Oklahoma agency investigates inmate assault claims at the Governor's Mansion
BY ANN KELLEY
Published: October 9, 2009
The state Corrections Department is investigating claims that three female inmates working at the Governor’s Mansion were sexually assaulted on the grounds by two state employees.
Front of the Oklahoma Governor's Mansion in Oklahoma City. File photo.
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According to records from the state
Department of Central Services,
Russell Humphries, an executive chef assigned to the mansion, and
Anthony Bobelu, a groundskeeper supervisor at the mansion, were fired Sept. 29 for breach of departmental policy.
They did not return phone calls Thursday.
An investigative report has been turned over to
Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater. No charges have been filed.
Prater wouldn’t comment because of the investigation.
The investigation includes allegations of sexual battery, forcible sodomy and rape, Corrections Department spokesman
Jerry Massie said.
The alleged assaults are said to have occurred in a storage building outside the perimeter of the security fence that surrounds the 14-acre grounds, far away from the actual mansion, said
Paul Sund, spokesman for
Gov. Brad Henry.
Sund said the first family was made aware of the investigation when it was initiated.
Massie said the women were inmates at the
Hillside Community Corrections Center in
Oklahoma City. They were assigned to a work detail as part of the prison’s long-running horticulture program. He said they worked at the mansion about six to seven hours a day, five days a week.
The alleged assaults are to have occurred between March 2008 and January, and were never reported while the women were at Hillside, Massie said.
The allegations came later after the women had left the correctional center, he said.
This is the second incident of alleged misconduct at the Governor’s Mansion this year.
Three state troopers assigned to the Governor’s Mansion gatehouse were reprimanded in May for leaving their posts while falsifying duty logs to show they were there.
One of the troopers was reassigned to the state Capitol and suspended without pay for six days. Another was suspended for three days without pay. The third trooper was disciplined, but that action was not made public.
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