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| Federal jury awards $300,000 to state worker raped by inmate |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 04/11/2005 |
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A federal jury awarded $300,000 in damages last Friday to a former state prison worker who was kidnapped at knifepoint and raped by an inmate in 2001. The jury in U.S. District Court held that the woman's supervisors in the Wisconsin Department of Corrections should not have allowed her to be left alone with inmate John Spicer, who later was sentenced to 53 years in prison in the assault. Authorities said Spicer sneaked up on the woman, held an 8-inch knife to her throat and ordered her to a bathroom, where he sexually assaulted her. At the time, Spicer was an inmate at the Oregon Correctional Center in suburban Madison doing janitorial work at the departmental offices. The woman was a payroll and benefits specialist who was working late on Dec. 28, 2001. After the assault, Spicer left her naked and locked in the bathroom as he escaped from the prison and fled in her car. The jury last Friday made the award for the woman's pain and suffering after a week-long civil trial. The award was the maximum possible against the state under a federal workplace discrimination law. The jury last Wednesday had held the department liable for failing to protect the woman. The woman claimed she warned her supervisors that she felt unsafe after she was left alone with Spicer, who was serving an armed robbery sentence, just one week prior to the rape. She said she told her supervisors at a holiday party he scared her and was assured she would not be left alone with him again. |
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