$2M Recommended Compensatory Damages + $7.5M Punitives for Inmate Raped by Guard

So a Magistrate Judge concludes in recommending a default judgment in favor of the inmate.

From today's Report and Recommendation by Magistrate Judge Ronald Griffin (W.D. Tex.) in Doe v. Serna-Venegas; the lawsuit is just against the guard (the County had been dismissed earlier, as had some other individual defendants), so it seems unlikely the plaintiff will recover much money from this particular award. Some extra appalling dollops in an already appalling case:

In her Complaint, Plaintiff alleges Defendant had a commercial web page on "OnlyFans.com," where he was paid to have sex with females, including inmates, and post it on his page. Investigators later reviewing videos on Defendant's phone found at least seven different videos of Defendant having sex with inmates at the Midland County Jail. Defendant was ultimately prosecuted and convicted of six felony counts of improper sexual activity with a person in custody.

Comments

[Orbital Mechanic]

I suppose if I hang out in the comment board I will learn about how totally unjustified this award was because reasons and it is just based on woke.

[Frank Drackman]

You have to wonder who would voluntarily work in a Prison for 2,000 hours a year with minimal pay/benefits, maximum danger.
Oh yeah, guys like this, who I hope is on the other end of the Male/Female connection, maybe even several times a day
What’s he going to do? Complain to a Guard?

Frank

[Aladdin's Carpet]

“ so it seems unlikely the plaintiff will recover much money from this particular award”

The issue with tort law it seems is this. You can never sue the person actually at fault because that person can’t pay, so you sue some organization operating at a higher level but more tangentially involved. Simply because that organization has more money. But because, again, they are only tangentially involved, you end up imposing a chilling effect on any activity that involves risk, which makes day to day life more annoying.

Unless of course, that organization is a government, for which we have decided for fairly arbitrary reasons actually we won’t hold the government responsible for tangential damages so you do have to sue the person actually responsible. But they still can’t pay! Also at times that person is made immune by government, so the victim is out of luck.

Seems like a bad system.

[post hoc ergo propter hoc]

so it seems unlikely the plaintiff will recover much money from this particular award

[post hoc ergo propter hoc]

so it seems unlikely the plaintiff will recover much money from this particular award

in my state, punitives make it wilful misconduct and the indemnity/ assumption of liability statute explicitly removes city/state liability for wilful conduct. not asking for punitives/ not getting them would have put city on hook for the 2.5 compensatory (in my sttate, not TX) but the punitives take it all off table. messed up. https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca2/17-3150/17-3150-2020-01-10.html

[ForeignNerd]

I think the first link is wrong, it goes to the same order as the second link.

[Eugene Volokh]

Sorry, fixed, thanks!