In a settlement reached on December 20, 2024, Colorado’s Sedgwick County agreed to pay $2.7 million to Peatinna Biggs, an intellectually disabled former detainee in the county jail who was raped by the Sheriff during transport. The County initially beat back claims for any liability in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, but that decision was reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. The settlement that was then reached provided some relief to the victim, who was unlikely to collect an earlier $8.25 million jury verdict in her favor against the Sheriff in his personal capacity.

Biggs was being held in the jail on August 10, 2016, when Sheriff Thomas Hanna told Deputy Larry Neugebauer that he was going to use his personal vehicle to transport Biggs to the Logan County Jail (LCJ). Neugebauer was instructed to dress Biggs in her street clothes, which was highly unusual for such a transport. At around 12:15 p.m. that day, Neugebauer saw Hanna place the handcuffed Biggs into the front passenger seat of his vehicle.

But instead of transporting Biggs to Logan County, Hanna took her to his home and with his holstered gun exposed, he offered her $60 to have sex with him. When Biggs refused, Hanna sexually assaulted her. His gun remained on the coffee table during the assault. The Sheriff warned Biggs not to tell anyone of the assault unless she wanted to spend the rest of her life in prison. He didn’t know that during the assault, Neugebauer drove past Hanna’s home while on lunch break and saw the Sheriff’s empty vehicle parked outside the home.

At around 12:51 p.m., Hanna informed the dispatcher that he was taking Biggs to LCJ. Upon arrival, Hanna deposited $20 into Biggs’ commissary account. Nearly two weeks later, on August 22, 2016, Neugebauer reported what he had seen to the Logan County District Attorney, who opened an investigation. Two days after that, Biggs was charged with sexual assault on an at-risk adult, sexual conduct in a correctional institute soliciting prostitution, and first-degree official misconduct. Due to Hanna’s threats, Biggs had not reported the incident. 

The Sheriff was removed from office in a recall election and convicted of misconduct in office in May 2018, as PLN reported. Biggs, with the assistance of counsel, filed a civil rights action. On October 4, 2022, a federal jury found Hanna liable for excessive force, cruel and unusual punishment, and false imprisonment. Biggs was awarded $3.25 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. [See: PLN, Sep. 2023, p.19]. 

County’s Liability Goes to Tenth Circuit

The district court had dismissed municipal liability claims lodged against the County under Monell v. Department of Soc. Svcs., 436 U.S. 658 (1978). Those claims alleged that Hanna’s sexual abuse of Biggs reflected a de facto “policy or custom” that exposed Biggs to a violation of her constitutional rights. The district court, though, reasoned that Hanna’s assault was clearly contrary to established policy, so his “challenged conduct [had not] been taken pursuant to a policy adopted by the official or officials.” Claims against the County were thus dismissed, and Biggs timely appealed.

On July 5, 2024, the Tenth Circuit reversed the district court ruling, holding that a sheriff’s act of sexually assaulting a prisoner during transport may render his municipality liable. The appellate Court recalled that its precedent holds a municipality responsible for “actions taken by subordinate employees in conformity with preexisting official policies or customs,” as well as “actions taken by final policymakers, whose conduct ‘can be no less described as the official policy of a municipality,’” quoting Seifert v. United Gov’t Cnty./Kansas City, 779 F.3d 1141 (10th Cir. 2015). That makes municipalities “equally responsible for actions undertaken by their final policymakers, whether or not those actions conform to their own preexisting rules,” the Court declared, citing Simmons v. Uintah Health Care Special Dist., 506 F.3d 1281 (10th Cir. 2007).

Hanna, the Court found, was Sedgwick County’s final policymaker “with respect to the care of county prisoners, including their transportation.” Therefore, Hanna’s actions toward “prisoner Biggs were undoubtedly within the scope of activities for which he was to set policy.” Moreover, the Court continued, a municipality “can be liable for the torts of its alter ego”—always—and “the Sheriff of Sedgwick County is the alter ego of the Sheriff’s Department.”

The Court noted that a municipality cannot be held liable for all misconduct of a sheriff; “the sheriff must have final policymaking authority with respect to the actions taken.” As that requirement “was undoubtedly satisfied” in Biggs’ case, though, the district court’s order dismissing Sedgwick County was reversed, and the case remanded. Before the Court, Biggs was represented by attorneys with Public Justice in Washington, D.C., along with attorneys David Fisher and Jane Fisher-Byrialsen, of Fisher & Byrialsen, PLLC in Denver. An amici curiae brief was also filed by Rights Behind Bars, The National Police Accountability Project, and The Macarthur Justice Center, all in Washington, D.C., as well as The Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta. See: Whitson v. Bd. of Cty. Commr’s of the Cty. of Sedgwick, 106 F.4th 1063 (10th Cir. 2024).

Following that ruling, the parties proceeded to reach their settlement agreement. The payout they agreed to included fees and costs for Biggs’ attorneys from Fisher & Byrialsen and fellow Denver attorney Hollis A. Whitson of Samler & Whitson, P.C. See: Whitson v. Bd. of Cty. Commr’s of the Cty. of Sedgwick, USDC (D. Colo.), Case No. 1:18-cv-02076.  

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