West Tennessee prison failed to protect slain administrator from escaped inmate, family says in suit
Nashville TN Aug 16 2020
The daughter of slain state employee Debra Johnson has filed a suit against the Tennessee Department of Correction, alleging correctional employees made crucial missteps in the handling of the inmate currently on trial for Johnson’s murder.
The suit also alleges systemic issues that culminated in the death of the grandmother of seven and mother of three; inadequate staffing meant Johnson’s safety was at risk.
Johnson was found dead in her home on the grounds of the West Tennessee State Penitentiary on Aug 7, 2019; a forensic examination revealed the 64-year-old corrections administrator was sexually assaulted and strangled.
Curtis Ray Watson, a 45-year-old convict with a violent history, was identified as Johnson’s killer by investigators with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Watson is currently housed in a maximum-security prison in Nashville while he awaits trial in Johnson’s murder. It is believed that Watson assaulted and killed Johnson as he escaped prison grounds, and before leading authorities on a manhunt for five days.
Watson was eventually captured on the edge of a soybean field in Henning, Tennessee, on Aug. 11, 2019.
The lawsuit points to the facility’s classification of Watson as a “trusty”, an inmate trusted enough to move throughout prison grounds with less supervision than normal, as part of a sequence of events that led to Johnson’s death.
The suit argues Watson should have never been classified as a trusty, and said prison officials “recklessly placed” Watson in a position of trust, in spite of a documented history of violence towards women. Watson was, and still is, serving a 15-year sentence for the aggravated kidnapping and assault of his wife.
Further, during a pre-trial hearing for Watson, remarks made by inmates and prison employees revealed Watson had a brief exchange with Johnson, and insisted to another inmate that Johnson wanted to have sex with him.
Zachary West, an inmate who also worked at the lawnmower shop with Watson at the time of the interaction, questioned Watson’s version of this exchange, asking, “When did she have time to tell you that?”
The suit alleges Watson’s remarks were made within earshot of other correctional employees, but “Despite this clear red flag, Watson was not questioned, evaluated by a mental health professional, and/or otherwise removed from his trusty duties.”
The suit also alleges another corrections employee stopped by Johnson’s residence in the immediate aftermath of the assault, after Watson disappeared.
Hours prior to the discovery of Johnson’s body, and during a search for Watson, another corrections officer spotted a golf cart used by Watson near Johnson’s home. The officer approached Johnson’s residence, knocked on the door, and left. The suit said Johnson’s car was parked in her driveway, indicating she was home.
Had the officer made an additional effort to verify Johnson’s safety, she could have been discovered while she was still alive, and life-saving aid could have been rendered, the suit said.
The suit also mentions pre-trial remarks that revealed another inmate saw Watson “banging on the door” of Johnson’s home around 8:30 a.m., three hours before her body was discovered, and soon after Watson was reported missing from him post.
Against the backdrop of the chain of events that led to Johnson’s death, the suit alleges years of policy changes around pay and overtime caused a systemic ripple that resulted in inadequate staffing, and therefore of insufficient protection of employees like Johnson.
The suit alleges “a change in compensation structure” lead to a mass exodus of corrections officers in 2015. That exodus, coupled with a “culture which encouraged corrections officers to downplay sexual assault and harassment, inmate-on-inmate violence, and inmate-on officer violence” left corrections officers vulnerable.
“On information and belief, TDOC actively chose to downplay inmate violence rather than address the underlying issues and reduce violence as would ensure the safety and security of inmates and corrections officers,” the suit read.
Johnson’s family is seeking $5 million in damages plus attorney’s fees.
