Ex-NJ Corrections Officer Entitled To $10M, Appeals Court Rules

A New Jersey appeals court just ruled that a former female corrections officers should be paid $10 million in damages after she said she was forced to resign after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

The corrections officer is Shelley Pritchett.

The appeals court ruled that the state should have approved her request for an unpaid leave after her doctor told her she was in the early stages of multiple sclerosis (MS).

This ruling was handed down from an appeals court last Tuesday. The judges affirmed an earlier court's decision to award Pritchett $10 million in punitive damages. The judges ruled that Pritchett's superiors at the Juvenile Justice Center failed to accommodate her "and took discrimination action under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination."

Pritchett worked as a senior juvenile corrections officer in one of New Jersey's juvenile correctional facilities. On June 8, 2011, she broke up a fight between two inmates and as a result, she suffered injuries to her back, knee and neck.

She went on Workers' Compensation leave, and sought medical assistance. In the fall of that year, Pritchett's physician noticed that an MRI of her spine revealed abnormalities unrelated to her workplace injuries.

"Because of those abnormalities and Pritchett's physical complaints, her physician suspected that Pritchett was suffering from the early stages of multiple sclerosis (MS)," read the court's decision. "In a note dated September 17, 2011, her physician wrote that Pritchett had recovered from her workplace injuries and could return to work with no restrictions on their account, but the doctor recommended that Pritchett ask for additional leave time to seek a diagnosis and treatment for her underlying health issues and referred her to a neurologist."

Consistent with the physician's recommendation, Pritchett submitted a request for unpaid leave from her JJC position, and her request was denied by her superiors.

She quit her job in November 2012, and sued the state for discrimination in 2013. She was successful in her lawsuit, and was awarded $10 million in punitive damages.