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Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Inmates Charged in Rape
By Hailey Heinz
Journal Staff Writer
A jail guard charged with allowing the brutal March beating of an inmate was also on duty the night two female inmates allegedly raped another inmate, according to a criminal complaint.
Debra Ulibarri, 42, and Karen Kimbrell, 38, have been charged with raping another inmate.
Corrections Officers Roslyn Juanico and Francesca Tafoya were in charge of those jail pods that night, according to the complaint.
Juanico was charged in April with attempted murder after she allegedly did nothing to stop a severe beating by an inmate she allegedly used as an "enforcer" to keep other inmates in check.
On Feb. 23, Ulibarri and Kimbrell walked into the victim's cell, according to the complaint. Ulibarri allegedly held the victim down while Kimbrell raped her.
It's unclear why the women had access to the victim's cell. All three women were being housed in a segregation unit, which means they are kept in a cell with one roommate for 23 hours each day.
Ulibarri and Kimbrell were let out of their rooms to shower, and surveillance video described in the complaint shows them walking to the door of the victim's cell, where the lights were off, and walking inside.
The video shows the victim running and screaming from her cell several minutes later, according to the complaint.
Corrections Officer Tafoya wrote in a statement that she had opened the victim's cell to allow new inmates to arrive and had not secured it.
Tofoya's statement, though, at times conflicts with what's in the surveillance video. Tofoya, for example, said she removed the suspects from the victim's cell after the alleged attack. But the surveillance video shows Juanico removing the women, according the complaint.
And the victim later told investigators she felt Juanico let Ulibarri and Kimbrell into her cell, according to the complaint.
Neither guard has been charged, and jail officials did not return calls for comment Tuesday night.
The victim's cellmate was sleeping when Ulibarri and Kimbrell walked inside. The cellmate told investigators she witnessed the attack but pretended to stay asleep.
Ulibarri and Kimbrell told investigators in written statements that they went into the victim's cell to ask her for something but left when she could not provide it.
Tafoya wrote in a statement to investigators that the victim initially only claimed that Ulibarri and Kimbrell hit her.
The two women were charged last week with rape. Ulibarri was arrested Tuesday and was being held on a $25,000 bond. Kimbrell was being held without bond because of other warrants.
The victim in the March beating, Avery Hadley, went into a coma after the incident.
Inmates Jesus Cordova and Keola Tommy Kaula were also charged with attempted murder.
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