Cook County Workers to Get $14 Million in Inmate Harassment Suit

Cook County, Ill., and its sheriff’s and public defender’s offices will pay $14 million and provide other relief to more than 530 women to end a class lawsuit alleging they maintained a work environment in which male detainees masturbated at the women “with de facto impunity,” federal court records show.

If approved by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the agreement would keep in place for another two years court-ordered measures the three defendants were required to implement to curtail the sexual harassment of female assistant public defenders and law clerks. Those measures include requiring all ...