Western District of North Carolina courthouse in Asheville, NC. Credit: Google Transgender Woman Awarded $150K Default Judgment Against Corrections Officer for Alleged Assault
Unlike other cases where traumatized plaintiffs have requested punitive damages in their complaints, transgender female Haleem Gilliland did not raise the request until the default judgment stage.
November 08, 2024 at 01:04 PM
3 minute read
A federal judge in North Carolina this week awarded $150,000 to a transgender woman who alleged she was sexually assaulted by a corrections officer while held in single cell confinement in Mecklenburg County.
In a six-page order issued Nov. 6 by the U.S. District Judge Frank D. Whitney of the Western District of North Carolina awarded the default judgment against defendant Kyle Harris of Mecklenburg County Detention Center in Charlotte. Although the plaintiff, Haleen Gilliland, a transgender woman, sought $1 million in damages against the defendant, for emotional distress, Whitney found only $150,000 in compensatory damages to be appropriate after Harris failed to file an answer to the claims.
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