Three men who claim they were raped in the Alachua County Jail will split more than one million dollars after a federal civil rights lawsuit was settled out of court.

WCJB has learned that the lawsuit against the Alachua County Sheriff's Office, jail corrections officers, former Jail Director Robert Chapman, and Sheriff Sadie Darnell was settled on September 6th for a total of 1.25 million dollars.

The victims claim they were raped by inmate Randolph Jackson while in jail in 2003. A criminal court found Jackson guilty of battery in two of those cases.

The settlement was paid by Hunt's Insurance Company in Tallahassee, which administers the Florida Sheriffs Association's self-insurance fund.

The decision to settle out of court was made by a board of sheriffs.

State Senator Steve Oelrich, who was Alachua County Sheriff at the time the attacks took place, now works for Hunt Insurance as an insurance agent.

Oelrich says if he was still sheriff, he would have fought for the case to go to trial and would not have settled out of court.

By David Hamilton/WCJB TV 20 News