Lawsuit alleges discrimination by pregnant prison officer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California correction officer is suing the state prison system after she says she lost her baby while responding to a fight between inmates when she was pregnant.

Sarah Coogle filed a discrimination lawsuit Tuesday in Bakersfield.

Coogle says she told officials she was pregnant and asked for a less strenuous position at the California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi. She says she was told that wasn’t possible and she’d have to either take leave or accept another position with a lower salary.

When she was seven months pregnant, Coogle fell while running to stop a fight between inmates and later “lost her baby due to a placental rupture.”

The California Department of Corrections and Community Rehabilitation did not immediately comment on the lawsuit.

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