CHEHALIS, Wash. — First, there was the arrest of an employee at the Green Hill School who was charged with having sex with a young offender in custody. Then came the arrest of a second Green Hill employee last week, accused of abusing her position and possibly having sex — with the same young offender.
Angel M. Misner, 32, recently pleaded not guilty to a charge of custodial sexual misconduct in Lewis County Superior Court. Emily N. Baker, 29, is charged with witness tampering and abuse of office, but documents suggest she may have also had a sexual relationship with a 21-year-old inmate Robbrie Thompson. Baker pleaded not guilty in an Aug. 15 court appearance.
But, that’s not all.
In February, administrators at the detention facility for young males found nude photos of a former employee in a resident’s cell. In July, lawyers filed a tort claim alleging their client at Green Hill videotaped sexual encounters with yet another staff member, who is already in jail for inciting a fight among the young inmates.
Those are just some of the sex abuse cases reported this year at the Green Hill School, Washington’s maximum-security school for male youth in Chehalis.
Amid a firestorm of controversy related to overcrowding and understaffing at Green Hill, KING 5 has learned the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) has quietly paid millions of dollars to settle sex abuse claims — some of them decades old — against staff members.
Secret history of sex abuse
In the recent cases involving Misner and Baker, Chehalis police investigators said they have audio and video evidence.
Charging documents say “…there is an internal video of Misner kissing” a 21-year-old inmate Robbrie Thompson and phone recordings of Misner admitting she had sex with the Thompson. After her arrest in July, police say Baker conspired with Misner to interfere in the investigation.
Police later reviewed Green Hill security video showing suspicious behavior by Baker and Thompson, in which they spent approximately 18 minutes in a closed supply closet," documents state.
Investigators say they found suggestive photos of both women on Thompson’s phone and “Misner and Baker know of each other’s relationship with Thompson,” who is serving 40-years on a murder conviction.
Public records requested by KING 5 show a long history of sex abuse by staff members at the 131-year-old juvenile detention facility, that now houses male offenders from age 17 to 25 years. The documents show the state has paid $4,485,000 since 2018 to settle claims filed by 23 current or former Green Hill residents.
The sex abuse allegations date back as far as 1978.
“You don’t feel like a victim at the time,” said Sam Hawkins of Renton. He filed a tort claim against the state alleging that he was abused at Green Hill in 1991 by a security officer named Janae. “Essentially, she started to allow me extra privileges,” said the now 50-year-old Hawkins. “As time went on, it turned into a sexual encounter.”
In September of 2021, the State of Washington paid $325,000 to Hawkins although it admitted no wrongdoing on behalf of Green Hill. When asked how the abuse by an older woman affected him, Hawkins is uncertain of the answer.
“I don’t know. That’s a hard question. It’s difficult to separate all of the traumas that we go through as children,” said Hawkins, whose has spent most of his life behind bars, including a lengthy term on a murder conviction.
More lawsuits on the way
“Some of these victims don’t know what their harms are. They don’t have the necessary ability to figure out how this has affected them,” said Patrick Brown, the attorney who represented Hawkins and several other former Green Hill residents whose claims the state has settled. Brown also has current tort claims against DCYF which gives the agency a chance to settle the case before he files a lawsuit on behalf of his clients.
Last month, Brown filed a tort accusing Green Hill counselor Michelle Goodwin of repeated sex acts with his client. He alleges Goodwin allowed the young man to videotape the encounters. Brown wouldn’t comment further about that case, but Goodwin is already in jail charged with prison riot for permitting an inmate assault earlier this year.
In a statement, the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) declined to identify what action has been taken against all of staff members identified in this story citing pending investigations.
DCYF “has a zero tolerance for all forms of sexual abuse,” spokesperson Nancy Gutierrez wrote. “We encourage young people to report sexual abuse. We strive to offer multiple ways for young people to make those reports in a way that feels safe for them."
DCYF acknowledges “an increase in the number of tort claims” following the implementation in June of HB 1618, which eliminates the statute of limitations for child sex abuse. That means claims, no matter how far back they date, can be filed. All of the claims mentioned in this story, totaling $4.4 million, were settled before that law took effect.
But DCYF is clearly bracing for more lawsuits than it has seen historically.
“DCYF, like other state agencies, may agree to settle lawsuits instead of going to trial,” said Gutierrez.
Brown’s research has uncovered decades long concerns about sexual abuse by staff at Green Hill. In January of 2004, an anonymous group of Green Hill employees wrote a letter to the Chehalis police department about their “concern” over the sexual abuse of residents by two female staff members. Other documents show that employees have “resigned in lieu” of termination for sexual abuse, instead of facing punishment and criminal charges.
Read the original letter and a transcription of the letter below:
“I have a case right now where a staff ended up marrying one of the Green Hill school residents who she had a sexual relationship with,” Brown said.
In that case, Erin Stiebritz Snodgrass was pregnant with the inmate’s child when the Washington State Patrol arrested her in 2016. She was convicted of a sex crime before they married. One of Brown’s current claims against DCYF says that Stiebritz Snodgrass also had sex with an underage resident at Green Hill before she was fired, a claim that she denies.
The cases mean that Green Hill is failing in its mission to rehabilitate its some young residents and is harming them instead. They experience, “shame, embarrassment, and then not being able to have meaningful relationships with others,” said Brown.
'She definitely got away with what she did'
In addition to the growing number of legal cases against Green Hill, there are other cases that have not been reported.
An inmate named Juwan filed a complaint about a staff member at Green Hill in 2021.
“I had a sexual relationship with a female staff member there,” he said from the adult prison where he is now serving a sentence for assault. In a phone interview with KING 5 from Cedar Creek Correction Center, Juwan said the sexual relationship with the female security officer soured and she started mistreating him. When he reported that to administrators, he said they punished him by sending him to adult prison.
“She definitely got away with what she did,” said Juwan. He supplied KING 5 with documents showing that a hearing board determined in 2023 that he “does not present a continuing and serious threat to the safety of others” at Green Hill and should be transferred back to DCYF from the Department of Corrections.
Yet, at age 25, Juwan did not want to be sent back to Green Hill where he would age out and be returned again to adult prison.
DCYF confirmed that the security officer Juwan identified left Green Hill after only a few months, but won’t say why.
Brown said his research shows that it is common for DCYF to transfer residents who complaint about sex abuse to adult prison, where the opportunities for rehabilitation and education are not as available.
Read DCYF's full statement below: