Former Milwaukee inmate awarded $6.7M for alleged rape

MILWAUKEE (AP) — A federal jury in Milwaukee has awarded $6.7 million to a former inmate who alleged in a civil lawsuit that a county jail officer sexually assaulted her several times while she was pregnant.

Milwaukee County expects to appeal Wednesday's verdict, which found that former corrections officer Xavier Thicklen was acting as a county employee when the alleged assaults happened in February 2013.

Prosecutors charged Thicklen with several counts of sexual assault but dismissed the charges in exchange for his guilty plea of felony misconduct in public office in 2014.

The woman identified as "Jane Doe" says she was in the early stages of pregnancy when she was jailed and that Thicklen raped her during and after her pregnancy. The jury rejected her claim that it was unconstitutional that she was shackled while giving birth.