A patient at the Cherokee Civil Commitment Unit for Sex Offenders has demanded $2.25 million from the state for damages including “forced castration” that was inflicted after an improperly close relationship with a CCUSO psychologist.
Jeff Goodwin has requested $1.5 million for “pain and suffering” and an additional $750,000 for punitive damages from the relationship, which has been described in court documents as an “emotional affair” that included sexual discussions. In a Jan. 12 filing in Cherokee County District Court, Goodwin’s attorney, Brad Schroeder of Des Moines, said his client suffered from “prolonged confinement and forced castration.”
“I’m going to let the filing speak for itself,” Schroeder said when asked to specify how his client suffered from the relationship.
Alex Carfrae, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Human Services, did not respond to requests for comment on Goodwin’s claims.
Goodwin sued the state in May 2021, alleging that Shannon Sanders committed therapist malpractice and CCUSO failed to take “remedial action” as the relationship matured.
Goodwin allegedly became obsessed with Sanders and claims to have sent her notes in code and became enraged if he felt he or someone else dishonored her. They allegedly watched pornography together. And Sanders allegedly encouraged Goodwin to fondle himself in her presence and write sexually motivated fantasies about her.
The state has denied those claims.
Sanders was terminated from her role at CCUSO in 2019 after a three-month investigation that stemmed from Goodwin’s complaints that Sanders manipulated him.
Goodwin was left at CCUSO to sort out how he was manipulated. He opted for surgical castration, according to Gus Elgers, a former facility psychologist who treated Goodwin for three months.
Elgers said Goodwin was not under his care at the time he decided to pursue testicle removal, a relatively extreme and permanent form of castration compared to temporary methods involving chemical injections.
“It’s something no (patient) to my knowledge has done in CCUSO,” Elgers said. “What’s weird is that it happened to him.”
Elgers asserts that CCUSO administration intended to treat Goodwin in a way that would lead him to conclude physical castration was a viable option. He claims Goodwin voluntarily pursued the surgery with the consultation of a CCUSO therapist.
“(They) planted the idea in his head,” said Elgers, one of 14 people who Schroeder listed as possible witnesses to the circumstances involving Goodwin. “He didn’t think of it on his own.”
What motivated the continued manipulation of Goodwin, Elgers said, was Goodwin complaining about Sanders manipulating him. Elgers resigned from CCUSO in March 2022 due to irreconcilable differences with administration, including Sanders. The Iowa Department of Administrative Services dismissed a Step 3 grievance Elgers lodged against CCUSO for a variety of administrative decisions — including Sanders’ hiring — because he resigned voluntarily.
In his lawsuit against the state filed last May, Goodwin alleged the relationship with Sanders significantly reduced or eliminated his chances of graduating from CCUSO’s treatment program. Goodwin was actually close to completion, according to interviews with CCUSO patients who know him.
Austin Keck, a CCUSO patient who lived on the same floor as Goodwin when the relationship occurred, told the Cherokee Chronicle Times that Goodwin was nearing the fifth and final treatment phase required for transitional release, a program that allows patients to be employed off campus and eventually live in the community.
Goodwin’s treatment progress vanished completely because he also violated CCUSO rules in fostering the relationship with Sanders, which led to him being demoted to phase one.
“When I first got there in 2018, (Sanders) told me, ‘Austin, we’re not here to have a relationship with you,’” Keck said in an interview this month. “What struck me about her is that she went behind everybody’s back and still had a relationship with one of the most violent sex offenders in CCUSO: Jeff Goodwin.”
Both Keck and Goodwin were deemed by judges as sexually violent predators, which led to their placement at CCUSO. Goodwin has frequented prison and CCUSO since he was first convicted for a 1988 assault in Keokuk. The Iowa Supreme Court in 2004 upheld a jury’s ruling that found Goodwin to be a violent predator who must be committed and treated for sexual sadism, exhibitionism and anti-social personality disorder. A Wapello County District Court Judge committed Keck to CCUSO in 2018 because he suffered from a mental abnormality that makes him likely to commit sexual offenses.
The two were at different stages of treatment in Cherokee. It took Keck three years to reach phase three, which he claimed is a typical treatment schedule for a CCUSO patient. Goodwin reached level two of phase four. Schroeder confirmed Keck’s assertion on his client’s treatment progress.
By being demoted back to phase one after his involvement with Sanders, it basically added years of additional treatment at CCUSO for Goodwin.
“They brought him back down to phase one level one,” Keck explained.
Schroeder noted in the Jan. 12 court filing that a treatment program supervisor at CCUSO might know that Goodwin’s treatment phases “were taken without grounds and in retaliation for Sanders’ situation.” He also claimed his client was denied medical treatment as an additional form of retaliation.
And Schroeder claimed several low-level psychiatric security specialists were either targeted by CCUSO administrators or harassed because they knew about the relationship between Sanders and Goodwin.
Schroeder declined to comment on the filing.
Stan Thompson, an assistant attorney general representing the state, did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.
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