Former inmate says ex-guard forced her to perform sex act

SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) - A woman testified Monday that a former guard at a scandal-ridden Pennsylvania prison coerced her into performing a sex act on him while he stood outside her cell in 2009.

George McHale, 51, is the first of seven former guards to head to trial on charges of sexually abusing female inmates at Lackawanna County Prison. They were charged last February after a grand jury found what it described as a culture of sexual coercion and cover-up at the jail in Scranton.

A 49-year-old woman told jurors Tuesday that McHale made her fondle him through a slot in the cell door. She said she didn't tell anyone at the prison because she was afraid of retaliation.

The defense called the woman a liar with motive to lie, noting she is a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit against Lackawanna County.

But the woman didn't waver from her account, barely concealing her anger during cross examination.

"You can scoff all you want," she told defense attorney Joseph Toczydlowski.

The accuser has bounced in and out of jail for stealing to support a cocaine addiction. She pleaded guilty in December to receiving stolen property and awaits sentencing.

The Associated Press does not generally identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted.

When he announced the charges last year, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said a "persistent culture of abuse" had plagued the 850-inmate prison for more than a decade. The abuse was widely known, he said, broadly hinting at a cover-up. He said complaints were routinely ignored.

Lackawanna County officials downplayed the problem, insisting that officials had worked "diligently over the years" to ensure inmate safety.

On Monday, the woman described for jurors the assault she said took place between Christmas and New Year's in 2009.

The woman had been placed in solitary confinement for complaining about another guard who had been screaming at her for sleeping through a fire drill. She described solitary as "maddening, emotionally maddening," and said she was desperate to get out.

So when McHale ordered her to fondle him, "I complied," she testified. "I wanted to shower. I wanted to eat. I wanted my mail. I wanted to get out of there."

The woman said she didn't report the assault to prison authorities because she was afraid they'd take her privileges away -- and because it wouldn't have done any good.

"If I said anything, they wouldn't do anything about it anyway," she said. "They didn't do anything about anything, ever."

The cell next door was empty, she said, and the prison had no cameras in that section. The jury will be permitted to convict McHale based on the woman's testimony alone if they find her account credible.

Toczydlowski said during his opening statement that McHale didn't go into the unit where the alleged incident took place at all that week. He said the case is based on "unsubstantiated, uncorroborated, old and sometimes contradictory evidence."