Denver Mint security guard raped and tied up nurse, lawsuit claims

The U.S. Mint in Denver on March 1, 2004. (Photo by Cyrus McCrimmon/The Denver Post)

A federal security guard at the U.S. Mint in Denver bound and raped a nurse in the Mint’s health office in 2022, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court last week.

Both the security official and the U.S. government were named as defendants in the lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Colorado.

The lawsuit alleges that on November 9, 2022, security guard Ryan Gonzalez used the Mint’s surveillance cameras to track the nurse throughout the building, then approached her while on duty in the Mint’s health office, “forcibly restrained” her and raped her.

The Denver Post is not revealing the identity of the plaintiff because she is believed to be the victim of a sexual assault.

In a statement to the Washington Post, U.S. Mint officials said they had fired González from his post last year.

“While we cannot comment on the pending litigation, the safety of our employees is our highest priority and cases of sexual misconduct and assault are taken extremely seriously,” Mint officials said.

Gonzalez could not be reached for comment.

The nurse was working as a contractor for the U.S. Mint and was stocking shelves at health departments when Gonzalez approached her from behind and sexually assaulted her, the indictment says.

Afterwards, the woman was “in shock and her hands were cuffed” by Gonzalez, who told her “he was watching her through the Denver Mint security system” and was tracking the woman using surveillance cameras, the lawsuit says.

“It was horrific,” the nurse’s lawyers wrote in the lawsuit. “It was completely intolerable behavior that can neither be excused nor tolerated in a civilized society.”

In the days before, Gonzalez had made “multiple unwanted advances and a series of sexual assaults” on the woman in the doctor’s office. In one case, the nurse had to violently push him away after he pushed her against the wall and made unwanted sexual advances, the lawsuit says.