$650K in damages for recruiter sex assault

[unhappycamper]

$650K in damages for recruiter sex assault
By Chet Brokaw - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Jan 7, 2010 19:41:22 EST

PIERRE, S.D. — A settlement in a lawsuit will require the federal government to pay $650,000 in damages to an Oglala Sioux woman who was sexually assaulted by an Army recruiter, the woman’s lawyer said Thursday.

The settlement leaves intact a federal judge’s ruling that an 1868 treaty with the Sioux required the government to pay damages for pain and suffering to Lavetta Elk, said attorney Adam Horowitz of Miami.

Judge Francis M. Allegra of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington ruled in April that Elk was entitled to more than $590,000 in damages under treaty language that requires the government to reimburse Sioux tribe members who are injured by “any wrong” done by “bad men among the whites, or among other people subject to the authority of the United States.”

Elk, a member of the Oglala Sioux tribe, chose to have her name released when she filed the lawsuit.

The government appealed Allegra’s ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals, but the settlement was reached before that court heard the case, Horowitz said. The $650,000 settlement is larger than the lower court’s award to account for expenses, he said.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/01/ap_army_sexassault_ruling_010710/