A Trousdale Turner Correction Center inmate serving time at a privately run prison in Tennessee is suing the warden and staff, alleging they allowed gang members to assault him and extort money from his mother.
Filed in May in U.S. District Court in Nashville, the lawsuit claims gang members at the CoreCivic prison in Trousdale County threatened to assault inmate Charles Anderson if his mother and two family friends didn’t send them money, then beat and sexually assaulted him anyway after he complained to prison staff.
Trousdale Turner already faces a federal civil rights investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for gang violence and murders.
The lawsuit names prison warden Vince Vantell, assistant warden Keith Huggins, investigator Robert Fohrd and a sergeant at the facility, which is run by the Brentwood-based prison operator under contract with the state of Tennessee.
The filing says almost as soon as Anderson was transferred to Trousdale Turner in October 2023, he became the repeated victim of violence, with gang members stealing his property and threatening and inflicting violence on him. Gang members ordered him to buy back the stolen items in a well-known prison extortion scheme, according to the filing.
Anderson then instructed his elderly mother to pay gang members’ affiliates outside the prison through mobile methods or a “green dot” card or else he would be severely harmed or killed.
Gang members armed with shanks forced him to call his mother and ordered him to tell her to make payments between $40 and $150.
“These calls were placed from (Trousdale Turner Correctional Center) lines and presumably monitored by staff at TTCC,” the filing says.
When the inmate’s mother couldn’t afford to make the payments, he asked two family friends for “protection” payments to “preserve his life.”
The family friends told Fohrd about the extortion and threats, yet the staff member did “nothing” meaningful to intervene or put Anderson in protective custody, the filing says.
In May 2024, the family friend sent multiple emails to the warden’s office about the “incessant” extortion, and at one point a prison official told the friend they were “committed” to placing him in protective custody.
Yet in June 2024, Anderson was assaulted again, and in October 2024, he was sexually assaulted by at least four gang members with a broom handle. They claimed he owed them $1,000 for “debt.” No staff members intervened, the filing says.
The victim received treatment at Nashville General Hospital in October, but when he returned to the prison, gang members attacked him again and poured “scalding hot water” on his face as he slept.
Despite receiving medical treatment, he wasn’t placed in protective custody and was attacked again and threatened if he didn’t perform sexual favors for the gang members, which he refused to do, according to the filing.
A corrections officer recommended he be put in protective custody, and staff reviewed the request. After repeated complaints and a request to file a Prison Rape Elimination Act complaint, Anderson met with prison officials when Vantell told him it was “okay if he was gay.” Anderson replied that he wasn’t.
“This interaction was an attempt to cover-up the rape as a consensual act and escape liability for the defendants’ acts and omissions,” the filing says.
The defendants denied his requests for protective custody, alleging he “was not honest about why he needed protective custody” and “became argumentative with the board” of prison officials.
In December 2024, Fohrd spoke with the inmate’s mother and told her to pay the gang members “one more time” to buy back his property and he would be put into protective custody. The filing says the phone call was made in the presence of Anderson and gang members.
“Because the defendants failed to stop gang violence and extortion directed towards Mr. Anderson and his family, the violence and extortion continues, without reprieve, even to present,” the filing says.
Since last October, the victim has received multiple disciplinary write-ups for refusing his cell assignment, because he believes “segregation” is the only way to be protected from “constant gang violence,” according to the filing. Yet he remains in the general population.
Vantell resigned as warden in April after being placed on involuntary administrative leave amid the Department of Justice investigation into inmate physical and sexual violence, as well as understaffing at Trousdale Turner.
The plaintiffs are represented by Moseley & Moseley Attorneys in Murfreesboro and Leanne Thorne in Lexington, Tennessee.
A CoreCivic spokesperson said the company doesn’t comment on pending litigation but added that “the safety and well-being of every person in our care is a top priority for our leadership and the staff at our Trousdale Turner Correctional Center.”
Read more at TennesseeLookout.com.