Federal Prison Chaplain Pleads Guilty To Sexually Abusing Female Inmate Several Times

A former chaplain with the Federal Bureau of Prisons has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a female inmate and lying about it during an investigation.

According to NBC News, from May 2018 to February 2019, 49-year-old James Theodore Highhouse worked at the Correctional Institution in Dublin, California. The news outlet says the facility wasn’t heavily guarded with security. The Department of Justice said during his time at the prison, Highhouse “led religious services, and offered spiritual guidance to the female inmates.”

On Wednesday, Highhouse admitted to five felony counts of sexual abuse. The man abused a woman he met with several times alone in his office, seeking spiritual guidance. Through his own authority, Highhouse was able to restrain inmates with handcuffs; he underwent training on how to maintain “boundaries with inmates,” attending yearly BOP refreshers about sexual abuse and prevention.”

Highhouse is now looking at 39 years in prison; he’s expected to be sentenced in July.

“Highhouse held a position of great trust as a prison chaplain. He exploited this trust and sexually abused an inmate under his care, and then lied in an effort to cover up his crimes,” said Zachary Shroyer, who is in charge of the Justice Department’s inspector general’s field office in Los Angeles, NBC News reports. “The Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General will continue to root out this kind of abuse and bring the perpetrators to justice.”