"format":"standard","headTitle":"KQED News","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hen Maureen learned her former Oakland School for the Arts teacher was being investigated by police over allegations he sexually abused a student nearly two decades ago, she was terrified.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maureen, 34, said the arrest of Jeremy Taylor brought back painful memories of what she believes were inappropriate relationships staff at the school developed with students — including the relationship she had with a teacher that led to their marriage seven years after she graduated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to a document provided by Maureen and reviewed by KQED, Maureen married Wesley Cayabyab, who worked at OSA while she was in high school, in 2013.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED is not using Maureen’s real name because she fears retaliation and harassment by the school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maureen, a member of OSA’s first graduating class, remembered how she and other students confided in Taylor while they were students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taylor was fired last February after an investigation by a firm hired by the school found a “preponderance of evidence” that he had a sexual relationship with a student. Prosecutors allege he sexually abused the student in 2005. Through his attorney, Taylor, who was arrested in May, has denied the allegations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December, the alleged victim filed a lawsuit against OSA and the Oakland Unified School District, claiming school officials “did nothing in response to obviously suspicious and dangerous behavior, allowing the abuse to continue and escalate in severity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11921799,news_11911375,news_11935859\"]OSA was founded in 2002 by then-Mayor Jerry Brown as part of his mission to open a charter school that provides a rigorous arts education. When the school opened on Alice Street near Oakland’s Civic Center neighborhood, turnover among staff was high, and former students say they were under tremendous pressure to protect the school’s image. The school, which serves more than 800 students in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13870187/room-302-home-of-oaklands-own-tiny-desk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">disciplines ranging from voice to dance\u003c/a>, is now in the Fox Theater building, on Telegraph Avenue in Uptown Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many alums have achieved success, including Zendaya and Angus Cloud, stars of HBO’s \u003ci>Euphoria\u003c/i>, and the chart-topping pop and R&B singer Kehlani. But the school’s two-decade history has been marred by allegations of harassment and misconduct.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED obtained a copy of a report by Oppenheimer Investigations Group, which probed sexual abuse allegations against Taylor and included statements from former students who recounted a troubling environment at OSA, dating back to the school’s founding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In reporting this story, KQED reviewed dozens of pages of documents, journal entries, yearbook pages, emails and screenshots related to the period — 2003 to 2006 — described in the investigation. In addition, KQED has reviewed records from subsequent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maureen and former students who spoke with KQED described a culture that allowed for inappropriate relationships between staff and students. They want to prevent current students from experiencing similar treatment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If no one talks about the fact that that happened, then the school is able to really just continue to act as if issues surrounding sexual harassment and grooming at the school were isolated incidents,” Maureen, who divorced Cayabyab in 2018, said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11938319\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60305_002_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11938319\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60305_002_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"a hand is seen against a yearbook page focusing on a bald white teacher with glasses and a beard\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60305_002_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60305_002_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60305_002_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60305_002_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60305_002_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A photo of Jeremy Taylor in a yearbook for Oakland School for the Arts. Taylor was fired in February 2022 following allegations he sexually abused a student. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Oppenheimer’s investigation referenced a marriage between a teacher and former student after the student graduated as an example of a culture at the school where boundaries were not enforced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maureen shared emails she said Cayabyab sent her over a 17-month period while she was a student. Cayabyab told Maureen she was attractive, called her \"sweetheart\" and described getting lunch with her and making her late for class.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I reciprocate on the feeling of love: I love YOU, just not this country,” he allegedly wrote on Nov. 4, 2004, one day after George W. Bush claimed a reelection victory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steven Borg, an OSA spokesperson, said records show Cayabyab, 40, was a “technical theater teacher” from 2003–2005.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When reached for comment by text, Cayabyab, now a medical simulation specialist at Stanford University, according to his \u003ca href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/wesley-cayabyab-b276501/\">LinkedIn profile\u003c/a>, responded, “Your sources have exaggerated the facts to make themselves look impeccable and want nothing more than to use me as a scapegoat.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"'Maureen,' Oakland School for the Arts alum\"]'If no one talks about the fact that [inappropriate relationships] happened, then the school is able to really just continue to act as if issues surrounding sexual harassment and grooming at the school were isolated incidents.'[/pullquote]Taylor, the subject of the most recent investigation, taught economics, U.S. government and Advanced Placement psychology. In an email sent to OSA families in August, Mike Oz, the school’s executive director, wrote that no current employee “had any knowledge of allegations or instances of sexual misconduct, grooming or boundary crossing by Mr. Taylor prior to January 3rd, 2022.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taylor, 47, pleaded not guilty in December to committing a lewd act upon a child. His lawyer, Elizabeth Grossman, said the abuse allegations are a “total fabrication.” Recent OSA graduates said Taylor was popular on campus, and students had crushes on him, sharing memes of him online.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The criminal case is a tragedy,” Grossman, a criminal defense attorney who specializes in disciplinary matters in schools and universities, according to her website, said by phone. “It’s an example of an excellent, dedicated teacher having his career ruined.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement in response to allegations of inappropriate behavior by former staff, including multiple allegations that have not been previously reported, Borg said current school leaders have “very limited insight” into incidents that occurred during the school’s infancy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[O]ur leadership team has aggressively worked to review archived records, discarded computer drives, spoken to witnesses and reviewed other sources to discern the truth,” he said. “Where we have conducted investigations that yielded credible information, we have taken action and cooperated with law enforcement. Every accusation or complaint, formal or not, receives immediate attention and is fully investigated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>'What was normal and what was not'\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Oppenheimer report describes a pattern of grooming behavior by Taylor, and a campus where leadership created “a culture of loose boundaries” that “likely enabled Taylor’s relationships with his students.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A student whose account was included in the report told KQED that the ways other faculty at the school behaved with students made her relationship with Taylor seem normal. She attended OSA from 2003 to 2005, and asked not to be named over concerns that former OSA staff could threaten her legally for speaking out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11938329\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60312_013_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11938329\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60312_013_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"two hands are seen holding a yearbook with a title 'Our new home'\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60312_013_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60312_013_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60312_013_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60312_013_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60312_013_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">'Maureen' holds a yearbook from her time at Oakland School for the Arts. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It was very apparent to me and my friends that there were teachers at our school that could possibly like students,” she said. “But looking back at it as an adult, you don’t hug a student and massage their back, and all these red flags, and [make] it look like a safe space.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She remembered talking to Taylor about her personal life for hours on the phone. When rumors spread on campus that she had a sexual relationship with Taylor, she said school staff joked about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was more humiliating to have my teachers laugh and poke fun instead of calling my parents first and seeing if there was something going on,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ten former students told KQED that Jason Miller, a founding faculty member, also behaved inappropriately or crossed personal boundaries with students. None of the former students alleged sexual abuse by Miller, who worked at OSA until 2007.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An alum who graduated in 2008 told KQED she frequently went out to eat with Miller alone while she was a student, and they called each other frequently. She asked not to be named because she fears retaliation from Miller, who, \u003ca href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmiller11/\">according to his LinkedIn bio\u003c/a>, has been employed as a deputy legislative counsel in California’s Office of Legislative Counsel since December.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11938443\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/004_KQED_OSAStudent_11182022.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11938443\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/004_KQED_OSAStudent_11182022-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"a young person with long dark hair stands with her back facing the camera in an orange sweater, in front of a school\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/004_KQED_OSAStudent_11182022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/004_KQED_OSAStudent_11182022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/004_KQED_OSAStudent_11182022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/004_KQED_OSAStudent_11182022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/004_KQED_OSAStudent_11182022.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An alum who graduated from OSA in 2008 said she often went out to eat alone with former teacher Jason Miller, a founding faculty member, and they called each other frequently while she was a student. She’s one of several alums who told KQED that Miller behaved inappropriately or crossed personal boundaries with students. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“He would hug me a lot, kiss me on my forehead, call me ‘sweetie,’ tell me he loved me,” she said. “There was a lot of ‘I love you,’ and that’s also part of OSA culture. At the time, it was almost normal for teachers and students to say ‘I love you’ to one another.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said after Miller took another job, she would leave school during lunch to intern at the theater company his wife founded in Antioch. He often drove her home and held her hand during the rides, she said. She shared emails with KQED from 2007 and 2008 where Miller wrote, “I love you” and “I miss you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=education_535503]Maureen said Miller once pulled her into his lap and would also kiss her forehead. She said he would call her beautiful and compliment her body. Alums said Miller was once a prominent figure at OSA who influenced students’ artistic futures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miller, 47, denied any “improprieties with any student or former student at any time” in a statement. In an interview, Miller said he did not recall holding a student’s hand during rides home, and when he did call students it was for professional or academic reasons. He said body image is always an issue for performing artists, and it would not have surprised him if he told a student she was a beautiful girl.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The hugging, the nicknames — I would describe it as a top-of-a-head kiss, not a forehead kiss, in moments of triumph, moments of great excitement — I’m sure happened,” he said. “This was a school of huggers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11938326\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60306_004_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-1.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11938326\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60306_004_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-1-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"a yearbook photo shows a white male teacher smiling and pointing\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60306_004_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60306_004_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60306_004_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60306_004_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60306_004_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-1.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A photo of Jason Miller in an Oakland School for the Arts yearbook. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In recent years, according to Borg, Miller was on OSA’s “legal counsel team” that provided guidance on the school’s policies for Title IX, the law that protects students from sexual harassment and discrimination based on sex. OSA students walked out of class to protest the administration’s response to alleged sexual harassment by other students in September 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the protest, Miller spoke at an OSA board of directors meeting. He said he was working closely with staff to make sure the rights of all students were protected, and outlined the process for reporting incidents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Borg said Miller stopped working on “OSA matters” in September 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A revolving door of teachers\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Former teachers who spoke with KQED about OSA’s early years recalled a dysfunctional environment. Teachers were young and inexperienced, and many did not stay long.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was one of the most unstable schools I ever [encountered] in my life,” recalled Bronwyn LaMay, who said she worked at OSA for less than a month in 2004.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11938311\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60479_003_KQED_OSABronwenLamay_11222022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11938311\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60479_003_KQED_OSABronwenLamay_11222022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"a woman with long brown hair wearing a green overcoat poses in a park\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60479_003_KQED_OSABronwenLamay_11222022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60479_003_KQED_OSABronwenLamay_11222022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60479_003_KQED_OSABronwenLamay_11222022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60479_003_KQED_OSABronwenLamay_11222022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60479_003_KQED_OSABronwenLamay_11222022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bronwyn LaMay poses for a portrait at Weekes Community Center Park in Hayward on Nov. 22, 2022. While working at OSA, LaMay said she felt 'completely bullied, completely harassed by the entire administrative team.' \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>LaMay, now director of the San José Area Writing Project and a lecturer at San José State University, said she reported another teacher whom she believes sexually harassed her to school administrators soon after she started the job. But she said she resigned when it was clear the school was not going to take any steps to protect her or take the complaint seriously.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just felt completely bullied, completely harassed by the entire administrative team,” said LaMay, 47. “It’s incredibly important how you talk to people, how you treat people, what kind of space you hold, the kind of norms you set, what kind of policies you do or don’t allow.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tim’m West worked at OSA from 2002 to 2004, teaching creative writing and literary arts. He developed close relationships with students and set his own boundaries. As an openly gay teacher aware of how homophobia has fueled false accusations of predatory behavior, he said he kept the door open when meeting with students. He believes policies like that should not have been left for individual teachers to set.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a kind of warm, fuzzy, affectionate culture at OSA that I think would have been inappropriate in a lot of school contexts, and wasn’t appropriate then,” said West, 50. “The culture of silence around that — it could enable, very easily, people to abuse those boundaries.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said that after a slam poetry event, Loni Berry, the school’s first director, called him to his office and told West that hip-hop was not a real art.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were in Oakland, and kids were having to manage so much of what was going on without a lot of support,” said West, now executive director of the LGBTQ Institute in Atlanta. “Teachers were filling the gaps of that, and it was becoming a toxic culture.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Efforts to reach Berry, who started a production company in Bangkok, were unsuccessful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least one administrator at OSA expressed concerns that Taylor was privately counseling students, according to the Oppenheimer report. And in 2005, the mother of the student allegedly sexually abused by Taylor complained to a school administrator about lengthy phone calls between Taylor and the student, according to the lawsuit filed by the former student.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Tim’m West, former OSA teacher\"]'There was a kind of warm, fuzzy, affectionate culture at OSA that I think would have been inappropriate in a lot of school contexts, and wasn't appropriate then. The culture of silence around that — it could enable, very easily, people to abuse those boundaries.'[/pullquote]The alleged victim described to investigators how she had large blocks of time when she could easily leave class and spend time with Taylor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taylor left OSA in 2006. He briefly taught in North Carolina before returning to OSA in 2007, according to the investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Billie-Jo Grant, an expert in school employee sexual misconduct prevention, said it’s important for schools to examine the policies they had in place when older abuse allegations resurface.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"'Were we providing training? What did we do when we hired someone? What did we do when a concern or a complaint came up? What was the messaging around harassment, misconduct?'\" she said. \"Those would be the areas I would look for in these older cases, peeling back the layers.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the summer of 2021, OSA students created the Student Safety Committee to push the school to address sexual harassment and assault on and off campus. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11921799/students-shared-allegations-of-sexual-misconduct-at-oakland-school-for-the-arts-then-chaos-broke-out\">The group organized a walkout\u003c/a> in September of that year, demanding regular assemblies on sexual harassment and assault as well as improvements to the sexual education curriculum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school released a statement refuting most claims of sexual misconduct. Student organizers said the response from administrators left them feeling unsupported by the school and even more wary of reporting abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school and OSA administrators are also facing two lawsuits involving Black students who say they were falsely accused of sexual misconduct and that the school did not take steps to protect them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Borg claims the school has improved the quality of training and procedures related to sexual harassment and assault, and updated its policy around responding to complaints since the walkout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nia Richardson, who graduated in 2020, hopes Taylor’s arrest is a wake-up call.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“OSA has a history of choosing to ignore problems, whether they be racial [or] sexual assault,” she said. “[We’ve] dealt with so many issues where we weren’t able to find comfort in staff or any authority. It’s been a pattern.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Oakland School for the Arts is known for its creative curriculum and famous alums. But former students allege that, since the school's founding in 2002, administrators have looked the other way while teachers groomed, harassed and otherwise engaged in inappropriate relationships with students.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1674564165,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":60,"wordCount":2771},"headData":{"title":"At an Oakland Art School, a Teacher's Arrest for Alleged Sexual Abuse Reopens a Painful History | KQED","description":"Oakland School for the Arts is known for its creative curriculum and famous alums. But former students allege that, since the school's founding in 2002, administrators have looked the other way while teachers groomed, harassed and otherwise engaged in inappropriate relationships with students.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11938282/at-an-oakland-art-school-a-teachers-arrest-for-alleged-sexual-abuse-reopens-a-painful-history","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">W\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>hen Maureen learned her former Oakland School for the Arts teacher was being investigated by police over allegations he sexually abused a student nearly two decades ago, she was terrified.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maureen, 34, said the arrest of Jeremy Taylor brought back painful memories of what she believes were inappropriate relationships staff at the school developed with students — including the relationship she had with a teacher that led to their marriage seven years after she graduated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to a document provided by Maureen and reviewed by KQED, Maureen married Wesley Cayabyab, who worked at OSA while she was in high school, in 2013.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED is not using Maureen’s real name because she fears retaliation and harassment by the school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maureen, a member of OSA’s first graduating class, remembered how she and other students confided in Taylor while they were students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taylor was fired last February after an investigation by a firm hired by the school found a “preponderance of evidence” that he had a sexual relationship with a student. Prosecutors allege he sexually abused the student in 2005. Through his attorney, Taylor, who was arrested in May, has denied the allegations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December, the alleged victim filed a lawsuit against OSA and the Oakland Unified School District, claiming school officials “did nothing in response to obviously suspicious and dangerous behavior, allowing the abuse to continue and escalate in severity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"label":"Related Stories ","postid":"news_11921799,news_11911375,news_11935859"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>OSA was founded in 2002 by then-Mayor Jerry Brown as part of his mission to open a charter school that provides a rigorous arts education. When the school opened on Alice Street near Oakland’s Civic Center neighborhood, turnover among staff was high, and former students say they were under tremendous pressure to protect the school’s image. The school, which serves more than 800 students in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13870187/room-302-home-of-oaklands-own-tiny-desk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">disciplines ranging from voice to dance\u003c/a>, is now in the Fox Theater building, on Telegraph Avenue in Uptown Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many alums have achieved success, including Zendaya and Angus Cloud, stars of HBO’s \u003ci>Euphoria\u003c/i>, and the chart-topping pop and R&B singer Kehlani. But the school’s two-decade history has been marred by allegations of harassment and misconduct.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED obtained a copy of a report by Oppenheimer Investigations Group, which probed sexual abuse allegations against Taylor and included statements from former students who recounted a troubling environment at OSA, dating back to the school’s founding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In reporting this story, KQED reviewed dozens of pages of documents, journal entries, yearbook pages, emails and screenshots related to the period — 2003 to 2006 — described in the investigation. In addition, KQED has reviewed records from subsequent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maureen and former students who spoke with KQED described a culture that allowed for inappropriate relationships between staff and students. They want to prevent current students from experiencing similar treatment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If no one talks about the fact that that happened, then the school is able to really just continue to act as if issues surrounding sexual harassment and grooming at the school were isolated incidents,” Maureen, who divorced Cayabyab in 2018, said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11938319\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60305_002_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11938319\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60305_002_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"a hand is seen against a yearbook page focusing on a bald white teacher with glasses and a beard\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60305_002_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60305_002_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60305_002_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60305_002_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60305_002_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A photo of Jeremy Taylor in a yearbook for Oakland School for the Arts. Taylor was fired in February 2022 following allegations he sexually abused a student. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Oppenheimer’s investigation referenced a marriage between a teacher and former student after the student graduated as an example of a culture at the school where boundaries were not enforced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maureen shared emails she said Cayabyab sent her over a 17-month period while she was a student. Cayabyab told Maureen she was attractive, called her \"sweetheart\" and described getting lunch with her and making her late for class.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I reciprocate on the feeling of love: I love YOU, just not this country,” he allegedly wrote on Nov. 4, 2004, one day after George W. Bush claimed a reelection victory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steven Borg, an OSA spokesperson, said records show Cayabyab, 40, was a “technical theater teacher” from 2003–2005.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When reached for comment by text, Cayabyab, now a medical simulation specialist at Stanford University, according to his \u003ca href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/wesley-cayabyab-b276501/\">LinkedIn profile\u003c/a>, responded, “Your sources have exaggerated the facts to make themselves look impeccable and want nothing more than to use me as a scapegoat.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"'If no one talks about the fact that [inappropriate relationships] happened, then the school is able to really just continue to act as if issues surrounding sexual harassment and grooming at the school were isolated incidents.'","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"align":"right","size":"medium","citation":"'Maureen,' Oakland School for the Arts alum","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Taylor, the subject of the most recent investigation, taught economics, U.S. government and Advanced Placement psychology. In an email sent to OSA families in August, Mike Oz, the school’s executive director, wrote that no current employee “had any knowledge of allegations or instances of sexual misconduct, grooming or boundary crossing by Mr. Taylor prior to January 3rd, 2022.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taylor, 47, pleaded not guilty in December to committing a lewd act upon a child. His lawyer, Elizabeth Grossman, said the abuse allegations are a “total fabrication.” Recent OSA graduates said Taylor was popular on campus, and students had crushes on him, sharing memes of him online.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The criminal case is a tragedy,” Grossman, a criminal defense attorney who specializes in disciplinary matters in schools and universities, according to her website, said by phone. “It’s an example of an excellent, dedicated teacher having his career ruined.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement in response to allegations of inappropriate behavior by former staff, including multiple allegations that have not been previously reported, Borg said current school leaders have “very limited insight” into incidents that occurred during the school’s infancy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[O]ur leadership team has aggressively worked to review archived records, discarded computer drives, spoken to witnesses and reviewed other sources to discern the truth,” he said. “Where we have conducted investigations that yielded credible information, we have taken action and cooperated with law enforcement. Every accusation or complaint, formal or not, receives immediate attention and is fully investigated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>'What was normal and what was not'\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Oppenheimer report describes a pattern of grooming behavior by Taylor, and a campus where leadership created “a culture of loose boundaries” that “likely enabled Taylor’s relationships with his students.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A student whose account was included in the report told KQED that the ways other faculty at the school behaved with students made her relationship with Taylor seem normal. She attended OSA from 2003 to 2005, and asked not to be named over concerns that former OSA staff could threaten her legally for speaking out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11938329\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60312_013_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11938329\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60312_013_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"two hands are seen holding a yearbook with a title 'Our new home'\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60312_013_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60312_013_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60312_013_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60312_013_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60312_013_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">'Maureen' holds a yearbook from her time at Oakland School for the Arts. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It was very apparent to me and my friends that there were teachers at our school that could possibly like students,” she said. “But looking back at it as an adult, you don’t hug a student and massage their back, and all these red flags, and [make] it look like a safe space.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She remembered talking to Taylor about her personal life for hours on the phone. When rumors spread on campus that she had a sexual relationship with Taylor, she said school staff joked about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was more humiliating to have my teachers laugh and poke fun instead of calling my parents first and seeing if there was something going on,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ten former students told KQED that Jason Miller, a founding faculty member, also behaved inappropriately or crossed personal boundaries with students. None of the former students alleged sexual abuse by Miller, who worked at OSA until 2007.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An alum who graduated in 2008 told KQED she frequently went out to eat with Miller alone while she was a student, and they called each other frequently. She asked not to be named because she fears retaliation from Miller, who, \u003ca href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmiller11/\">according to his LinkedIn bio\u003c/a>, has been employed as a deputy legislative counsel in California’s Office of Legislative Counsel since December.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11938443\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/004_KQED_OSAStudent_11182022.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11938443\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/004_KQED_OSAStudent_11182022-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"a young person with long dark hair stands with her back facing the camera in an orange sweater, in front of a school\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/004_KQED_OSAStudent_11182022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/004_KQED_OSAStudent_11182022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/004_KQED_OSAStudent_11182022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/004_KQED_OSAStudent_11182022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/004_KQED_OSAStudent_11182022.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An alum who graduated from OSA in 2008 said she often went out to eat alone with former teacher Jason Miller, a founding faculty member, and they called each other frequently while she was a student. She’s one of several alums who told KQED that Miller behaved inappropriately or crossed personal boundaries with students. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“He would hug me a lot, kiss me on my forehead, call me ‘sweetie,’ tell me he loved me,” she said. “There was a lot of ‘I love you,’ and that’s also part of OSA culture. At the time, it was almost normal for teachers and students to say ‘I love you’ to one another.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said after Miller took another job, she would leave school during lunch to intern at the theater company his wife founded in Antioch. He often drove her home and held her hand during the rides, she said. She shared emails with KQED from 2007 and 2008 where Miller wrote, “I love you” and “I miss you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"education_535503","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Maureen said Miller once pulled her into his lap and would also kiss her forehead. She said he would call her beautiful and compliment her body. Alums said Miller was once a prominent figure at OSA who influenced students’ artistic futures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miller, 47, denied any “improprieties with any student or former student at any time” in a statement. In an interview, Miller said he did not recall holding a student’s hand during rides home, and when he did call students it was for professional or academic reasons. He said body image is always an issue for performing artists, and it would not have surprised him if he told a student she was a beautiful girl.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The hugging, the nicknames — I would describe it as a top-of-a-head kiss, not a forehead kiss, in moments of triumph, moments of great excitement — I’m sure happened,” he said. “This was a school of huggers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11938326\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60306_004_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-1.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11938326\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60306_004_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-1-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"a yearbook photo shows a white male teacher smiling and pointing\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60306_004_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60306_004_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60306_004_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60306_004_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60306_004_KQED_OSAMaureen_11152022-qut-1.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A photo of Jason Miller in an Oakland School for the Arts yearbook. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In recent years, according to Borg, Miller was on OSA’s “legal counsel team” that provided guidance on the school’s policies for Title IX, the law that protects students from sexual harassment and discrimination based on sex. OSA students walked out of class to protest the administration’s response to alleged sexual harassment by other students in September 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the protest, Miller spoke at an OSA board of directors meeting. He said he was working closely with staff to make sure the rights of all students were protected, and outlined the process for reporting incidents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Borg said Miller stopped working on “OSA matters” in September 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A revolving door of teachers\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Former teachers who spoke with KQED about OSA’s early years recalled a dysfunctional environment. Teachers were young and inexperienced, and many did not stay long.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was one of the most unstable schools I ever [encountered] in my life,” recalled Bronwyn LaMay, who said she worked at OSA for less than a month in 2004.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11938311\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60479_003_KQED_OSABronwenLamay_11222022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11938311\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60479_003_KQED_OSABronwenLamay_11222022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"a woman with long brown hair wearing a green overcoat poses in a park\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60479_003_KQED_OSABronwenLamay_11222022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60479_003_KQED_OSABronwenLamay_11222022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60479_003_KQED_OSABronwenLamay_11222022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60479_003_KQED_OSABronwenLamay_11222022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS60479_003_KQED_OSABronwenLamay_11222022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bronwyn LaMay poses for a portrait at Weekes Community Center Park in Hayward on Nov. 22, 2022. While working at OSA, LaMay said she felt 'completely bullied, completely harassed by the entire administrative team.' \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>LaMay, now director of the San José Area Writing Project and a lecturer at San José State University, said she reported another teacher whom she believes sexually harassed her to school administrators soon after she started the job. But she said she resigned when it was clear the school was not going to take any steps to protect her or take the complaint seriously.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just felt completely bullied, completely harassed by the entire administrative team,” said LaMay, 47. “It’s incredibly important how you talk to people, how you treat people, what kind of space you hold, the kind of norms you set, what kind of policies you do or don’t allow.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tim’m West worked at OSA from 2002 to 2004, teaching creative writing and literary arts. He developed close relationships with students and set his own boundaries. As an openly gay teacher aware of how homophobia has fueled false accusations of predatory behavior, he said he kept the door open when meeting with students. He believes policies like that should not have been left for individual teachers to set.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a kind of warm, fuzzy, affectionate culture at OSA that I think would have been inappropriate in a lot of school contexts, and wasn’t appropriate then,” said West, 50. “The culture of silence around that — it could enable, very easily, people to abuse those boundaries.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said that after a slam poetry event, Loni Berry, the school’s first director, called him to his office and told West that hip-hop was not a real art.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were in Oakland, and kids were having to manage so much of what was going on without a lot of support,” said West, now executive director of the LGBTQ Institute in Atlanta. “Teachers were filling the gaps of that, and it was becoming a toxic culture.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Efforts to reach Berry, who started a production company in Bangkok, were unsuccessful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least one administrator at OSA expressed concerns that Taylor was privately counseling students, according to the Oppenheimer report. And in 2005, the mother of the student allegedly sexually abused by Taylor complained to a school administrator about lengthy phone calls between Taylor and the student, according to the lawsuit filed by the former student.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"'There was a kind of warm, fuzzy, affectionate culture at OSA that I think would have been inappropriate in a lot of school contexts, and wasn't appropriate then. The culture of silence around that — it could enable, very easily, people to abuse those boundaries.'","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"align":"right","size":"medium","citation":"Tim’m West, former OSA teacher","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The alleged victim described to investigators how she had large blocks of time when she could easily leave class and spend time with Taylor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taylor left OSA in 2006. He briefly taught in North Carolina before returning to OSA in 2007, according to the investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Billie-Jo Grant, an expert in school employee sexual misconduct prevention, said it’s important for schools to examine the policies they had in place when older abuse allegations resurface.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"'Were we providing training? What did we do when we hired someone? What did we do when a concern or a complaint came up? What was the messaging around harassment, misconduct?'\" she said. \"Those would be the areas I would look for in these older cases, peeling back the layers.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the summer of 2021, OSA students created the Student Safety Committee to push the school to address sexual harassment and assault on and off campus. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11921799/students-shared-allegations-of-sexual-misconduct-at-oakland-school-for-the-arts-then-chaos-broke-out\">The group organized a walkout\u003c/a> in September of that year, demanding regular assemblies on sexual harassment and assault as well as improvements to the sexual education curriculum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school released a statement refuting most claims of sexual misconduct. Student organizers said the response from administrators left them feeling unsupported by the school and even more wary of reporting abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school and OSA administrators are also facing two lawsuits involving Black students who say they were falsely accused of sexual misconduct and that the school did not take steps to protect them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Borg claims the school has improved the quality of training and procedures related to sexual harassment and assault, and updated its policy around responding to complaints since the walkout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nia Richardson, who graduated in 2020, hopes Taylor’s arrest is a wake-up call.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“OSA has a history of choosing to ignore problems, whether they be racial [or] sexual assault,” she said. “[We’ve] dealt with so many issues where we weren’t able to find comfort in staff or any authority. It’s been a pattern.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11938282/at-an-oakland-art-school-a-teachers-arrest-for-alleged-sexual-abuse-reopens-a-painful-history","authors":["11635"],"categories":["news_29992","news_18540","news_8"],"tags":["news_32307","news_20013","news_32308","news_30077","news_31971","news_30","news_2525","news_1527","news_2838","news_32306"],"featImg":"news_11938315","label":"news"}},"programsReducer":{"possible":{"id":"possible","title":"Possible","info":"Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. 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Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. 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No other part of the globe has experienced such dynamic political and social change in recent years.","airtime":"SAT 3am-4am","imageSrc":"https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/insideEurope.jpg","meta":{"site":"news","source":"Deutsche Welle"},"link":"/radio/program/inside-europe","subscribe":{"apple":"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/inside-europe/id80106806?mt=2","tuneIn":"https://tunein.com/radio/Inside-Europe-p731/","rss":"https://partner.dw.com/xml/podcast_inside-europe"}},"latino-usa":{"id":"latino-usa","title":"Latino USA","airtime":"MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm","info":"Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.","imageSrc":"https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"http://latinousa.org/","meta":{"site":"news","source":"npr"},"link":"/radio/program/latino-usa","subscribe":{"npr":"https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/xtTd","apple":"https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory","tuneIn":"https://tunein.com/radio/Latino-USA-p621/","rss":"https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"}},"live-from-here-highlights":{"id":"live-from-here-highlights","title":"Live from Here Highlights","info":"Chris Thile steps to the mic as the host of Live from Here (formerly A Prairie Home Companion), a live public radio variety show. 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We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/mindshift2021-tile-3000x3000-1-scaled-1.jpg","imageAlt":"KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn","officialWebsiteLink":"/mindshift/","meta":{"site":"news","source":"kqed","order":"2"},"link":"/podcasts/mindshift","subscribe":{"apple":"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mindshift-podcast/id1078765985","google":"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5","npr":"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/464615685/mind-shift-podcast","stitcher":"https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share","spotify":"https://open.spotify.com/show/0MxSpNYZKNprFLCl7eEtyx"}},"morning-edition":{"id":"morning-edition","title":"Morning Edition","info":"\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. 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