Delaware prison boss' sex case: Details revealed
The No. 3 official at Delaware's women's prison had oral sex, intercourse and other intimate encounters over a six-month period with an inmate who often visited and cleaned his office, court records made public Thursday showed.
The sexual relationship between the 27-year-old female inmate and Maj. Fred Way III occurred outside the view of surveillance video cameras in his office, where the door was closed in violation of state prison policy, according to court records.
Details about the sex crime charges against Way, 50, had been sealed Tuesday by a Delaware magistrate at the request of state police. But after The News Journal objected to the arrest warrant being shielded from the public, Attorney General Matt Denn's office intervened. State police relented and let the papers be unsealed.
Attempts to reach Way, who lives in the Bear area, have not been successful.
The warrant reveals the probable cause used to persuade a magistrate to authorize two felony charges of of sexual relations in a detention facility and one count of misdemeanor official misconduct against Way, who has worked for 27 years as a state corrections officer.
In June 2014, Way was promoted to become one of the Department of Correction's seven majors, the highest post within prisons except for warden and deputy warden, and he was transferred to Baylor Women's Correctional Institution near New Castle.
The inmate has been in prison for several years and is serving a lengthy term. She is not being identified by The News Journal under its policy not to name victims and alleged victims of sexual crimes.
She reported the sex acts to staff in mid-June, and Baylor warden Wendi Caple conducted an internal investigation, then notified state police, documents show.
The Baylor prison, Delaware's only facility for women, has about 400 inmates and detainees. Many men are among the approximately 120 full-time employees, though Jason Miller, spokesman for Commissioner Robert M. Coupe, could not say how many.
The inmate told a detective June 19 that she was having a sexual relationship with Way but "would feel more comfortable" speaking with a female detective, the warrant said.
A female detective went to Baylor, where the inmate told her the relationship began about six months ago. At first she and Way "would just talk," but he soon began calling her to his office, "where they would talk about different things" and she could tell he "liked" her, the warrant said.
No man had shown her "attention in a long time so she liked it," she told the detective, and the friendship progressed to the point that "that there was kissing and hugging followed by groping over the clothing and then under the clothing."
About June 12, she met Way in his office and gave him oral sex," the warrant said, noting that surveillance video showed she was in the office but out of sight that day for nine minutes – from 7:39 a.m. to 7:48 a.m.
On June 14, a Sunday when Way did not normally work, the woman went to his office to clean it. She shut the door, and the two had intercourse "really quick," the warrant said. Afterward, she dressed, propped open the door and "went to work cleaning his office.''
Video from June 14 showed the woman vanishing from view for about three minutes before appearing and "propping open the door," the warrant said.
Although prison policy requires that employees who have an inmate in their office must prop open the door or have a witness in the room, the warrant said, Way violated the policy with the woman "numerous times."
Miller said the reasons that the inmate was in Way's office so often are part of the internal and criminal investigations.
He said Way's office, like other security superintendents in Delaware's prisons, is near the "programming and housing areas" and he "must engage with both staff and inmates on a daily basis."
Although it was not unusual for inmates to interact with him or be near his office, he and other staffers have been "advised to avoid one-on-one interactions with inmates behind closed doors unless absolutely necessary to protect the safety and security of the inmate."
Police reverse decision to seal file
The News Journal routinely requests and obtains arrest warrants from the magistrate courts to get more details than police provide. While police and prosecutors sometimes petition to have records sealed in a murder case even after an arrest, it's rarely done in sex or other crimes.
Contacted Tuesday about the sealing of Way's criminal case files, Denn spokesman Carl Kanefsky said he was surprised that had occurred and that his office had no role or knowledge of the effort.
After The News Journal asked Chief Magistrate Alan G. Davis early Wednesday about the sealing, the court provided documents showing that state police Detective David A. Myers made the request Tuesday for the "protection of the victim."
Magistrate Rochelle S. Knapp ordered the file sealed, ruling that "release of any portion" of the warrant "could adversely affect the ongoing investigation" by, for example, revealing confidential information about witnesses or "jeopardizing the safety of the defendant."
A reporter asked several state officials, including Denn, state police Superintendent Nathaniel McQueen and Safety and Homeland Security Secretary Lewis Schiliro, who oversees state police, to open the records about a crime allegedly committed by the high-ranking corrections official. The newspaper argued that redactions could protect the inmate's identity as well as any other sensitive information.
Schiliro spokeswoman Kimberly Chandler countered that the records were not sealed to deprive the public of the right to know about a public official's misdeeds but "to protect the integrity" of the case.
Denn's office pushed state police to open the files, however, and late Wednesday McQueen's spokesman Sgt. Richard Bratz said they would be unsealed. That occurred early Thursday when Alex J. Smalls, chief judge of the Court of Common Pleas, where the case has been transferred, ordered them opened.
Way, who is free on $5,000 secured bail, faces a preliminary hearing July 22, court records showed Wednesday. He had been on paid suspension since June 19, but after his arrest Tuesday, corrections spokesman Jason Miller said his status would be changed to unpaid suspension.
'Frustrating to the public'
In the aftermath of the allegations, state Sen. Greg Lavelle said Way should be terminated from state employment, even before his criminal case is settled.
"The bottom line is he should be fired," Lavelle said. "There's no such thing as consensual sex" between a prison guard and an inmate.
Lavelle, a Republican who serves as Senate minority whip, said the action of Way was the kind envisioned by a bill that would have stripped pensions from state workers who commit felonies while on the job. The Senate bill never got out of committee.
Lavelle said the bill stemmed from disgust at cases such as those of several Delaware teachers convicted of sexually abusing students, but that prison guards and those in law enforcement who commit serious crimes shouldn't get a state pension. Nor should officials who steal money from the state, he said.
"It's terribly frustrating to the public," he said.
Lavelle also wondered how Way continued to be promoted to the highest ranks even though he had cost the state money in a federal lawsuit over prisoner mistreatment and been convicted of drunken driving and driving without a valid license in separate cases. Way also was charged with disorderly conduct in another incident, but prosecutors dismissed that charge.
Details of the criminal cases against Way, which occurred from 2001 to 2004, while he was a sergeant, could not be learned this week because those files are in state archives.
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