Fbi Probes Treatment Of Idaho Inmate
The FBI has launched an investigation into the treatment of a state prison inmate placed in solitary confinement for six months after revealing a guard’s history of sexual misconduct.
The inquiry confirmed by Gov. Phil Batt on Friday apparently involves allegations raised by inmate Mark Tapp that he was punished by prison officials after complaining that guard Roy Redifer sexually molested him.
“We welcome this kind of scrutiny from an independent agency,” Correction Department spokesman Mark Carnopis said. “We will cooperate fully with them.”
Citing policy, the U.S. attorney’s office in Boise said it would not comment on the case, and the FBI’s Boise office did not return a telephone call.
Tapp, 26, was interviewed by two FBI agents for about an hour Monday at the prison complex south of Boise. His attorney, Howard Belodoff, said he had been told little about the investigation by the FBI agents involved.
Tapp was convicted of burglarizing Redifer’s home in 1993. For a short time in the past 12 months the inmate was incarcerated at the prison farm, where Redifer was his guard.
Batt said the matter was one of serious concern to him and that he had expressed that concern to the state Board of Correction several weeks ago.
The governor said, however, that the latest problem arising in the prison system has still not shaken his confidence in Director James Spalding.
Tapp filed a written complaint with the Correction Department in April, accusing Redifer, 51, of molesting him and making sexual remarks toward him four or five times in February, March and April. The department initially termed the charges unsubstantiated.
After The Idaho Statesman disclosed Tapp’s complaints last month, the department renewed its investigation. It asked Tapp to submit to a polygraph examination, but he refused on Belodoff’s advice when the department would not allow his lawyer to be present during the test and would not grant him immunity from further punishment.
The department then accused Tapp of disorderly conduct, saying he was being punished for refusing to take the exam.
Tapp was given 180 days in solitary confinement.
Carnopis said the internal investigation into Tapp’s complaints was continuing. Redifer, who is on a medical leave of absence, has declined comment.
Redifer was hired as a teacher for the Correction Department’s on-site high school in 1993, despite having been charged with lewd and lascivious conduct with a 12-year-old former student at Central Elementary School in Nampa, where he taught. The charges were dropped, but his contract wasn’t renewed.