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Jury Awards Former Prison Warden $438K In Retaliation Case

Todd Ehlers
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Flickr - creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/

A jury has awarded a former Michigan prison warden $438,000 after finding supervisors retaliated against him for defending a female subordinate who complained about sexual discrimination and harassment.

The Detroit Free Press reports an Ingham County Circuit Court jury returned the verdict this week in the case of Jeff Larson, who was warden at Central Michigan Correctional Facility.

Larson retired in 2017 and took a pay cut when he was demoted to resident unit manager.

The Michigan Department of Corrections says Larson was demoted for failing to comply with all the terms of a court order after he was stopped for drunken driving in 2013. Larson's attorney James Fett argued his client was targeted.

The Michigan attorney general's office, which represented the corrections department, is reviewing the decision.

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