CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - A woman who was an inmate at a South Carolina prison has been given $55,000 to settle a lawsuit saying she was sexually assaulted by a prison guard.
The woman, who was not identified by name in the suit, said the guard assaulted seven woman in 2017 at the Goodman Correctional Institution in Columbia, according to the lawsuit and settlement obtained by WCSC-TV in Charleston.
In the settlement, the Corrections Department did not concede the agency or guard did anything wrong, agency spokeswoman Chrysti Shain said.
Prison officials also investigated the allegations of sexual misconduct and did not find any wrongdoing, Shain said, adding the guard has retired.
The guard brought food and drugs into the prison to try to get inmates to have sex with him and would grope prisoners when they were alone with him in the greenhouse, the lawsuit said.
The guard bragged about passing a lie detector test by using drugs, the suit said.
The woman waited until she was released from prison to file the lawsuit, but still worried she would be retaliated against, according to court papers.
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