Former prison officer found guilty of raping women in prison

INDIANAPOLIS – A former corrections officer at an Indiana women’s prison has been found guilty of abuse of power to sexually assault and rape inmates while employed at the correctional facility.

Gbenga Afolabi was arrested by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and subsequently charged with 19 felonies in November 2021 by the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office.

On October 31, 2024, after a two-day trial, the jury found Afolabi guilty of five counts of sexual misconduct, two counts of intimidation, three counts of professional misconduct, and three counts of rape.

Afolabi is expected to be sentenced for his crimes on November 11, 2024.

Which led to Afolabi’s arrest

Court documents show that in July 2021, Indiana Department of Corrections investigators learned that an incarcerated woman had filed a report that a corrections officer had forced her to have sex with him twice in a staff bathroom, according to the documents court cases.

After reviewing this report, investigators discovered that Afolabi had repeatedly forced four women to have sex with him over a four-month period.

Investigators began by reviewing security camera footage from the jail, which showed Afolabi repeatedly entering a staff bathroom with two different women for several minutes, then allowing them to leave when the hallway was empty, repeatedly entering a third woman’s cell and taking her from According to court documents, she was the fourth woman in the bathroom.

Once investigators obtained footage of Afolabi’s potential inappropriate behavior, they began interviewing the women seen in the video.

Investigators initially interviewed the woman who filed a report against Afolabi, and she explained to investigators that their sexual encounter was not consensual and that she was initially afraid to report him after he threatened her with retaliation, according to court documents.

“Nobody would believe an inmate and not an officer,” she told investigators, according to court documents.

Court documents show that the mother insisted that she testify when she learned about the rape and the possibility of pregnancy.

After submitting the report, the woman was taken to hospital for a sexual assault examination, during which the results of the examination revealed the presence of Afolabi’s DNA.

Investigators then interviewed other women seen in the surveillance video, who were initially reluctant to talk about Afolabi for fear that he or the department would retaliate against them.

However, after reassuring the women, the women told investigators what happened.

Court documents show that one of the women told investigators that she placed some of Afolabi’s semen in a plastic bag after she was raped in her cell.

Investigators collected evidence and turned it over to the state police laboratory for DNA testing. Later tests showed it belonged to Afolabi.

Investigators confront Afolabi

On July 19, 2021, investigators met with Afolabi and asked if he had taken any of the women to the staff bathroom.

Court documents show that Afolabi initially denied the allegations, but when investigators informed him about the surveillance video, he changed his statement.

Afolabi explained that, according to court documents, he took the women to the restroom to “get information” about what was happening in the ward.

Afolabi then told investigators that he had not had sexual relations with the women and that, according to court documents, they could collect his DNA to prove his innocence.

Court records show that DNA samples taken from his saliva, a sexual assault kit and semen from one of the women showed “very strong support” for DNA coming from Afolabi.

Contact IndyStar reporter Noe Padilla at [email protected] or follow him at X @1NoePadilla.