Illinois Woman Awarded Over $19.3 Million in a Prison Sex Abuse Case

An Illinois federal jury has awarded more than $19 million to a woman who alleged her counselor raped and sexually assaulted her for seven months while she was serving a prison sentence at Logan Correctional Center.

On Friday, the jury deliberated for just four hours before awarding the woman, an Elgin, Illinois, resident proceeding under the pseudonym Jane Doe, $8 million in compensatory damages and $11.3 million in punitive damages against prison counselor Richard Macleod, head prison investigator Todd Sexton and warden Margaret Burke. Doe launched her lawsuit in 2018, saying the abuse she experienced while trying to maintain weekly phone calls with her daughter violated her constitutional right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.

Macleod, who was found liable for the assault after he’d defaulted in the case, must pay $10 million of Doe’s total punitive damages award. Sexton must fork over $800,000 in punitive damages, and Burke is on the hook for $500,000, the verdict form shows.

Read the source article at Law360