Johnson v. Johnson

After months of sexual torture in a Texas prison with
the full knowledge of administrators, Roderick Johnson
sued officials for not protecting him.

When Roderick Johnson was housed at the James A. Allred Unit in Iowa Park, Texas, prison gangs repeatedly raped and abused him as a sexual slave. Although he filed numerous grievances and asked to be transferred, prison officials refused and told him to “fight or fuck.” Only when the ACLU intervened did prison officials move Johnson to a safe wing of the prison. The ACLU filed a lawsuit in which a unanimous federal appeals court ruled that seven ranking Texas prison officials can be sued due to discrimination based on sexual orientation–a landmark, first-of-its-kind ruling. The decision cleared the way for Johnson, who has served his sentence, to sue for damages and seek justice under the Eighth Amendment’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment, as well as the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment.

Status: A Texas jury found the prison officials not liable.

Press Releases

• Roderick Keith Johnson Speaks Out About Verdict in Prison Rape Case (October 19, 2005)
• Prison Sex Slave Trial Set to Begin in Texas (September 16, 2005)
• In Legal First, Appeals Court Says Texas Prison Officials Can Be Sued for Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation (September 9, 2004)
• ACLU Says Faulty Investigation by Texas Corrections Department Led to Grand Jury’s Failure to Indict Rape Suspects (February 26, 2004)
• Texas Officials Complicit in Gang Rape and Sexual Slavery of Gay Black Man, ACLU Charges
  (April 17, 2002)

Legal Documents

• Johnson v. Johnson Circuit Court Brief of Plaintiff Appellee
• Johnson v. Johnson Complaint
• Texas Prison Complaint forms filed by Roderick Johnson
• Roderick Johnson’s Offender Protection Investigation forms

Other

• ACLU National Prison Project