Prisoners and Families Connect with Video Visitation, for a Price by Since 2006, family members and friends of Virginia prisoners have been able to use modern videoconferencing equipment to enjoy visits with loved ones held in state prisons hundreds of miles away. The Video Visitation Program, operated by two Richmond-based …
Pro Se Virginia Prisoner Settles Religious Exercise Suit by Virginia state prisoner Rashid Qawi Al-Amin, proceeding pro se, reached a settlement with prison officials that requires them to purchase Islamic reading materials, CDs and DVDs for the prison chaplain’s library. The state also agreed to pay him $2,000. Al-Amin, a …
$2.4 Million Awarded for Wrongful Death of Virginia Prisoner by On September 13, 2011, a Virginia jury awarded the estate of a Richmond City Jail prisoner $2.4 million in a wrongful death suit. James D. Robinson, 46, was arrested and booked into the jail in 2008 after he suffered a …
Fourth Circuit Reverses Injunction Relating to Publication of Social Security Number on Virginia Land-Transfer Records by Derek Gilna By Derek Gilna The appeal arose from a First Amendment challenge to Virginia's Personal Information Privacy Act, Va. Code Sec. 59.1-442 to 444, part of which prohibits “[i]ntentionally communicat[ing] another individual's social …
Fourth Circuit Reverses Muslim Prisoner Mail Restrictions by The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals remanded for an evidentiary hearing to determine if Muslim publications were a threat to prison security. Appellant/Plaintiff Richard X. Brown brought before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in October, 1970, his § 1983 claim for …
Virginia FOIA Inapplicable to State Corporation Commission by The Virginia Supreme Court held that the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (VFOIA) does not apply to the State Corporation Commission (SCC). On May 13, 2009, George H. Christian requested that the SCC produce documents pursuant to the VFOIA. On May 22, …
Bane v. Virginia DOC, VA, Complaint, Disabled Prisoner Injured in Handcuffs, 2012 CLERKS OFFICE U S. Case 7:12-cv-00159-JCT-RSB Document 1 Filed 04/05/12 Page 1 of 20 Pageid#: 1DISI.COURT AT ROM OKE,VA FlkFZD AF2 2 5 2212 JULIA C.DU E CLE IN TH E UN ITED STA TES D ISTRIC T …
Sawyer v. Stolle, VA, Poole Settlement Agreement, Untreated Diabetes - Wrongful Death, 2012 '' '' f-bole -S -(' .fft.~i_.-v--!l..n IfSETTLEMENT AGREEMEN:f, RELEASE, AND COVENANT NOT TO SUE C..-S ~rj-, THIS SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT, RELEASE, AND COVENANT NOT TO SUE ("Agreement"), is executed on this __d_ day of ().(JR.~} , 2012, by …
$115,000 Settlement in BOP Excessive Use of Restraints Suit by Brandon Sample The federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has agreed to pay $115,000 to resolve an excessive force lawsuit against five BOP employees. While incarcerated at the U.S. Penitentiary (USP) in Lee, Virginia, Michael Montgomery was placed in four-point restraints …
Virginia Wrongful Death Jail Suit Against Correct Care Solutions Settled for $1 Million by A nurse employed by Correct Care Solutions (CCS), the company responsible for medical treatment at the Alexandria Detention Center in Virginia, was fired for lying about the care she provided to a prisoner who later died. …
Virginia Prisoners Held in Segregation Over 10 Years for Violating DOC Grooming Policy by Justin Miller A number of prisoners in Virginia have been held in segregation for more than a decade because they refuse to cut their hair or beards on religious grounds. Since December 1999, the Virginia Department …
Dach v. City of Richmond, VA, Pltf's Case Summary, Police Taser Wrongful Death, 2011 5 MICHAEL J. HADDAD (State Bar No. 189114) JULIA SHERWIN (State Bar No. 189268) GINA ALTOMARE (State Bar No. 273099) HADDAD & SHERWIN 505 Seventeenth Street Oakland, California 94612 Telephone: (510) 452-5500 Fax: (510) 452-5510 6 …
Settlement Reverses Virginia DOC’s Ban on Jailhouse Lawyers Handbook by David Reutter A settlement agreement between the Virginia Department of Corrections (VDOC) and two civil rights organizations that publish the Jailhouse Lawyer’s Handbook (JLH) overturned the VDOC’s ban on JLH and requires that five copies of that publication be placed …
$3,500 Settlement Reached in Double Suit Claiming Due Process and Human Rights Violations by A $3,500 settlement was reached in a consolidated agreement arising from two separate suits filed by Bernard E. Berton, Jr. against the District of Columbia Department of Corrections. The first case arose when Berton, a prisoner …
False Claims Act’s Seal Provisions Held Unconstitutional by The Seal provisions of the False Claims Act (FCA) do not violate the First Amendment, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit decided March 28, 2011. The FCA allows private citizens to bring suit on behalf of the United States …
U.S. Supreme Court: State P&A Can Sue Another State Agency for Records by David Reutter U.S. Supreme Court: State P&A Can Sue Another State Agency for Records by David Reutter The U.S. Supreme Court held on April 19, 2011 that sovereign immunity does not apply when one agency of a …
Virginia Supreme Court Says Plethysmograph Evidence Inadmissible by The Virginia Supreme Court has held that plethysmograph evidence is inadmissible in all judicial proceedings without foundation as to reliability. Matthew Edwards Billips committed several sex offenses involving young children when he was 18 years old. He was convicted of those offenses …
Virginia City Settles Suit for $1.1M after Cop Kills Teen by Aaron Brown, an Alexandria, Virginia teenager, was shot to death in the parking lot of an International House of Pancakes (IHOP) by an Alexandria cop named Carl Stowe on February 25, 2006. Stowe shot at 18-year-old Brown's vehicle to …
Federal Court Dismisses Virginia Lifers’ Parole Suit by On October 25, 2010, a federal district court dismissed a complaint brought by eleven Virginia Department of Corrections prisoners who alleged due process and ex post facto violations with respect to their parole hearings. The prisoners had sought to represent a class …
Fourth Circuit: Virginia Not Immune from RLUIPA Suit by On December 29, 2006, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) was a valid exercise of Congress’ spending powers and that the State of Virginia was subject to its requirements because …
