Exclusive: “The system absolutely failed our client,” attorney Trina Realmuto told The Independent
A Baptist chaplain at a privately-run ICE lockup in Pennsylvania is facing accusations of sexually abusing a detainee over the course of more than a year, beginning shortly after he gained her trust by gifting her a Bible.
Pastor Mark Melhorn, 67, engaged in “extraordinary misconduct” at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center “under the guise of providing pastoral services,” according to a federal lawsuit obtained by The Independent.
His “repeated and pervasive” misconduct started with sexualized comments and gestures, with Melhorn telling the plaintiff in the case, who is identified as Jane Doe in court filings, that she was “hermosa,” “bonita,” and “preciosa,” according to the complaint.
“Melhorn would ask Ms. Doe if she liked how he looked, stare at her breasts, and lick his lips while staring at her,” the complaint alleges. “While Melhorn and detained women sang hymns together, he would position himself so that he could stare at Ms. Doe from behind. When she tried to change her position so that he could not stare at her from behind, he would change his position and continue staring at her.”
On numerous occasions, Melhorn approached Doe and placed his hands on her head as if he was praying for her, but instead ran them down her body suggestively, according to the complaint. From there, it says things got worse until Melhorn one day entered Doe’s cell and allegedly sexually assaulted her. He then warned Doe not to tell anybody about what had happened, because “even if she did, nothing would happen.”
Doe in fact reported Melhorn – twice – to higher-ups at Moshannon, the complaint says. And, according to the complaint, nothing happened.
“The system absolutely failed our client,” Doe’s attorney Trina Realmuto told The Independent. “It takes a lot of courage to speak up, [especially] when you’re fighting an immigration case in a detention facility.”
Realmuto, the executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, said Doe, an undocumented Dominican citizen living in New Jersey, remains deeply traumatized by the experience, and continues to suffer from anxiety, nightmares and a diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Melhorn did not respond to The Independent’s requests for comment.
On August 21, 2023, Doe arrived at Moshannon in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, where she was assigned a two-person cell in the women’s housing unit, according to her complaint. It was filed two years later, almost to the day, in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
The 1,800-bed facility has been at the center of significant controversy, once again making headlines last month when a 32-year-old detainee from China died by suicide as he awaited a hearing with the DOJ’s Executive Office for Immigration Review.
Melhorn visited the women’s housing unit every weekday afternoon, and conducted a church service for female detainees at least one evening a month, the complaint continues. Doe, a devout Christian, met Melhorn a few days after getting to Moshannon and was “comforted to know that a chaplain was available to provide religious guidance.”
She trusted Melhorn, and when he asked him to bring her a Bible, he did so, the complaint states.
Shortly after Doe first met Melhorn, things started getting creepy, the complaint alleges. Beyond showering her with inappropriate comments, Melhorn “began to go out of his way to touch Ms. Doe,” according to the complaint. Oftentimes, it says, Melhorn would enter Doe’s cell to give her printouts of Bible passages, but instead of simply handing them to her, he would set them down on her lap and rub her inner thigh.
In October 2023, Doe’s complaint claims she caught Melhorn peering into her cell while she was partially nude.
“At first, she believed it was her roommate and was not concerned, so she showered,” the complaint states. “When she got out of the shower, however, she saw that her roommate was asleep and that Melhorn was standing on his toes so that he could see Ms. Doe over the [privacy] screen.”
During the next several months, Melhorn’s overtures gradually got “forceful and more invasive,” until eventually becoming “even more extreme,” according to the complaint.
On March 29, 2024, Melhorn entered Doe’s cell while she was sleeping, woke her up and groped her under the sheets, the complaint maintains.
“Ms. Doe was terrified and got up abruptly,” it says. “Melhorn immediately warned Ms. Doe not to report him. He told her no one would believe her. Ms. Doe thought this was true and decided not to report Melhorn’s actions to anyone. Because Ms. Doe did not report Melhorn, his conduct continued and worsened.”
The following month, Melhorn walked into Doe’s call under the pretext of bringing her religious pamphlets, according to the complaint. It says he stood in front of her bed, and began to make “sexually explicit comments,” then grabbed at her breasts, inner thighs, buttocks and crotch, after which he forced Doe to touch his erect penis, the complaint alleges. Melhorn only stopped when Doe’s cellmate returned, according to the complaint.
At that point, it says Doe walked out of the cell and went to the unit’s common area. But, Melhorn followed her and continued to force himself upon her, the complaint contends. Melhorn again told Doe not to tell on him, and said other women had tried to report him, but that no one had believed them, according to the complaint.
As before, Doe believed Melhorn and kept quiet.
On April 16, 2024, Doe met with a social worker at Moshannon Valley. She said she was having trouble sleeping, and asked for a prescription that might help her relax, the complaint states. When the social worker asked Doe why she was so anxious, the complaint says she finally opened up about Melhorn.
The social worker told Doe that she was obligated to report the allegations, under the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act, or, PREA, and that she was glad she spoke up “because Melhorn had done things like this before,” according to the complaint. This, the complaint asserts, was corroborated by a nurse at Moshannon Valley, who told Doe that Melhorn had earned a reputation at the facility as “a pervert.”
Further, a female guard told Doe that she and another employee had complained about Melhorn after he entered the women’s locker room while staffers were changing or using the bathroom, according to the complaint.
Roughly three weeks later, the jail’s PREA investigator closed Doe’s case, deeming her allegations unsubstantiated due to insufficient evidence, the complaint states. (According to Doe, most of the incidents with Melhorn occurred in areas not covered by surveillance cameras; a lack of video evidence is what led to the “unsubstantiated” determination, the PREA investigator told Doe, according to the complaint.)
Because of this, the complaint says Melhorn – who had been removed from the women’s housing unit while the PREA investigation was underway – would be permitted to return. But when the other women in the unit turned on Doe and threatened her for “snitching” on Melhorn, she was moved into protective custody, the complaint says.
On July 5, 2024, Melhorn located Doe in protective custody and stood outside her cell, staring at her while she used the toilet, according to the complaint.
“Melhorn sang Ms. Doe’s name and asked her what she had done to end up in protective custody,” it continues. “Ms. Doe, frightened, immediately yelled out for an officer.”
Melhorn left the area, and Doe asked to speak with a supervisor. A new PREA investigation was opened, and Doe was transferred to a different segregation unit, the complaint explains. But, once again, without the necessary video evidence, Doe’s allegations were subsequently closed as “unsubstantiated,” according to the complaint.
Doe’s anxiety and nightmares worsened, and on August 29, 2024, Doe’s immigration lawyer submitted a request to ICE that her client be released, “based on, among other things, Melhorn’s sexual abuse,” the complaint states. The next day, Doe was sent home, where she remains, fighting deportation.
Doe’s complaint suggests that she was far from alone, citing an August 2022 report issued by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in response to “a concerning number of reports of sexual assault and harassment” at Moshannon Valley. Federal authorities, along with the GEO Group, which operates the Moshannon Valley facility under a contract with ICE, are legally obligated to prevent such abuse.
“Despite this knowledge, they failed to act,” the complaint says.
In an email, Lauren DesRosiers, who heads the Immigration Law Clinic at Albany Law School, told The Independent, “I wish that the abuse alleged in the complaint was an isolated incident. There’s good documentation that abuse is a widespread problem – for example, Senator Jon Ossoff’s office recently released this report on abuse of pregnant women and children in detention.”
Kristina M. Fullerton Rico, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Racial Justice at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy, emphasized the point, saying that Doe’s allegations are “part of a larger pattern of sexual violence perpetrated by staff and volunteers on people who are under their supposed care. This has been documented for decades.”
Realmuto, the attorney representing Doe in her suit against Melhorn – which also names the U.S. government, the GEO Group, and Moshannon Valley’s PREA investigator – hopes to hear from others who have gone through similar experiences to the one Doe says she endured.
“There are an untold number of women who have passed through this facility who have been subjected to the same or worse types of sexual abuse,” Realmuto told The Independent. “… It’s particularly disturbing when it’s coming from the clergy, which, for many people who are detained, is supposed to be a source of comfort.”
Doe’s lawsuit alleges 11 individual causes of action, including negligence, intrusion upon seclusion, and violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. She is seeking compensatory damages and punitive damages to be determined in court, plus attorneys’ fees.
ICE and the GEO Group did not respond to requests for comment. The Moshannon Valley PREA investigator, whose full name is not listed in court records, was unable to be reached.
