Alabama Corrections Officer Can Sue Department for Retaliation

The Alabama Department of Corrections must face a retaliation claim brought by a terminated former corrections officer, a federal court ruled.

The William Donaldson Correctional Facility and one of its lieutenant officers, Eddie Watts, asked the US District Court for the Northern District of Alabama to grant them summary judgment on claims brought by former officer Takira Taylor. She alleged sex discrimination, disability discrimination, sexual harassment, and retaliation claims against the ADOC, and made allegations of sex discrimination, invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and assault and battery against Watts.

Watts and Taylor “began a consensual sexual relationship ...