Delaware State News
DOVER - Lawyers for the 27-year-old correctional counselor who was abducted and raped at the Delaware Correctional Center labeled an internal review of the incident released Wednesday as inadequate.
But they also said interviews with prison staff published in Correction Commissioner Stanley W. Taylor's report on the July 12 incident essentially corroborated the version of events outlined by the victim of the attack, Cassandra Arnold of Smyrna, who is their client.
Ms. Arnold, who met with reporters Wednesday in the company of her attorneys, said she was disappointed the report didn't offer any conclusions as to who was responsible for the nearly seven-hour ordeal she endured and what steps are being taken to assure a similar incident doesn't happen again.
"It was really hard for me to read because it's a very big package,'' Ms. Arnold said of the 80-page document, including appendices.
"When you read it by yourself it's really somewhat scary. But I was relieved to see my memory (of what occurred July 12) was really good. I don't know what I expected but I did expect a conclusion and some sort of ultimate answers.
"I'm a little disappointed. You would think that an investigation usually means you solved something.
"(The report) has a lot of versions to go by, but it doesn't seem like it's a complete package. Somebody needs to be held accountable. I think the whole system needs to be evaluated from top to bottom.''
Attorney Jeffrey K. Martin said the report, if anything, attempts to place responsibility on "lower echelon" employees.
"This is a typical Department of Correction dance,'' he said. "You avoid responsibility at the upper echelon and place blame on the lower echelon.''
Ms. Arnold's other lawyer, Herbert G. Feuerhake, said the report, while corroborating for the most part what Ms. Arnold said happened July 12, missed the point.
"This situation was outrageous and that outrage should have been more apparent in the report,'' he said.
"They don't really address the question of how inmate Scott Miller got past two security doors that were supposed to be closed and abducted our client.
"This was an outrage. I don't get the flavor from this report that this was an outrage. The Department of Correction has been chronically understaffed day after day, week after week and year after year, for years.
"This was the responsibility of the top brass of the Department of Correction. They allowed security lapses and doors to be open to go on and on and on, and they did nothing about it.''
Mr. Feuerhake said that responsibility even goes beyond DOC.
"The real responsibility for this situation lies at the feet of the state legislature and the governor, who have not made the appropriations to sufficiently staff our prisons,'' he said.
"You can pay no attention and get away with understaffing for a few years but you cannot get away with it forever.''
Mr. Martin said he was surprised to hear that Mr. Taylor told reporters that he and his top assistants were unaware of security breaches before the July 12 incident.
"I take strong issue with Commissioner Taylor saying he and his top brass were unaware of security problems,'' Mr. Martin said.
"The report says doors had been propped open since 2000. There are security cameras throughout the facility. This was a perpetual problem. Commissioner Taylor must have known these doors were open chronically.
"I want to know what Stan Taylor knew and when did he know it. I expected to see in this report the various policies or procedures that were either ignored or broken.''
Mr. Martin said he was shocked to hear that DOC has so far taken no disciplinary action relative to the events of July 12 and that if any is taken, it would not be made public because it is considered confidential personnel information.
"That is an outrage,'' he said. "No one has been disciplined? They call this a 'personnel matter?' ''
Mr. Feuerhake said he questions the "action plan'' outlined in the report.
"The action plan is very troubling,'' he said. "It talks about doing things you would have thought they were doing before our client was attacked. Inmate Miller was a very dangerous individual. It's incredible that he was allowed to be in that classroom with Cassie Arnold in the first place.
"If I were the governor, I would be troubled by this report. If I were the commissioner of correction, I would be greatly troubled by this report.''
Ms. Arnold said she was troubled that the report failed to identify those responsible.
"I feel a body of people was responsible,'' she said. "But it was also a body that was tired, overworked and underpaid. They have no role models. That makes me think there's a possibility nobody will be held responsible.''
She said she still feels hurt by Gov. Ruth Ann Minner's comment that "you almost expect something'' like the July 12 incident to happen in a prison environment.
"She made me feel like I wasn't a worthy person at all,'' Ms. Arnold said. "What it meant to me is that she doesn't care who's working in the prisons.''
Ms. Arnold said she's received no direct communication from the governor since the July 12 incident.
She said Mr. Taylor and DCC Warden Thomas Carroll sent a fruit basket to her home the next day and that she spoke with Mr. Carroll for "half a minute'' the same day.
"That's been it,'' she said. "There have been no communications or letters from the governor's office, Stan Taylor or anybody else from the administration.''
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Senior writer Tom Eldred can be reached at 741-8212 or teldred@newszap.com.
