The attorney for a man who was allegedly sexually assaulted Sunday at O'ahu Community Correctional Center said the victim is a transgender inmate and that the assailant is a male corrections officer.

Lawyer Myles Breiner said his client, 31, is being held at OCCC while awaiting transfer to Laumaka Work Furlough Center, a transitional program for inmates who are about to be released. Breiner said his client has served eight years of a 10-year sentence for burglary and was transferred to OCCC from Halawa Correctional Facility late last year.

Breiner said his client has the appearance of a woman, but has not undergone surgery to become a woman. Breiner said the inmate was therefore placed in a prison module for men.

Breiner said his client was working Sunday with the OCCC breakfast cleanup crew when an adult corrections officer followed him to a secluded area of the kitchen and forced the inmate to perform a sexual act. Breiner said a security camera recorded the guard as he followed the inmate to the kitchen.

The incident was reported to OCCC officials as well as to Honolulu police, which classified the case as a second-degree sexual assault. The case remains under investigation.

Tommy Johnson, deputy director with the Department of Public Safety's Corrections Division, acknowledged that an incident was reported and an investigation was launched. But he declined to comment on whether the suspect is a corrections officer. The inmate remains at OCCC.

"That person was immediately taken to a medical unit and offered psychological and mental health services," Johnson said of the inmate. "The complainant is safe and that's all we can comment at this point."

Breiner said he believes the suspect, identified in police reports as a 42-year-old man, has been an adult corrections officer for one or two years. Breiner said there may have been an arrest in the case, but police records yesterday did not show that anyone was arrested in connection with the case.

Regardless of where he was confined, Breiner said, this incident shouldn't have been allowed to occur. Breiner said most of the adult corrections officers are highly qualified, but that more should be done to evaluate people who become guards.

"The vast majority do their job and they're professional. The problem is you get people in it who are not properly trained, especially dealing with inmates like my client who are transgender individuals. They deserve the same protection as anyone else," Breiner said.