A team of McCarter lawyers recently achieved a significant pro bono victory in which a federal jury awarded $500,000 in punitive damages to an inmate who accused a Delaware prison guard of sexually assaulting him during a pat down in 2014. After a two day trial, the jury found the guard had violated the inmate’s Eighth Amendment rights during the incident.
The decision comes seven years after the plaintiff first filed his case pro se a few months after the assault. Since the initial filing, the case was dismissed, appealed and remanded before a summary judgment was issued, appealed, and overturned. McCarter was appointed by the Federal Civil Panel to represent the plaintiff in 2020.
The team consisted of partner Daniel Silver; associates Alexandra Joyce and Shannon Dougherty Humiston; and paralegal Mark Hitchens.
Related media coverage includes the articles below:
Delaware Law Weekly (Subscription Required)