George McMillan insisted to the end that the lawsuit filed a few months before he lost the 2005 sheriff’s election was about politics.

But that didn’t seem to register amid 10 women’s stories of groping, inappropriate comments and sexual advances, all delivered during a three-day federal trial sparked by a former deputy’s sexual harassment claims.

On Wednesday, a jury awarded $325,000 to Lespia King, who said her four years as a city deputy were spent in fear of McMillan’s forceful hugs and requests that she leave her boyfriend, another deputy, for a relationship with the sheriff.

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