by Chuck Sharman

Nevada’s Board of Examiners agreed on January 13, 2026, to payouts totaling $997,500, settling a trio of lawsuits filed by state prisoners. The Board, which consists of Gov. Joe Lombardo (R), Attorney General Aaron Ford (D) and Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar, approved settlements in two cases filed over shoddy medical care and a third brought by a prisoner held four years too long when the state Department of Corrections (DOC) made him serve a sentence twice.

The victim of over-detention was Delbert Greene, who was 39 when sentenced to DOC custody in 2002 on several felony convictions, including one for robbery. When that four-year term ended, he received an institutional parole, since he was still in prison serving his other sentences. In 2010, DOC Offender Management Division Officer Shelly Williams was notified by a case worker that the order to continue holding Greene did not accurately reflect the parole granted four years earlier. Williams responded that she had received a second amended judgment of conviction. But if so, she apparently never sent a copy to caseworkers, who continued to warn that Greene was being held for a robbery sentence that he had already served, violating his Fifth Amendment guarantee against double jeopardy.

Greene filed an informal grievance, which an assistant warden at High Desert State Prison upheld. But nothing else was done. He then filed a formal grievance, advancing it to the second level when it was also stonewalled. Still finding no relief, he filed a pro se habeas corpus petition, which the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada dismissed six years later when he was finally—and suddenly—released in 2016, mooting his case. See: Greene v. Baker, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17706 (D. Nev.).

Greene then filed suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in the district court in April 2017, accusing the DOC of violating his civil rights with the over-detention. That suit was dismissed for pleading deficiencies without prejudice to his right to refile the claim, which he did in August 2019. The DOC then claimed that he had violated the two-year statute of limitations. But the district court ruled on October 24, 2022, that he was entitled to equitable tolling of the limitations period for the nearly 15 months that his first case was pending. See: Greene v. Williams, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 193116 (D. Nev.).

By that point, Greene was back in DOC custody, serving a life term for a 2017 “habitual criminal” conviction. Appointed pro bono representation from attorneys John L. Krieger and Jordan Marchello with Dickinson Wright PLLC in Las Vegas, he eventually negotiated a settlement of his civil suit for $200,000, inclusive of legal fees and costs. See: Greene v. Nevada, USDC (D. Nev.), Case No. 2:19-cv-01529.

Gregory Wolf

The second settlement included another $200,000 payment, this one to former state prisoner Gregory Wolf. He was 72 in 2018 when he began seeking cataract surgery from medical staff at Lovelock Correctional Center. But two years later, when his sister wrote to state Legislative Commission Secretary Jordan Haas seeking Wolf’s compassionate release, she said he had yet to get anywhere.

“From what I can tell Greg has been following all the proper procedures required by the prison,” Alyn Wolf wrote. “His situation now requires immediate attention. He cannot see where he is walking and is bumping into things and other inmates. He is afraid of falling and also afraid that fights might develop with other inmates that he accidentally bumps into.”

Wolf finally had surgery on his right eye in October 2020, but he said that “the surgery only partially restored his vision in his left eye as a consequence of the delay,” as the district court later recalled. His surgeon said that “it was the worst case he had ever treated, which was due to the length of time it took to attend to his situation.” Wolf’s efforts to get treatment for the other eye were also fruitless, allegedly due to DOC policy that denies corrective vision surgery so long as a prisoner has “one good eye.” As PLN reported, that same policy denied eye surgery to another prisoner who filed a § 1983 suit that he settled in 2022 for $7,500, but which ended up costing the DOC almost $568,000 more in attorney’s fees. [See: PLN, June 2023, p.54.]

With the aid of attorney Margaret A. McLetchie of her eponymous Las Vegas law firm, Wolf filed a § 1983 suit in the district court in 2022, alleging deliberate indifference to his serious medical need, as well as violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. ch. 126, § 12101, et seq. Its settlement included $3,366.36 in costs and $66,000 in fees for Wolf’s attorney. See: Wolf v. Nevada, USDC (D. Nev.), Case No. 3:22-cv-00308. Wolf, now 80, remains blind in his right eye and suffers only limited vision in his left eye.

Steven Scott

The largest of the three settlements was for $597,500, and it went to former state prisoner Steven Scott for his claim that shocking medical neglect left him to suffer gruesomely. According to his complaint, he suffered from hemorrhoids and persistent constipation that steadily worsened over the course of 2019. When he began to suffer from rectal bleeding, a DOC physician ordered a colonoscopy for the “profoundly serious” condition.

But that didn’t happen. Instead of conducting a colonoscopy, DOC medical staff attempted to monitor his condition by testing stool samples. By early September, nine months after the colonoscopy was first ordered, prison medical staff noted that Scott was sobbing during examination, “barely able to sit” because of the pain. He was on a firefighting assignment when he collapsed two weeks later. Taken to a Summerlin hospital, he was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer.

After surgery, he was returned to the prison wearing a colostomy bag, with “a portion of his intestines in a plastic bag taped to his abdomen.” Before his December 2021 release—on parole from his life sentence for being a “habitual criminal”—Scott went through a dozen monthly rounds of chemotherapy. Doctors told him that his condition could have been treated with nothing more invasive than oral medication, if it had been caught sooner.

Since his release, he has undergone radiation treatment, a partial bowel resection and surgery to put his intestines back inside his body. His § 1983 suit was filed in the district court in 2022, with the help of Lawrence & Lawrence PLLC attorneys Nathan E. Lawrence and Joseph P. Lawrence, along with attorney Travis N. Barrick of his eponymous law firm. Scott filed for summary judgment, claiming there was no dispute that Defendants were deliberately indifferent to his serious medical need.

But the district court disagreed and denied the motion on August 14, 2025. It also largely denied Defendants’ cross-motion for summary judgment, which they appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The parties then reached their settlement agreement, and the appeal was dismissed on February 3, 2026. See: Scott v. Sisolak, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 157198 (D. Nev.); and Scott v. Aguilar, No. 25-5848, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 3519 (9th Cir.).

Under the terms of the settlement agreement, $10,000 in costs and $197,175 in fees were paid to Scott’s attorneys, leaving him with the remaining $390,325. When it comes to medical care in prison, “You have no choice, as a captive,” Barrick told the Nevada Independent. But in Scott’s case, he said, “They were just blowing him off.” See: Scott v. Nevada, USDC (D. Nev.), Case No. 2:22-cv-01801. 

Additional source: Nevada Independent

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