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BOP Settles Prisoner Rape Suit for $625,000

The federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has agreed to pay $625,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a prisoner who was raped by a guard at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, New York.

In the early hours of November 25, 2001, Karleen Toni Remice was forced to perform various sex acts on Randy Denjen, a BOP lieutenant at MDC Brooklyn.

For example, Denjen forced Remice to kiss him, touch his penis and perform oral sex on him. Denjen then raped her.

While Remice was being sexually assaulted, another guard noticed what was happening. That guard, a female officer who herself was having a sexual relationship with a male prisoner at the MDC, allegedly informed a guard in the control room that she “may have” seen Denjen having sex, but the control room guard reportedly told her “you saw nothing, you heard nothing.”

Remice filed suit in 2003, claiming violations of her Eighth Amendment rights and asserting various claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act. Remice alleged that she was not the only female prisoner Denjen had sexually assaulted, and that the warden, captain and other officials at the facility knew what Denjen was doing but looked the other way. Remice pointed to numerous past complaints of sexual misconduct by Denjen to support her claims against MDC supervisors.

Almost eight years after the suit was filed, the parties agreed to settle the case for $625,000.

Denjen pleaded guilty to sexually abusing Remice on October 17, 2002, admitting during his plea hearing that hep forced her to engage in sexual acts by placing her in fear that if she did not agree to the sex acts she would face retaliation in the form of false incident reports that would cause her to be placed in “disciplinary segregation.” [See: PLN, April 2004, p.21; May 2002, p.30].

Denjen was sentenced to 151 months in federal prison, which was upheld on appeal. See: United States v. Denjen, 101 Fed.Appx. 362 (2nd Cir. 2004). He is scheduled to be released in March 2013.

The female guard who saw Denjen assaulting Remice was never prosecuted for her own sexual misconduct. Instead, she was allowed to resign and now works for the Transportation Security Administration.

Remice was represented by Brooklyn attorneys Brett H. Klein and Samuel Gregory of Leventhal & Klein, LLP. See: Remice v. Zenk, U.S.D.C. (E.D. NY), Case No 1:03-cv-¬00286-BMC-RML.

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Related legal cases

Remice v. Zenk

United States v. Denjen