Maryland settles for $800,000 with former inmate who was sexually harassed, assaulted

Maryland paid $800,000 to a former state prison inmate who was sexually assaulted and harassed by correctional officers in Hagerstown.

The settlement, paid this month, capped off a years-long proceeding in the state’s Office of Administrative Hearings. After a five-day, trial-like proceeding, an Administrative Law Judge ruled in favor of the inmate, Brandon Bowden.

In a March 6 ruling, Administrative Law Judge Daniel Andrews recommended Bowden receive $1 million. The Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services negotiated with Bowden’s attorneys and settled on $800,000.

The Baltimore Sun does not name victims of sexual abuse without their consent.

Bowden was targeted by a white supremacist gang while incarcerated at Maryland Correctional Institution – Hagerstown and sought protection from correctional officers, Andrews found after reviewing evidence and hearing testimony in the case. Two officers refused to transfer Bowden unless he gave himself a sexually explicit tattoo, which he did.

After moving him, the officers continued to sexually harass him. Andrews’ ruling says they forced Bowden to show off the tattoo and wear a shirt with the same design, as well as enlisting other officers to make him repeat a degrading phrase as a “password” to be allowed to enter and exit his cell.

One of the senior guards, Stephen Harbin, once ordered Bowden into an office and, after threatening Bowden, exposed himself and sexually assaulted him, according to Andrews’ ruling.

Harbin was criminally charged in Washington County with second-degree rape, second-degree assault and related offenses. In 2021, he pleaded guilty to one count of harassing Bowden, online court records show. A judge sentenced him to four days in jail and three years of unsupervised probation.

The administrative hearing documents say Harbin was allowed to resign, while six or more correctional officers who participated in the harassment kept their jobs.

Harbin could not be reached for comment. His attorney in the harassment case did not immediately return a message requesting comment.

Bowden was released from prison July 1, after prosecutors in Wicomico County, where he was convicted of burglary, agreed to modify his sentence, according to the lawyer who handled his administrative proceeding, Kristen Mack, of the Baltimore civil rights firm Hansel Law.

Mack said in a statement that the system failed her client.

“What happened to Brandon was egregious and widespread throughout [Maryland Correctional Institution – Hagerstown],” Mack said. “Several other incarcerated individuals were also subjected to this type of treatment at the hands of [correctional officers]. Given the number of [correctional officers], including Sergeants, that participated or knowingly allowed this abuse, it was virtually State sanctioned.”

In a statement, the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services said an investigation under the previous administration “sustained findings, but it was held at the warden level and did not reach executive leadership.”

“Under Secretary Carolyn J. Scruggs’s leadership, the department condemns misconduct in the strongest terms and is committed to bolstering accountability and improving oversight and processes for handling misconduct from across all levels of the department,” the agency said.