Panama City Florida Injury Lawyer Blog

FORT PIERCE -- An eight-member federal jury has ordered the Florida Department of Corrections to pay $630,000 to 14 former employees at a Martin County prison who say prison officials were negligent in curbing lewd behavior directed at them from prison inmates.

The women, a classification officer and 13 nurses at the Martin Correctional Institution north of Indiantown, were originally part of a statewide group of former prison employees who filed suit against the state prison system.

They all claimed that inmates housed in the close management units, which are essentially prisons within the prisons, would routinely perform lewd acts in front of them and shout obscenities at them.

Prison guards, they say, would either laugh or ignore the behavior, and for years their complaints went unheard.

"Nursing is supposed to be one of the last noble professions, and to have that happen to us, it's just unspeakable," said Paula LaCroix-Cutlip, one of the plaintiffs. "I think we all feel vindicated. We're glad that the jury listened, and we hope the department's eyes are opened now.

The amount the jury awarded works out to $45,000 in damages for each victim, a big step from the settlement amount that was proposed by the department before the trial began.

Had they agreed to the settlement offer, the women would have each received about $13,000 each. Wes Pittman, an attorney for the women, said the department had offered as little as $1,300 to individual plaintiffs.

Continue reading "Wes Pittman Wins Lawsuit for Martin Prison Employees" »

Attorney C. Wes Pittman does an interview with Paul Halpern from Lawyers and Settlements on Product Liability and Sexual Harassment in Florida Prisons.

C. Wes Pittman is a founder and principal in The Pittman Firm, PA, a firm specializing in personal injury and consumer cases nationwide, although primarily in Florida, Georgia and Alabama. A 1976 graduate of the University of Florida's Frederick G. Levin College of Law, Pittman's practice covers a wide and varied range of cases.

News Herald

Nurses win lawsuit against DOC
David Angier and Will Glover
PANAMA CITY, FL

A federal jury ruled Friday the state Department of Corrections can be held responsible for prisons being a sexually hostile environment for female nurses.

Twenty-eight nurses from four prisons sued the Department of Corrections for violation of human and civil rights. Jurors deliberated for several hours before returning a verdict in favor of the women, with damage awards ranging from $37,500 to $97,500 per nurse, said one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, Wes Pittman of Panama City. Most of the awards were in the upper range, he said.

"It is a magnificent verdict that finally provides justice for these women, who have complained hard and loud for years with no one in the prison system listening or providing relief whatsoever," Pittman said.

It was not known late Friday if the state would appeal the verdict.

The nurses -- Kathleen Rudolph, Beverly Jenkins, Patricia Anderson, Nancy Mitchell, Sharon Hagan, Marsha Bigler, Bonnie Farrior, Edna Merido Hall, Marla Walker, Sandra Lewis, Mary Adiar, Carol Woods, Melanie Beckford, Charlene Fontenu, Tila De La Cruz, Lee Wascher, Linda Jones, Joyce Meyer, Sushma Parekh, Lourdes Silvagnoli, Janet Smith, Michelle Pollock, Vesna Poirier, Susan Black, Donna Pixley, Paula LaCroix, Olivia Crisafi and Jean Garrett -- said in their complaint the department "fostered" the sexual harassment of female nurses by prisoners in the four prisons where the nurses worked.

The nurses named Washington Correctional Institution in Washington County, Martin Correctional Institution and Lake Correctional Institution, both near Orlando, and Glades Correctional Institution on the East Coast near West Palm Beach.

Continue reading "Federal Jury Rules In Favor Of Florida Nurses" »

News Herald - February 11, 2007

By David Angier

GREENHEAD
A professional life in prison does not have to be one of hard time.
Two weeks ago, a federal jury awarded 12 nurses from Washington Correctional Institution between $37,500 and $97,500 each for damages they suffered when prison officials allowed inmates to sexually harass them.

The Department of Corrections has not decided whether to appeal the verdict. Three other state prisons face similar lawsuits. The nurses' lawyer, Wes Pittman of Panama City, said Thursday the situation at the Washington County prison has improved.

"Two things came about to make things better," Pittman said. "After Randall Tift came to Washington C.I., he sent a directive to the sergeants and captains implementing 30 directives, and things started improving. Then we filed our lawsuit and for several months, things started to shape up."

Problems arose while the nurses were working with "close management custody" prisoners, those who had been taken out of the general population for behavioral problems. Washington prison didn't take close management custody prisoners until 1996 or 1997, Pittman said.

"They didn't have any problems at first," he said. "Then some prisoners started acting out, and others saw they could get away with it and everybody started doing it. The prison lost control of the situation." The prison staff failed to enforce its own policies regarding prisoner behavior, Pittman said. Then the management in place at the time made it clear to the nurses their complaints were not welcome, he said. "The guards would just walk away laughing," Pittman said.

He said the prisoners would listen for the nurses' arrival, then stand on their toilets or rolled mattresses so they could be seen in the control booth. They would then expose themselves to the nurses and masturbate in their direction while shouting obscenities. "They called it 'gunning,'" Pittman said. "That denotes the hostility involved."

Since 2001, however, the situation began a gradual improvement. In 2003, the state moved the close management prisoners out of Washington C.I. to the Santa Rosa County prison.

Continue reading "Prison Life Improving for Nurses" »