U.S. Appeals Court: SEXUAL ASSAULT OFFICER ON PRISONER ASSAULT.

Daskalea v. District of Columbia, 227 F.3d 433 (D.C.Cir. 2000). A farmer District of Columbia jail inmate who had been forced to perform a striptease in front of other prisons and male and female guards, sued the District and corrections officials for [sections] 1983 violations. The district court entered a jury verdict awarding $350,000 in compensatory and $5 million in punitive damages, and denied the defendants' motion for judgement as a matter of law. The appeals court affirmed in part and reversed in part. The appeals court held that the $350,000 award for mental and emotional distress resulting from the [sections] 1983 violation was reasonable, but that the former inmate was not entitled to punitive damages from the District for negligent supervision, because District law bars the imposition of such awards against the District. The mental and emotional distress award was supported, according to the court, by the fact that the inmate was denied library assistance because she refused to have sex with the librarian, she was attacked with the assistance of correctional officers, she was confined in isolation without underwear or a mattress, she felt constant stress, anxiety and dread of imminent sexual attack, she had to sleep during the day for fear of what guards might do to her at night, she suffered from insomnia and eating disorders, and spent months emotionally and psychologically debilitated, withdrawn and depressed. The appeals court agreed with the jury finding that the District's failure to train or supervise jail employees amounted to deliberate indifference toward the female inmate's constitutional rights, so that the District was liable under [sections] 1983. The court noted that seven months prior to this incident the district court had found the District liable under [sections] 1983 for being deliberately indifferent to repeated sexual abuse and harassment of female prisoners by correctional officers and for failing to train staff to prevent such misconduct. According to the court, the fact that the District jail officers sought to conceal the incident did not insulate the District from [sections] 1983 liability based on its deliberate indifference. (District of Columbia Jail)