Oregon has agreed to a $295,000 settlement in a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by an incarcerated transgender woman who was subjected to abuse while housed in a state men’s prison.

Zera Lola Zombie’s lawyers filed the lawsuit on her behalf in 2021, alleging sexual assault and discrimination due to her gender identity while she was housed at both the Oregon State Penitentiary and Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla, Oregon.

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Zombie was convicted of first-degree manslaughter in 2014 for the fatal beating of her girlfriend. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison and received an additional 15 years for first-degree assault on a fellow inmate at Umatilla County Jail, according to The Oregonian.

Zombie began her transition in July 2020 while incarcerated at the Oregon State Penitentiary. There, her lawyers say she was assigned to share a cell with a convicted sex offender who “terrorized her repeatedly.” After filing her 2021 lawsuit, Zombie was moved to Two Rivers in August 2022, where she was allegedly sexually assaulted by another cellmate.

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In September 2023, U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken issued a temporary restraining order, requiring the Oregon Department of Corrections to designate Zombie as a vulnerable person, housing her in her own cell and preventing officials from requiring her to shower and change in front of male prisoners and prison staff. Aiken wrote that it was “more likely than not that plaintiff has been repeatedly subjected to abuse, including sexual assault, by male inmates with whom she is housed,” and that officials had failed to provide counseling required by the Prison Rape Elimination Act, according to the Oregonian.

But the following November, Zombie’s lawyer says she was taken to a 2.5-by-2.5-foot segregation cell at Two Rivers, where she was told she would be strip-searched and subjected to a drug test. When Zombie mentioned Aiken’s court order, which required a female guard to carry out these actions, the guards reportedly left her alone in the cell until Zombie urinated on herself.

Zombie said she removed her soiled clothes, and when the guards returned, they allegedly handcuffed her and “paraded her” in her bra and underwear in front of other male inmates and staff. The guards reportedly took her into another room where a male officer conducted a “humiliating body cavity search” for the drugs, which they did not find.

At a subsequent hearing, Aiken threatened to hold corrections officials in contempt of court for violating her September 2023 order.

Zombie was later transferred to Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, Oregon’s only women’s prison, where she is currently held.

As part of the settlement reached this week, the state will pay Zombie $95,000, with $200,000 going to her lawyers, the Oregonian reports.

A spokesperson for the state Corrections Department told the outlet, “We take all allegations of sexual assault seriously and are committed to addressing them thoroughly and responsibly. We uphold our duty to protect those in our custody, guided by a zero-tolerance policy for sexual abuse and harassment. Prevention remains a priority, and we are dedicated to eliminating sexual assault and misconduct in Oregon’s correctional facilities.”

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