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June 12, 2009
CO: CO: Woman Prisoner Awarded $1.35 Million After Repeated Sexual Assaults by Guard
National Briefing | Rockies
Colorado: Inmate Awarded $1.35. Million
By DAN FROSCH
Published: June 11, 2009
NY Times
A female inmate who was raped by a sergeant at the Denver Women’s Correctional Facility was awarded more than $1.35 million by a federal judge on Wednesday in a civil lawsuit she had brought. The judge, David M. Ebel of the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, wrote that he set the damages high to try to discourage other guards from sexually assaulting inmates in Colorado prisons. The inmate in the case said she had been repeatedly sexually assaulted by the corrections sergeant, LeShawn Terrell, beginning in 2006, but had been too terrified to report the assaults. The ruling was sharply critical of the Denver District Attorney’s Office for allowing Mr. Terrell to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of unlawful sexual contact, for which he received a 60-day jail sentence and five years’ probation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/12/us/12brfs-INMATEAWARDE_BRF.html?scp=2&sq=Colorado&st=cse
Posted by lois at June 12, 2009 01:30 PM