Bob's blunders? Male inmate in women's prison assaults female under WA governor's trans policy

Bob Ferguson is the most unpopular Washington state governor in his first six months in more than 30 years, with fewer than one-in-three registered voters giving him "excellent" or "good" marks, according to a recent poll. 

The Democrat may be headed for even worse poll numbers in the wake of a new reported assault against a female inmate by a male inmate with a documented history of physical and sexual assault of both adult and child females, in and out of prison, whose placement in a women's facility is possible under a gender identity policy Ferguson championed.

America First Policy Institute threatened to sue the Washington Department of Corrections and Washington Corrections Center for Women in an Aug. 13 letter if they do not "take immediate and concrete measures to protect the females in your custody" by revoking the "Transgender Inmate Policy and immediately removing all biological males from the facility."

It posted a recording of the unidentified female inmate describing the alleged Aug. 7 assault by six-foot-four-inch Christopher Scott Williams, who reportedly pleaded guilty to "third-degree assault with sexual motivation" as a 16-year-old on his 9-year-old sister and was subsequently twice convicted for failing to register as a sex offender.

"She is an entire foot shorter than the male who attacked her," AFPI senior attorney Leigh Ann O'Neill told Just the News, describing Williams' accuser. O'Neill said the recording was edited down from "around 20 minutes" to just the portions where the female inmate "describes what happened" with Williams.

The Daily Caller News Foundation reported July 1 that Williams had been inexplicably transferred back to a male prison June 20, but the same inmate tracking system for victims now shows Williams – identified as female – was back in WCCW as of July 10. 

AFPI's letter traces the brief removal to a lawsuit alleging Williams repeatedly violated his female cellmate Mozzy Clark three years ago, as documented in her ongoing lawsuit against the state, DOC and several officials.

"During the time Ms. Clark was locked in a cage with this man, he continually talked to her in a sexually explicit manner, touched his genitals luridly in front of her, threatened Plaintiff with sexual violence, and when prison officials did nothing about this behavior, went on to sexually assault her multiple times," the December 2024 complaint says.

The parties in Clark's lawsuit "agree on the essential terms" of a protective order sought by the defendants "governing the production of confidential information and records" on Williams, who also goes by Christy, according to an Aug. 1 filing by the defendants.

'My teeth shifted' when male inmate hit her in front of passive guard

"I'm at the microwave and all of a sudden I was hit really hard in the side of the face," the female inmate is heard in the recording saying about Williams. He kept hitting her as she "pushed him away … I guess he had me by my hair and threw me down," then started kicking her.

A female prison officer was standing "like 10 feet away" but "didn't even say to stop fighting or anything," later claiming "she was afraid for her own safety," the inmate says.

"I'm gonna have to pay to go to an orthodontist" because "my teeth shifted" when Williams hit her and gave her mouth a "laceration," according to the recording. She has "panic attacks," "night terrors" and inability to concentrate as well as trouble sleeping from her "super tender" back of the head where allegedly Williams hit her.

"I've talked to some officers, and I'm just like please, please, like if he comes back in here, you have to tell me, like because I'm terrified," the inmate says.

"In the end, Williams was pulled away from the victim by several other female inmates who intervened," AFPI's warning letter says. 

"Alarmingly, it is our understanding that he remains at WCCW in segregation, and there is no assurance that he will be removed," the group said. Female inmates who witnessed the assault reported "psychological trauma" and "extreme fear in moving about the facility, knowing that a male may be around any corner."

Public records obtained by DCNF show Williams was first identified as "she" in a March 2019 note "highlighting three serious prison infractions," contained in a "custody review summary," but that a review committee denied Williams' requested women's transfer that November due to "level of past violence towards women," instead recommending single-cell male housing.

Williams kept asking for a transfer to WCCW due to "ongoing sexual exploitation in Male Facilities" and invoking the Violence Against Women Act. The inmate's infractions summary, obtained by DCNF, includes sexual harassment, fighting and "providing false information during an investigation of sexual misconduct."

"Housing biological males in these spaces – regardless of intent – undermines every safeguard those institutions were designed to provide," O'Neill said. "The physical harm and psychological trauma these women are reporting is real, and it’s preventable."

Neither Ferguson's office nor DOC answered Just the News queries for their response to the reported assault and how it might affect their view of the transgender policy.

51 complaints as of March, from groping to physical assault

It's not the first warning the President Trump-tied AFPI has given the state, claiming in a March 5 letter that 51 female inmates to date had reported submitting internal complaints at WCCW outlining harms, including groping, "repeated sexual advances," "voyeuristic behavior" and physical assault, they have endured from the transgender policy.

The complaints were documented by AFPI's partner Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism, which organized a pressure campaign against DOC in January – on the eve of Ferguson's swearing-in – to not "preemptively grant" male requests for transfer back to WCCW or release "into the general population at WCCW" from solitary confinement. 

FAIR tried to convince Ferguson as attorney general the previous fall, before his election but after conversations with DOC officials, to approve "feasible" and "legally defensible" policy changes that could "alleviate many concerns" by female inmates and are not in conflict with a transgender settlement agreement with Disability Rights Washington.

WCCW Superintendent Charlotte Headley responded to AFPI on March 12, distinguishing "transgender women" inmates from the "male staff, male visitors, and male volunteers" that WCCW inmates encounter "daily" – seeming to imply that female inmates' fears are illogical.

"WCCW houses transgender men, transgender women, non-binary individuals, and cis women, all of whom may have experienced some form of trauma in their background," she said. 

"It is important to note there are multiple studies showing transgender people are at risk; transgender women are significantly more likely to be victimized when housed in male facilities," Headley said without naming the studies while portraying the options as zero-sum.