Federal Court Upholds Sexual Harassment Award for Female Guard Harassed by Inmates

The Ninth Circuit has held down an interesting ruling that upheld an award of $600,000 for Deanna Freitag, a former guard who alleged that she was sexual harassed by male inmates. The allegations stem from the conduct of inmates in the maximum-security prison at Pelican Bay.

Freitag alleged that the inmates engaged in “lewd exhibitionism and exhibitionist masturbation” and that the warden and other officials were abusive in failing to stop it by only disciplining the inmates lightly for the misconduct.

A jury agreed in San Francisco, awarding Freitag $500,000 for lost wages and $100,000 for emotional distress in March 2003.

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