Attorney: 2 Inmates Allegedly Molested By Staff Member At Butler Co. Prison
BUTLER (KDKA) -- An effort is underway to get two inmates out of the Butler County Prison.
A lawyer says the inmates, both in their 20s, are in harm's way because they were victims of sexual assault by a prison employee.
The inmates were identified only as "John Doe I" and "John Doe II." An attorney hired by their families describes them as low-level prisoners who committed minor crime and they've both been sentenced.
One is serving time for burglary, and the other doing time on drug charges.
Attorney Michael Pisanchyn told KDKA-TV's Ralph Iannotti Friday night, "Basically, they have never, ever been molested before, and now they're in a place where they're vulnerable. They have to do it, and they're stuck there after this occurred to them."
Pisanchyn has filed papers with the District Attorney's Office and a Butler County judge, asking that both men be released and placed under house arrest with their respective families.
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In his petition, the lawyer claims the prisoners were subjected to sexual innuendo, sexual advances and sexual contact allegedly [by a prison employee] in a position of supervision and control.
The documents charge that the molested inmates were subjected to slurs and insults by staff and other inmates in retaliation for going public, even though the employee involved in the abuse has been fired.
Their lawyer said, "Knowing that they're young men, they've never been in much trouble before, and they've been assaulted. It's almost like being in a henhouse with a fix; they don't know who they can trust and who they can't trust."
Pisanchyn says he believes it's wrong for the two inmates to be locked up in the very prison where he says the assaults took place.
