Seventh Circuit Upholds Liability but Reverses Damages in Lawsuit Over Illinois Warden and Investigator Using Prisoner as Bait to Catch Staff Member Raping Her
by Matt Clarke
On February 26, 2026, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld a jury’s finding of liability against an Illinois warden and prison investigator who used an unknowing prisoner as bait in an unsuccessful attempt to catch the counselor who was raping her in the act. Instead, the prisoner was again raped. The Court reversed and remanded the damages awarded against the defendants because relevant evidence was improperly excluded.
Margaret Burke was the warden at Logan Correctional Center (LCC). The Illinois women’s prison had a known culture of staff sexually abusing prisoners. Todd Sexton was an investigator at LCC who received a report from a prisoner, identified in court documents only as Hicks, that a counselor, Richard MacLeod, had for months been coercing her cellmate, Andrea Nielsen, into sexual activity with him. Nielsen had to go through MacLeod to get phone calls to her daughter and he threatened to prevent the calls and even have her placed in solitary confinement for a year should she refuse to have unprotected oral and vaginal sex with him. However, Hicks also said that once Nielsen had started a conversation in the shower about MacLeod by commenting “I have to get freshened up for my man.”
Instead of protecting Nielsen, Sexton came up with an “outrageous” plan, which Burke approved of, to use her as bait to try and catch MacLeod in the act. Sexton stayed late on three successive Wednesdays and staked out the vocational building room where the assaults had previously taken place. However, MacLeod continued to have 24/7 access to Nielsen and raped her when Sexton wasn’t there.
After Sexton gave up on his “rape bait” plan, he asked direct questions of Nielsen for the first time and she told him that MacLeod had threatened her with loss of phone calls to her daughter and other disciplinary action if she refused to have unprotected oral and vaginal sex with him. He had also claimed Sexton was a friend of his who would protect him should she report the rapes.
Nielsen filed a federal civil rights action against MacLeod, Sexton and Burke. MacLeod defaulted and did not appeal a jury verdict of liability and award of $19.3 million in compensatory and punitive damages and $2 million in attorney fees. Sexton and Burke appealed.
Chicago attorneys Britt Cramer of Kirkland and Ellis (KE), Alan Mills, Shireen Jalali-Yazdi, and Nichole Schult of Uptown People’s Law Center, and Christina E. Sharkey of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart and Sullivan as well as Kasdin Miller Mitchell of KE in D.C. represented Nielsen on appeal.
The Seventh Circuit noted that, per state law and circuit precedent, a prisoner is legally incapable of giving consent to have sex with prison staff, per J.K.J. v. Polk County, 960 F.3d 367 (7th Cir. 2020). Thus, the district court excluded any evidence of consent, including the “freshened up” comment, as irrelevant. However, this was error as such evidence can be relevant to evaluating an official’s response and damages. See: Walton v. Nehls, 135 F.4th 1070 (7th Cir. 2025). Notably, Sexton and Burke did not claim the sex was consensual but rather that they thought it was consensual because of the “freshened up” comment.
The Court held that, in this case, the excluded evidence did not extend to the finding that Sexton and Burke’s actions were unreasonable, making qualified immunity unavailable. However, it might have affected the calculation of punitive damages. Further, they could not be held liable for the rapes that occurred before the Hicks report but the award of compensatory damages was for all the rapes against all defendants. Therefore, the Court upheld liability against Sexton and Burke but reversed the damages and the attorney fees and remanded for a retrial on damages and attorney fees. See: Nielsen v. Sexton, 168 F.4th 968 (7th Cir. 2026)
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Related legal case
Nielsen v. Sexton
| Year | 2026 |
|---|---|
| Cite | 168 F.4th 968 (7th Cir. 2026) |
| Level | Court of Appeals |