Fort Worth prison staff repeatedly sexually assaulted woman in custody, lawsuit says

April Lacey still has nightmares.

It’s been three years since a staff member at a Fort Worth women’s prison raped Lacey, twice on consecutive days, according to a recently filed lawsuit. And now, about two years after being released from federal custody, Lacey still has panic attacks.

“It wasn’t isolated to prison,” Lacey said in a Thursday afternoon press call. “The trauma left, when I left, with me.”

Lacey, with her attorneys, filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against the United States government and a former prison recreation specialist who, the lawsuit says, raped her while she was incarcerated.

Lacey, who now lives in El Paso, was incarcerated at FMC Carswell, which is a federal medical prison for women in northwest Fort Worth, from late 2014 through late 2021. She was placed at Carswell specifically because she had cancer, her attorneys said in the press call.

Lacey was abused by two different staff members during her time at Carswell, the suit says, although the suit was filed against only one of those staff members — the person who she says raped her.

First, a prison staff member sexually abused Lacey in 2015, according to the suit. And then, when Lacey was sick with COVID-19 in late 2020 or early 2021, a prison recreation specialist named Marerllis Nix used his position of authority and raped Lacey twice, the suit says. Nix has not been criminally charged, according to online databases and according to Lacey’s attorneys. Nix did not respond to the Star-Telegram’s requests for comment Thursday.

Nix, who no longer works at Carswell, used the “express or implicit threat of retaliation if she reported the conduct,” the suit says. Lacey later reported the assaults, the lawsuit says, and was soon after given a disciplinary write-up while in the custody of a federal reentry center, a facility which is also under the umbrella of the federal Bureau of Prisons. Lacey’s attorneys believe the disciplinary write-up was in retaliation for her reports.

A representative of Carswell did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday morning.

Lacey is not the first woman to report sexual abuse at FMC Carswell. A 2022 Star-Telegram investigation found that the prison has long been plagued with systemic sexual abuse and cover-ups. A federal report, based on data from 2014 to 2018, found that Carswell had more reports of sexual abuse by a staff member than any other federal women’s prison, the Star-Telegram previously reported. A total of 35 women at Carswell reported sexual assaults during that time, and experts have said that’s likely an undercount.

Carswell houses women who are more vulnerable than those being held at other prisons. The Fort Worth facility is the only federal medical prison for women, and many of the women are sent there specifically for medical care.

In both a prepared statement and in the Thursday afternoon press call, Lacey’s attorneys called out the systemic issues at Carswell.

“That unit is notorious for this behavior,” said Randall Kallinen, a civil rights attorney based in Houston. “We are trying to put an end to this behavior, where so many women have suffered.”

And while the lawsuit names the accused staff member directly, another of Lacey’s attorneys placed the larger blame at the feet of the federal Bureau of Prisons.

“This is not an isolated problem,” said Regina Powers, of the New York-based law firm Bedlock Levine & Huffman. “This is an institutional failure. ... This system enables and protects abusers, and ensures that the abuse continues.”

Another Bedlock Levine & Hoffman attorney, David Rankin, noted that sexual abuse has been fairly well-documented in federal prisons, including through federal reports.

“There’s no possibility that the Bureau of Prisons isn’t aware of these issues,” Rankin said. “But the continuing failure of the United States government to actually address this and to keep people safe is appalling.”

Lacey and her attorneys said they hope the lawsuit will bring visibility — and change — to the issues at Carswell and other prisons.

“Being raped was not part of my sentence,” Lacey said in a prepared statement. “I’ve found the courage to speak about it and file this lawsuit because I don’t want this to keep happening to women at Carswell. I hope someone will protect them.”

Lacey and her attorneys filed the lawsuit in the El Paso division of U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. The suit has not yet been scheduled for any hearings.