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$1,800 Awarded in PA Retaliation Suit

On June 25, 1999, U.S. district court judge James McClure Jr. awarded $1,800 in damages to a Pennsylvania jail prisoner who was retaliated against for complaining about jail conditions. The judge also awarded $1 in nominal damages to another prisoner with a similar claim.

In 1993 a class action suit was filed challenging conditions of confinement at the Lackawanna county jail in Scranton, Pennsylvania. That suit was settled with the county agreeing to build a new jail. The plaintiffs' claims for compensatory damages went to a jury trial in June, 1.999. The jury returned a verdict of $1,800 in damages to Mark Tourscher and $1 in nominal damages to Jerome Boykin. The jury held that the jail warden, Thomas Gilhooley, had retaliated against both prisoners for complaining about jail conditions.

The court entered judgment in favor of Tourchser and Boykin and awarded them $1,800 and $1 in damages, respectively. The plaintiffs were represented by Angus Love of the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project. The ruling is unpublished. See: Hunt v. Gilhooley, USDC MDPA, Case No. 3:CV-93-0846.

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Related legal case

Hunt v. Gilhooley