After eight years of appeals and retrials, a U.S. District judge ruled last week that no further court action is possible in a class-action harassment suit against the District of Columbia Department of Corrections. As a result, the payout of $9.6 million distributed between approximately 130 current and former female employees of the department could begin as early as the next two weeks. The female employees who brought the suit---many of whom quit their jobs or ended up on workers' compensation for severe depression and anxiety as a result of their harassment---suffered verbal abuse, grabbing and other physical harassment, and even coerced intercourse that in some cases resulted in pregnancies.
See SERGE F. KOVALESKI, The Washington Post, January 21, 2002