Woman to get $525K

The state of CLEVELAND —

Ohio will pay $525,000 to a Cleveland woman who said a guard at the Ohio Reformatory for Women sexually assaulted her when she was an inmate.

The 29-year-old woman said the guard forced her to perform oral sex on him three times in April 2009. She filed suit in a Columbus federal court in 2011 against the guard and other employees at the Marysville women’s prison whom she accused of retaliation.

The settlement — confirmed by David Malik, the woman’s attorney — comes after more than six years of litigation and after a judge repeatedly refused to dismiss the lawsuit.

The guard was fired and then reinstated with the stipulation that he not work with female inmates, according to court documents.

The Ohio Attorney General’s Office, which represented the guards named in the lawsuit, did not immediately provide a comment on the settlement.

“This woman really did this incredible thing,” Malik said. “She is essentially kept alive her desire to fight a wrong when she could have easily quit and the AG’s office did not make it easy on her over the last six years but she persisted and she came out victorious in the end.”

The woman, who served prison time for arson, identity fraud and aggravated theft in Cuyahoga County, was at the women’s prison from November 2008 to May 2009.

Court filings say prison staff first found out the guard may have had sexual contact with the woman through a letter the woman wrote to him in February 2009. The woman said the guard had inappropriate contact with her and that the guard brought her tobacco.

The guard was moved to an all-men’s prison and is still employed by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, Malik said.