Pa. DOC settles 2 Pittsburgh prison abuse suits
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Two former inmates have settled sex-abuse lawsuits against the state prison in Pittsburgh after the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections agreed to pay a combined $163,000 to settle the litigation.
A Pittsburgh newspaper reported the lawsuits were settled in U.S. District Court, Pittsburgh.
A transgender inmate who claimed he was raped by a guard settled his case for $98,000. A second inmate who claimed former guard Harry Nicoletti abused and harassed him will receive $65,000.
Nicoletti, of Coraopolis, is serving five years’ probation for his conviction last year that he physically tormented and harassed inmates, mostly homosexuals and child molesters.
That same jury rejected dozens of charges that Nicoletti sexually assaulted the inmates, however.
The settlements were confirmed by the inmates’ attorney, Steve Barth, who says the prison’s staffers “are doing the right thing now, or at least trying.”