Could this be One Reason Why The Cycle of Abuse will Never Stop?

Lawyer: Prison Could Have Stopped Alleged Assaults

Photo:James Trentin

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- A lawyer for a former Wisconsin inmate said Wednesday that prison officials could have prevented a guard's alleged sexual assaults of his client if they had acted sooner on evidence the guard was violating prison policies.

Attorney Thomas Hayes of Milwaukee represents a 23-year-old man who claims he was coerced into receiving oral sex from Prairie du Chien Correctional Institution guard James Trentin in January 2008. Trentin maintains his innocence, but Wisconsin Department of Justice lawyers agreed to pay the former inmate $150,000 earlier this year in exchange for him not filing a lawsuit.

Hayes said his client never would have been assaulted had the prison taken action in 2007 after receiving evidence Trentin was bringing inmates contraband. Prison officials put Trentin on leave for a month but then closed the case without disciplinary action, allowing him to return to work.

"My seventh grade son could have conducted a better investigation," Hayes said, noting investigators never asked inmates what Trentin expected in return for contraband and never interviewed other guards. "What they were thinking? And then he was returned (to work). That's just sick."

Department of Corrections officials said Wednesday that the contraband case did not warrant the termination of Trentin, who denied wrongdoing and was backed by his union.

"I think the investigators came to the best conclusion they had with the information and evidence they had at the time," said the department's executive assistant, Melissa Roberts. "There wasn't anything to indicate something further was going to happen."

Hayes' client told investigators he was assaulted by Trentin starting about two months after the 2007 investigation was closed, sometime after Trentin approached him while he was taking a shower.

The man alleged Trentin once performed oral sex on him inside his cell while pretending to search his bunk. He said he also received oral sex from Trentin in a prison phone room twice in one day, and again in his cell.

Trentin gave the man chewing tobacco after one sex act and told him, "If you continue to take care of me I will take care of you, you won't have any problems," according to an internal Department of Corrections report. Trentin also gave him other items ranging from coffee to candy bars and alcohol, the report said.

Two other inmates reported receiving oral sex from Trentin, and two others said they were inappropriately touched. Several others said they rejected his advances. Trentin, who maintains he was set up, was fired and charged criminally. Sexual assault charges were dropped after he agreed to enter a guilty plea to delivering articles to inmates.

One of the alleged victims was interviewed during the 2007 investigation and said Trentin brought him a camera, socks, underwear, magazines, chewing tobacco and shaving cream. He started to cry when asked about Trentin and said, "Trentin has a big heart, he is a good man. I don't want anyone to be in trouble over this." That inmate later told investigators he had been assaulted several times, but was used to it because he had been victim of childhood sex abuse.

Video evidence also showed Trentin apparently smuggling in shaving cream to the inmate, and going into cells alone, a violation of prison policy.

Hayes said his client, who was serving time on a forgery charge, also was upset that Trentin was not convicted in the sexual assaults. Days before trial, a prosecutor dropped 22 counts of second-degree sexual assault against Trentin and he was convicted of bringing in contraband. He was not given any jail time.

"Look at the irony of my client doing 18 months over bad checks and this guy walking away without anything," Hayes said. "It's a poor commentary on our criminal justice system ... This whole case just blows me away."