DENVER — The State of Colorado paid $300,000 to a former inmate for the failure of Department of Corrections (DOC) officers to protect her from sexual assault by a guard while she was wearing a wire as part of a DOC investigation, her attorney said Tuesday.
The inmate, Susan Ullery, was incarcerated at the Denver Women's Correctional Facility when the assault happened in April 2016, according to a lawsuit filed in 2018. Ullery gave permission to publicly release her name, said her attorney, David Lane.
The State of Colorado agreed this month to settle the lawsuit for a payment of $300,000, documents show.
Bruce Bradley, a former correctional support trades supervisor, was among the defendants named in the lawsuit and the guard accused in the assault.
"Ms. Ullery reported staff misconduct several years ago, which the department took very seriously and which was investigated by our Inspector General’s Office," the DOC said in a statement. "The staff member involved, Mr. Bradley is no longer employed by the Department. Ms. Ullery filed a lawsuit and alleged additional complaints that she had not reported during the investigation, including claims the Department disputed. The department has no further comment on the litigation that resulted from this matter."
Bradley started sexually harassing Ullery in 2014, when she was assigned to work under his supervision at the DWCF loading dock, the lawsuit says.
In April 2016, DOC investigators met with Ullery, told her that there had been reports of Bradley harassing inmates over the previous 10 years but that DOC needed proof, and asked Ullery to wear a wire to record her interactions with Bradley, according to the suit.
Ullery, who was to be released on parole in three months, feared being branded as a snitch but agreed to wear the wire because she was afraid of losing her parole date if she didn't, the lawsuit says.
The DOC investigators guaranteed to protect her from Bradley and would intervene "before anything in the nature of a sexual assault could occur." But then Bradley called Ullery into his office and harassed and assaulted her for about five minutes before a DOC officer came in, the suit says.
DOC investigators later told her that the wire had malfunctioned and they couldn't hear what was happening, according to the suit.
After the incident, Bradley was placed on administrative leave and resigned from DOC in lieu of firing about a month later. He did not any face charges, Lane said.
"Despite the Investigators’ repeated assurances that Ms. Ullery would be protected from any repercussions for her assistance, word quickly spread through the DWCF rumor mill that Ms. Ullery had worn a wire and caused Defendant Bradley to lose his job," the lawsuit says.
Bradley was popular among other inmates for his willingness to bend or ignore rules, and inmates harassed and made death threats against Ullery, according to the lawsuit.
"For 90 days until she was released on parole, Ms. Ullery lived in constant fear that at any moment she would be killed or assaulted," the lawsuit says.
She was released from DWCF in June 2016 and still suffers from flashbacks and night terrors from the assault, the lawsuit says.
Besides Bradley, the lawsuit also named as defendants: former DOC Executive Director Rick Raemisch, the DWCF warden and assistant warden, two more DWCF corrections officers and three DOC investigators.
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