Wynona Mixon

Wynona was raped on August 12, 2011 at the federal penitentiary in Tucson, AZ. In her own words, “the rape was not the worst thing to happen to me.” She had reported the person in charge of investigations at the prison, Al Mendez, for falsifying investigations. He swore retaliation. On April 11th 2014, Wynona was arrested by the police and charged with raping her rapist. Later she learned the person investigating her was Al Mendez. After she was acquitted, the FBI arrested Mendez and he plead guilty to perjury. The judge found that the federal government had reason to know Mendez was corrupt, and that the DOJ and EEOC had recommended steps to take to better protect female workers in the Bureau of Prisons. These steps were never taken. Wynona was only awarded $300,000 after 11.5 years of fighting, almost nothing compared to what she lost because of a corrupt government official retaliating against her.