Tony Daniel Klein (Oregon U.S. District Court), Coffee Creek Correctional Facility (YouTube screenshot)
A 39-year-old former prison nurse in Oregon will spend the next three decades behind bars for sexually assaulting nine female inmates during his tenure with the state’s department of corrections.
U.S. District Court Judge Michael H. Simon on Tuesday ordered Tony Daniel Klein to serve a sentence of 30 years in federal prison plus an additional five years of supervised release for his egregious abuses of power and authority, prosecutors announced.
A federal jury in July found Klein guilty on 17 counts of depriving his victims of their constitutional right not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment by sexual assault as well as four counts of perjury.
“The sentence in this case should send a significant message to any official working inside jails and prisons across our country, including those who provide medical care, that they will be held accountable when they sexually assault women inmates in their custody,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement following the sentencing hearing. “Women detained inside jails and prisons should be able to turn to medical providers for care and not subjected to exploitation by those bent on abusing their power and position.”
Klein served as a nurse at the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville, Oregon, which is about 17 miles south of Portland. Part of his role as a nurse at the all-female prison was interacting with inmates seeking medical treatment and also dealing with inmates who worked in the prison’s medical unit as orderlies.
“Aided by his access to the women and his position of power as a corrections employee, Klein sexually assaulted or engaged in nonconsensual sexual conduct with many female inmates entrusted to his care,” prosecutors wrote in a press release. “By virtue of his position as a medical provider, Klein was often alone with his victims and assaulted many before, during, or after medical treatment.”
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According to federal prosecutors, Klein “manufactured” reasons to be alone with the inmates who worked in the prison’s medical unit, often taking them to secluded areas such as janitor’s closets, medical rooms, or areas blocked by medical curtains, where he would then sexually assault them. Making matters worse, Klein “made it clear” to his victims that he held a position of power over them, convinced them they would not be believed if they reported the sexual assaults, and threatened retaliatory punishment if they made any attempts to report the abuse.
“Fearing punishment if they fought back against or reported his conduct, most of Klein’s victims submitted to his unwanted advances or endured his assaults,” the release states.
The four counts of perjury stemmed from Klein giving false testimony during a 2019 deposition in a federal lawsuit filed by the victims he sexually assaulted while working at the prison.
“We know this prison sentence cannot undo the trauma Tony Klein inflicted on numerous victims, but we hope this brings them one step closer to healing,” Kieran L. Ramsey, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Portland Field Office, said in a statement. “As a state prison nurse, Klein abused his position and abused multiple women, violating the public’s trust, while doing everything he could to avoid being caught.
“The investigators and prosecutors should be applauded for their efforts to hold Klein accountable, but we recognize this lengthy sentence is also because of a group of brave women who came forward and helped ensure that Klein was held accountable for being a sexual predator within Coffee Creek Correctional Facility,” Ramsey said.
Klein had been facing a maximum possible sentence of life in prison.
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