CHICAGO (AP) – Cook County’s commissioners approved a $14 million settlement of a lawsuit filed by female jail workers and assistant public defenders that contend a pattern of sexual misconduct along with physical and verbal abuse by detainees at the Illinois facility. The lawsuit filed in 2017 alleged Cook County Jail authorities did not do enough to stop male detainees from exposing themselves, masturbating and threatening attorneys in courtroom lockups and the county jail. It claimed that at one point the sheriff rewarded detainees with a pizza for going 30 days without exposing themselves or masturbating. Both Sheriff Tom Dart and Public Defender Amy Campanelli denied the allegations.
