Incarcerated women at the California Institution for Women (CIW) in Chino say staff cook Marcus Johnson sexually assaulted them in the prison kitchen areas and threatened them with disciplinary write-ups and other punishments if they reported him, according to new lawsuits and interviews released this week.
The two women, identified in court filings as Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2, allege that Johnson raped them in 2020 while they were assigned to low‑pay kitchen jobs under his supervision.
They say the assaults took place in Johnson's office and a nearby bathroom off the kitchen, areas away from other workers, where he could confront them alone. In one incident, Jane Doe 1 says Johnson threatened to write her up for "stealing" vegetables she took back to her cell and used that threat to force her into sexual acts, according to The Guardian.
According to the complaint, Johnson allegedly took Jane Doe 1 to a bathroom under the pretense of cleaning duties and forced her to perform oral sex before raping her.
She says he assaulted her again weeks later when she went to his office to ask for help with an injured hand. Jane Doe 2, who also worked in the kitchen, reports that after she asked for a towel for cleaning, Johnson became "aggressive and violent" and raped her in a manager's office in June 2020.
Both women say Johnson warned that disciplinary actions could follow if they spoke out. They say they feared being written up, transferred, or losing critical privileges and kitchen jobs that helped them earn money for basic items from the commissary. Their lawsuits describe a climate in which women believed staff could easily retaliate if they complained, USA Today reported.
The women's attorneys say prison records show that at least one complaint against Johnson was eventually deemed "substantiated" by officials in January 2023. The survivor, they say, was not told of that finding until more than a year later, in March 2024, raising concerns about transparency and accountability inside CIW. Advocates argue that such delays can discourage other incarcerated women from coming forward.
Johnson has publicly denied all allegations of rape, coercion, and threats. He says he never had physical contact with incarcerated women and insists he did nothing wrong while working at CIW and another state prison.
The lawsuits also accuse the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation of failing to protect women at CIW despite prior sexual abuse allegations involving supervising cooks dating back years, as per AOL News.
