Four inmates charged in sexual abuse case at Northern Regional Jail

Four inmates were charged after an inmate was allegedly sexually abused at Northern Regional Jail earlier this month.

On May 1, at about 12:30 p.m., State Police Trooper B.R. Gaus received a call from Sgt. Delesio at the Northern Regional Jail in Moundsville, according to a criminal complaint filed in Marshall County Magistrate Court. Delesio told the trooper that an inmate reported being sexually assaulted at the facility and wanted to report the incident. The inmate had been taken to Ohio Valley Medical Center for treatment.

Gaus spoke to the inmate at Ohio Valley Medical Center. The inmate said that just before breakfast that day, four inmates — Joshua Thomas Curtis, Robert Scott Tingler, Randall Parks Sanford and Ethan Tyler Blizzard — had entered his cell.

The inmate said that Sanford and Blizzard stood in the doorway so that he could not leave and no one else could enter the cell. The victim also said that Curtis said “today’s the day … you’re either going to fight or [expletive].”

Tingler and Curtis then grabbed the victim’s legs and attempted to pull him off his bunk. According to the victim, Curtis then grabbed the inmate’s testicles, through his pants, forcefully squeezing them, the complaint says.

The victim was able to hit the intercom button in his cell to ask the guards for help. Tingler allegedly hit the same intercom button and told the guards not to come to the cell because “they wouldn’t let anyone [expletive] with him.”

Sanford and Blizzard allegedly stood in the doorway, laughing, blocking the view into the cell and preventing the inmate from leaving.

Gaus wrote in the criminal complaint that he could see the inmate’s testicles were black and blue. He said the inmate was also visibly shaking during the interview.

Curtis, 25, originally of Weirton, is charged with first-degree sexual abuse. Tingler, 31, originally of Grove City, Ohio; Sanford, 26, originally of Moundsville; and Blizzard, 21, originally of New Martinsville, face charges of conspiracy to inflict injury.

In an interview, Gaus said that he believes the inmates were “spooked” after the victim called for help, so they left the cell.

Gaus didn’t know the motivation for the attack.

He said he has never had to respond to a sexual abuse incident at the jail before, and he said Sgt. Delesio told him he had not dealt with any either.

Sexual assault and abuse among inmates was reported 91 times at the regional jails in 2015, according to the Regional Jail Authority & Correctional Facility’s annual Prison Rape Elimination Act report. Of those, officials found 17 to be substantiated. Inmate on inmate sexual harassment was reported 26 times. Of those, six cases were found to be substantiated.

Chris Daley, deputy director of Just Detention International, noted that historically, many inmate sexual abuse cases don’t make their way through the legal system. Just Detention International, an organization that works to end sexual abuse in detention, has worked with the West Virginia Regional Jail & Correctional Facility Authority to improve response to sexual abuse allegations.

“This is a positive change and I think it’s one that going to become more common, but we have a long history to dig out of before we see [perpetrators] charged as often as they should be,” he said.

Lawrence Messina, spokesman for the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety, said he had no further information on the incident.

Originally posted here