A federal appeals court on Thursday reversed a lower court and reinstated a lawsuit filed by a woman who was sexually assaulted by a Huerfano County jail administrator.
The decision by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals portrays a jail out of control in the late 1990s, with female prisoners being sexually assaulted by guards who were related to the sheriff and inmates who bragged of manning the control room.
Tereza Gonzales’ lawsuit, which was dismissed in 2003 by U.S. District Judge Daniel Sparr, accuses the then-sheriff of knowing about all kinds of misconduct but ignoring it. She said the atmosphere led to her assault.
“None of this evidence is controverted, and its significance was seemingly ignored by the district court,’ the appeals court wrote.
In 1998, Robert Martinez, administrator of the Huerfano County Jail, escorted Gonzales to the commissary after she asked for a comb. She said he sexually assaulted her, a charge on which he subsequently was convicted.
Martinez, known as “Major Bob,’ reported directly to then- Sheriff John Salazar, whose wife was Martinez’s niece.
On the same day Gonzales was assaulted, another female inmate was summoned to the jail control room by Dominick Gonzales, then a senior detention officer, who sexually assaulted her.
Tereza Gonzales and Dominick Gonzales are not related. However, Dominick Gonzales was the sheriff’s son-in-law. He later was convicted of the assault.
Staff writer Alicia Caldwell can be reached at 303-820-1930 or at acaldwell@denverpost.com.
