Texas county to pay female constable deputies $1.5 million to settle sexual misconduct lawsuit

HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas county has agreed to pay a group of female deputies $1.5 million to settle a federal lawsuit that claimed they were abused and harassed use when a constable’s office turned undercover operations into a drunken “playground for sexual exploitation.” Harris County commissioners approved the settlement Tuesday. The settlement came three years after the women alleged that as rookie deputies in a constable precinct in Houston, they experienced unwarranted touching and kissing, molestation and sexual ridicule during their work in a human trafficking unit.