ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) _ A 17-year-old former inmate has filed a lawsuit against the Florida Department of Corrections, claiming he was raped with a broom handle, stabbed with barbed wire and brutally beaten by other inmates while a guard stood by and did nothing.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Ocala is asking for an unnamed amount of money for the former inmate’s physical injuries and emotional distress while he was at the Sumter Correctional Institution.
Department of Corrections spokesman McKinley Lewis says his agency doesn’t comment on ongoing litigation.
The lawsuit says the teen’s 2013 attack was part of an initiation to the prison known as “Test of Heart.”
The inmate, who goes by the initials R.W. in the lawsuit, is set to be released next year.
