Tonight the King 5 investigators
find a pattern of predatory
behavior inside a small town
jail on the Olympic peninsula.
The offender wasn't an inmate,
but a jail officer as Taylor
Mirenda rescue reports,
the behavior went unchecked while
women suffer the consequences and
we want you to know this story
involves difficult subjects,
including suicide and sexual assault
that could make this difficult to watch.
Just over two years ago.
Don Reid was at her home on the
Quillian Indian Reservation in Lapush
when her daughter needed help. This
is a prepaid collect call from an
inmate at Forks Correctional Facility.
We're listening to a recorded phone
line at The Forks Jail where 23 year old
Kimberly Bender made repeated calls to
her mom from a payphone near her cell.
Queen she was suffering
from heroin withdrawal.
I've never had to go through this
with these kind of withdrawals
and I'm doing it by myself.
Literally no.
Dale isn't where we wanna see you really.
Yeah I know but if it saves your
life then you know that's where
I'm gonna think you need to be.
That year in 2019, Kimberly had already
been to The Forks Jail six times,
but this time Kimberly's mom
is the one who turned her in.
So you felt like jail was
a place to keep her safe,
and that's all I wanted.
Was someone to help her.
Help her get clean.
Don wanted Kimberly Aquelle,
you tribal member, to have a future one
that included raising her young son.
But it turns out those four
weeks in The Forks Jail.
Would be Kimberly's last.
They didn't protect her.
I'm Officer Palmer will
push Police Department
less than two weeks after
Kimberly called her mom for help,
she found herself in deeper trouble.
I'm at Forks Community Hospital
with Kimberly Ben tribal
police body camera video shows
her in a hospital bed recovering
from a possible suicide attempt.
It was here that Kimberly made an accusation.
The first inmate to sound the alarm,
that according to court documents,
the city of Forks had a
predator in its missed.
Go ahead and tell me what what
the issue that you are having
with at The Forks jail. Kimberly
reports she's being sexually harassed.
Buy a forks jail guard.
His name is Officer John Gray
and I won't go to the bathroom when he's on.
I won't ask him for really anything. Ray
was a relatively new hire and
city records show he often
worked the night shift alone.
You're starting to really make me feel
uncomfortable being that I am the only
female at the jail right now. Kimberly
says. The guard implied she could use her
inhaler as a sex toy and he harassed her
while dispensing her night medication.
And he's like, well, if you can swallow that,
wonder what else you can swallow?
And it's just. I'm comfortable and.
Do you think that's it? As
a forks police officer investigated
her claims, Kimberly revealed she
wasn't the only one great preyed upon.
She named two women former Forks
inmates who she believed Gray had
sexual contact with in the jail,
possibly even paying their bail money.
It shouldn't have been a shock that
with officer Grey, something was amiss.
Earlier that year,
coworker caught the jail guard
where he didn't belong in the
hallway with the female inmate,
who the cop said looked very uncomfortable.
City and law enforcement records show
Grace supervisor wrote the guard up.
But his boss admitted later
he let the incident slide.
I did just kind of sweeping out of the
carpet because I thought it was just.
You know he was such a hard worker.
City leaders swiftly opened and closed
an investigation into Kimberly's claims.
It was all over within four days.
Victim advocates say it was the right move
for forks officials to launch a probe.
But the King 5 investigators found the city
fell short of examining the whole story.
Did the city of Forks thoroughly
investigate what your daughter reported?
No, they failed her miserably.
The officer who led the city's
internal review wrote he believed
Kimberly was telling the truth,
but the police chief concluded
Kimberly's claims were unsubstantiated.
He said the city could find no real
evidence to prove Gray did anything wrong.
They could have asked more questions
they could have questioned him.
City records show forks.
Investigators never interviewed
John Gray and the two women,
Kimberly, named as other Victims,
Forks police didn't interview them either.
It tells me they were trying
to sweep it under the rug.
During the investigation,
Gray lost his job, but it wasn't because
of the alleged sexual harassment.
The chief cited his probationary status,
a rule that allows the city to let go of
new hires who just aren't working out.
He was able to keep going.
He was able to get another
job. Gray went on to land,
work as a state prison guard.
As for Kimberly, yeah,
this is really bothering
about three weeks after
reporting the harassment,
she went on to take her own life.
She was found dead in her jail cell.
I felt her fear. I felt her anger.
I felt her disappointment.
It's not clear if her death by suicide
was connected to her reported harassment,
but her mother Dawn is convinced
the city didn't do enough.
After Kimberly came forward,
she didn't get treated like a victim.
All we can do is try to prevent the next
travesty from happening in this jail.
Last fall,
the family filed a federal lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges Gray sexually
harassed and tormented Kimberly,
whose death was wrongful and unnecessary.
It blames the city for showing
negligence to her well being
and conditions of confinement.
Attorneys for the city of Forks and
Officer John Gray declined interview
requests for this story in court documents.
The city has denied multiple allegations,
including negligence and Kimberly's death.
This month, Kimberly's family and
other cool you tribal members out
of memorial service for Kimberly
where they called for action.
Let's bring justice.
It was a lively ceremony
signifying and kill you culture.
It's time for the family to move on,
but Don didn't participate
in the song and dance.
She stood quietly in the back, holding
on to her grief while she fights
on behalf of her daughter's life.
The City of Forks can't give her back to me.
And that's what I would wear more than
anything in this world. To have her back.
So whatever happened to John Gray?
He's now sitting behind bars about
a year after Kimberly suicide,
he pled guilty to sex crime and
involving four other female inmates.
The victims include the two women,
Kimberly named Joyce. Thanks Taylor.
If you know somebody who is in crisis
or if you're in crisis yourself,
call the national Suicide
Prevention Lifeline.
That number is 18 hundred 273.
Talk again, it's
1-800-273-8255.