Illinois prison officials who learned a counselor was raping a woman in their custody left her exposed as 'bait' instead of protecting her, a federal appeals court affirmed
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On February 26, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed a jury's liability verdict against Logan Correctional Center Warden Margaret Burke and prison investigator Todd Sexton, holding that after receiving a credible report that a counselor was sexually assaulting a woman incarcerated at the Illinois women's prison, they chose a plan to use her as unwitting 'bait' to catch him in the act rather than protect her, and he assaulted her again. The court upheld the denial of qualified immunity, saying no reasonable official could have thought their conduct proper, and noted that reported sexual-abuse rates at Logan were the highest among Illinois women's prisons and that a 2016 third-party assessment found some staff expressed contempt for the women. The court ordered a new trial on damages against the two officials only, out of a jury award of $19.3 million against all three defendants.
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