Lawsuit: An employee at the Bronx youth prison sexually abused a dozen children with behavioral problems

NEW YORK – Rashawn Jones learned early on that to stay safe in a Bronx youth prison, he needed to gain an important ally: a counselor with tremendous influence over the facility’s daily operations.

When Jones, then 16, was called into Natalie Medford’s office at the Horizon Juvenile Center – where he had been incarcerated in 2012 for snatching another child’s cell phone – he says she offered him a deal that could make or break his prison sentence.

“If I take care of her, she takes care of me,” Jones recalled being told, an incident recounted in an interview with the Daily News and in court documents.

Medford, who is more than twice Jones’ age, then pulled down his pants and performed oral sex, according to Jones and a lawsuit filed this spring in Bronx Supreme Court.

“After that first exchange, I knew exactly what that meant,” he said. Jones estimates that Medford sexually abused him five times during his incarceration.

Jones was one of a dozen plaintiffs who claimed the employee sexually abused them at Horizon. They are among 250 former inmates who filed a massive lawsuit and are currently suing New York City for sexual abuse in juvenile prisons. Their civil suits are being filed under a local law that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations on gender-based violence.

Misconduct for decades

Medford made headlines in the late 2010s for filing three federal lawsuits against the city accusing her of sexual abuse. She filed countersuits against the city and the victims, claiming the allegations were false and malicious and demanding that they pay for the harm they allegedly caused. The lawsuits were all eventually settled.

The latest complaint alleges that her alleged misconduct dates back further than is publicly known, namely to at least 2005.

The Administration for Children’s Services, which runs youth prisons, confirmed that Medford was employed by the city from 2005 to 2015. Salary records show she continued to receive state checks through 2016.

An agency spokesman declined to say whether Medford was fired or whether the case will be prosecuted. However, ACS has a “zero tolerance” policy toward sexual abuse, which could lead to firing after a thorough investigation.

Medford could not be reached for comment and is not a named defendant in the lawsuit, which targets city policies and practices that the plaintiffs’ attorney calls inadequate, as well as a “culture of secrecy” in the youth prisons.

“As serious as Natalie Medford’s misconduct was, this is not the work of an isolated perpetrator in the system,” said Jerome Block, a partner at Levy Konigsberg LLP. “Her misconduct is consistent with a pattern and practice of sexual abuse that we have observed among many juvenile detention facility staff and that has affected hundreds of our clients.”

Another plaintiff, Gamel McFarland, was at Horizon a few years before Jones. He had just moved back to New York from Ohio – where he lived with his mother after fleeing domestic violence – and was feuding with his father, who had spent most of his life in prison. He said he approached a family friend he considered a cousin and was tricked into attacking an older man they knew and stealing a few hundred dollars from him.

At Horizon Prison, McFarland, then 16, was given special treatment by Medford, according to interviews and the complaint. He remembers her sneaking in Burger King from next door or marijuana between two buns and letting him use her phone. She sent letters back and forth between McFarland and a female inmate, he said, dressing her in men’s uniforms and secretly taking her to the boys’ side of the facility.

Medford began visiting McFarland’s room before the end of her shift, telling him stories about her ex-husband and kissing him on the lips, according to the complaint and interviews. During these stories, he claimed she sometimes fondled his genitals over his clothing or while he was naked.

“She’s talking to me while she’s doing this,” he said. “She’s exploited emotions and feelings … so you really have no choice but to either say I don’t care at all or give in to her.”

Medford had promised McFarland a birthday party, which they celebrated by having sex after his release, according to the lawsuit and interviews with him. She later forced him to live at her home, his court documents said.

“I feel like it changed me in ways that I honestly didn’t realize until recently,” he said. “Even when I trust people, I trusted her a lot on a lot of things. I felt like she had my back… That still affects me with people in that I think they really have my back or they really mean it or they really care about me.”

Warning signals

According to the lawsuit, a Horizon employee contacted the city’s Bureau of Investigation about Medford and said she was found “naked lying on top of the inmate in his cell,” The News reported in 2017. The Bronx District Attorney’s Office confirmed at the time that its Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Division was investigating, but did not respond to requests for comment on the outcome last week.

According to a 2018 media report, Manhattan prosecutors also launched a sexual abuse investigation at the Horizon Juvenile Center in the Bronx. When complaints were filed, a Horizon supervisor ordered the files related to the case destroyed. There is no evidence that any arrests were made.

While the case is being reviewed by the Legal Department, ACS spokeswoman Marisa Kaufman said the current administration has taken steps to prevent sexual abuse in its facilities.

Each facility has a compliance manager to oversee compliance with the law, and other staff members must conduct at least one unannounced inspection during each shift, according to the agency. All uniformed staff who work with inmates must complete basic sexual misconduct training and semi-annual “refresher” courses.

“Sexual abuse and sexual harassment are abhorrent and unacceptable, and we take these allegations against a former employee very seriously,” Kaufman said. “It is our job to provide the best possible care for youth.”

But for Jones, the reforms come too late. The 26-year-old Bronx resident, who lives just a stone’s throw from Horizon, said he had previously struggled with suicidal thoughts and learned that men can be victims of sexual abuse.

Today, he wants to apply to law school and represent young children who, like him, were lost.

“I didn’t have the perspective to understand that I was being taken advantage of. I just saw what I was getting out of the deal,” Jones said. “When I talked to my therapist, she explained it to me in a very profound way. She told me like I was a child. My brain wasn’t even fully developed yet. And I was in a place where we all learn to survive using our meanest instincts.”

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