A federal security officer working at the U.S. Mint in Denver restrained and raped a nurse in the Mint’s health offices in 2022, a lawsuit filed last week in federal court alleges.
Both the security officer and the United States government were named as defendants in the lawsuit filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court of Colorado.
The lawsuit alleges security officer Ryan Gonzalez used the Mint’s security cameras to track the nurse throughout the building on Nov. 9, 2022, then approached her in the Mint’s health offices while he was on duty and “forcibly restrained” and raped her.
The Denver Post is not identifying the plaintiff because she is an alleged victim of sexual assault.
In a statement to The Post, officials with the U.S. Mint said they fired Gonzalez from his position last year.
“While we are not able to comment on the pending litigation, the safety of our employees is a top priority, and issues of sexual misconduct and assault are taken extremely seriously,” Mint officials said.
Gonzalez couldn’t be reached for comment.
The nurse worked as a contractor for the U.S. Mint and was stocking shelves in the health offices when Gonzalez came up behind her and sexually assaulted her, the lawsuit alleges.
Afterward, the woman “was in shock and her hands were restrained” by Gonzalez, who told her “he was watching her using the Denver Mint’s security system” and using the security cameras to stalk the woman, the lawsuit stated.
“It was atrocious,” the nurse’s lawyers wrote in the lawsuit. “It was utterly intolerable behavior that cannot be excused nor condoned in (a) civilized community.”
In the days before, Gonzalez had made “repeated unwanted advances and a series of sexual assaults” on the woman in the medical offices, including one instance where the nurse had to forcibly push him away after he backed her up against the wall and made unwanted sexual advances, the lawsuit said.
The U.S. government is responsible and liable for Gonzalez’s actions because “the personal injuries, emotional distress and resulting damages that for the basis of this complaint were proximately caused by the negligence, wrongful acts and/or omissions of the government’s employees through its agency,” the lawsuit stated.
The nurse reported the rape to multiple officials at the Mint and the Office of the Inspector General, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit also alleges Gonzalez previously was accused of acting inappropriately with a teenage intern at the Mint.
“The U.S. Mint paid a settlement of about $100,000 to Officer Gonzalez’s minor female victim and also offered to pay her college tuition,” the lawsuit stated.
The nurse is suing Gonzalez and the United States government for personal injury, negligence and violations of her constitutional rights.
Sign up to get crime news sent straight to your inbox each day.
Originally Published: June 24, 2024 at 10:52 a.m.
