Multiple Abuse Allegations Against Texas Prison Guard Deemed “Unsubstantiated” by TDCJ
After Texas prisoner Wendy Morales accused Lane Murray Unit guard Nathaniel Aviles of groping her during an August 2023 cross-sex strip-search—itself a policy violation—the state Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) ruled her complaint “unsubstantiated.” It was not the first complaint against Aviles, though; two years before, an unnamed prisoner accused him of forcing her to perform oral sex on him. But TDCJ’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) dropped its investigation in March 2022 when the prisoner declined to pursue her complaint.
Those two investigations of Aviles were among 600 based on prisoner allegations of sexual assault, abuse or harassment at Lane Murray Unit that were referred to OIG between 2018 and 2023. Marci Marie Simmons, a former prisoner held there during that period, said the guard “was, for lack of a better word, creepy.”
“If he was making his rounds and we were changing clothes or going to the ladies room, using the toilet that’s in our cell — most officers would glance in, make sure everything’s okay, and keep walking — [but] he’s going to stop,” she recalled.
Aviles’ lone disciplinary infraction was a warning for calling a prisoner “bitch” during a use of force. But that shows he lost control, said Julie Abbate, a former federal Department of Justice civil rights investigator who is now Policy Director for Just Detention International. Moreover, she added, two sexual assault allegations against the same guard should be sufficient to limit his interactions with women prisoners.
That didn’t happen, though. Instead, prisoner Elizabeth Escalona said Aviles assaulted her during escort back from a February 2024 interview with OIG investigors looking into another guard who allegedly had an inappropriate relationship with her. That guard, who wasn’t named, was walked off the job. Meanwhile, during Escalona’s escort, Aviles tried to trip her, she said. When she squatted to avoid a fall, he allegedly picked her up and slammed her face-first to the ground, opening a wound around her eye that took three stitches to close. After TDCJ investigated, she was charged with falling on purpose and tripping Aviles, causing her own injuries by making him fall atop her.
“I don’t understand how he didn’t get arrested,” Escalona said.
Neither did a half-dozen other prisoners who reportedly filed grievances against the guard. But then TDCJ said only one could be found. Prisoner Mona Nelson said two of those that were lost were probably hers, since she never got response from the prison. Not only did she witness the guard assault her fellow prisoners, she said, but she also heard that Aviles bragged to them how he can do whatever he wants to them.
Escalona said that there are still more prisoners targeted by the guard like she was, but they are “scared to step up.” TDCJ insists that Aviles has done nothing wrong and that it has zero tolerance for sexual abuse of prisoners.
Source: Texas Public Radio