Green Hill juvenile detention employee arrested for sexual misconduct after previous involvement with attempted riot
Oct 18, 2024, 9:13 AM | Updated: 10:27 am
Green Hill School in Chehalis. (Photo courtesy of Washington Department of Youth and Family Services)
(Photo courtesy of Washington Department of Youth and Family Services)
A corrections officer from the Green Hill School juvenile detention facility in Chehalis has been accused of having sexual relations with an inmate.
Prosecutors claimed the officer, a 31-year-old woman, had a sexual relationship with a 23-year-old inmate, lasting from February 2023 until March 2024.
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She is currently in jail and faces three felony counts of sexual misconduct. The suspect is back in court next week for her arraignment. If convicted, she could face up to 10 years in prison.
“Ms. Goodman was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail without incident,” the Chehalis Police Department wrote in a statement. “This is the fifth person employed by Green Hill we have arrested in 2024, three of which involved sexual misconduct.”
The suspect, Michelle Goodman, was previously booked, and later released, into the Lewis County jail on multiple charges after she allegedly tried to start a prison riot last March, the same time her relationship with the inmate approximately ended.
Previous coverage on Green Hill prison riot: Chehalis youth detention center employee arrested after being accused of trying to start riot
Jason Wettstein, communications director of the Washington State Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF), stated that Goodman’s arrest centered around a “one-on-one fight” that happened between two youths in early January.
Green Hill School is a state-operated 180-bed medium/maximum juvenile facility that houses older male youth and young adults. 2024 has had 184 incidents investigated by the Chehalis Police Department, dwarfing both 2022’s number of incidents (15) and 2023’s (74).
2024 is on pace to triple 2023’s number of incidents at year’s end.
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“The Chehalis Police Department will continue to aggressively investigate those who are involved in criminal activity at Greenhill School,” the Chehalis Police Department continued in its statement. “Anyone who may have information about this incident or about any other criminal activity occurring in the Greenhill School is encouraged to contact the Chehalis Police Department.”
History of sex abuse at Green Hill
The facility has a history of sexual abuse spanning approximately 50 years between 1976 and the present. In 2021, attorneys Darrell Cochran and Patrick Brown of Seattle-based firm Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala PLLC reached a settlement of more than $2 million with the State of Washington for 10 plaintiffs who, as teenage wards of the state, claimed they were repeatedly sexually abused.
The oldest plaintiff was 18 and the youngest was 14 when they entered Green Hill School, each residing there for one to four years. All known survivors were between the ages of 15 and 18 when the abuse occurred.
The complaint alleged that Green Hill School “fostered a culture of sexual abuse and cover-ups” and thus “allowed and even fostered sexual abuse of residents.”
Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here and you can email him here.
