Copyright The New York Times
A jury last month awarded a former California prison psychologist $16.8 million after she reported that an inmate threatened her life after rebuffing his sexual advances and that her superiors turned against her instead of protecting her, according to court records. Jurors in Sacramento Superior Court on Oct. 31 found that the psychologist, Beth Fischgrund, who had worked at Salinas Valley State Prison, in Soledad, Calif., had been defamed and wrongfully fired for raising concerns about her safety. In the summer of 2019, Ms. Fischgrund became the target of a violent threat by an inmate who had previously shown an unusual interest in her, according to court records. “I’m absolutely thrilled about the verdict,” she said on Saturday. “This case has been going on for six and a half years and, for the first time, I feel validated and that people actually believe me now.” It was 2019 when, according to court documents, an inmate became overly familiar with Dr. Fischgrund, who started working at the prison in 2017. The inmate made comments about her appearance and said that he wanted to date her after he was released. During one encounter, court records said that the inmate greeted her in a familiar tone and referred to her by a nickname as she stood in the hallway. Concerned about maintaining professional boundaries, Dr. Fischgrund corrected him, saying, “It’s Dr. Fish, not Ms. Fish.” Later that day, she learned that the same inmate had stormed out of a therapy session, one that she was not leading, furious with her. The unidentified inmate, referring to Dr. Fischgrund, told another clinician that he wanted to “cut her head off,” according to court records. That clinician that day delivered what is known as a Tarasoff warning, a legal obligation for mental health professionals in California to alert potential victims of credible threats. But prison staff were not immediately notified, and the inmate was allowed to walk by Dr. Fischgrund’s office shortly afterward, according to court records. Dr. Fischgrund said that the area where she worked held men convicted of crimes against women and children. The prison houses more than 2,400 male inmates and serves as both a minimum- and maximum-security prison. Feeling unsafe, Dr. Fischgrund emailed supervisors and security personnel, reporting the threat and asking for guidance on proper procedures. In the days that followed, Dr. Fischgrund reported having anxiety, nightmares and an inability to sleep, according to court records. She was granted a brief leave. Two weeks later, on July 17, she received a call from her staffing agency, which placed her in the prison to work there as a contractor, informing her that she had been fired for unspecified “misconduct.” “It’s really taken a toll on my mental health, my professional reputation, and my overall well-being,” she said. Dr. Fischgrund, 45, who lives in San Diego, said that the experience left her questioning whether justice would be served. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which was named as the defendant in the lawsuit, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday. “I’m fundamentally pleased that our legal institution, being the judicial and our jury system, has addressed another institution’s betrayal of a civil servant who only ever tried to help co-workers and prisoners,” Lawrance Bohm, one of her lawyers, said on Saturday.
