Virginia DOC Settles Lawsuit to Improve Communication for Deaf Prisoners by The Virginia Department of Corrections (VDOC) has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by deaf prisoners. The settlement makes substantial changes to improve such prisoners’ ability to interact in the prison environment and rehabilitate themselves. “We believe the settlement …
Sawyer v. Stolle, VA, Complaint, Untreated Diabetes Wrongful Death, 2011 Case 2:11-cv-00446-RGD-TEM Document 1 Filed 08/11/11 Page 1 of 23 PageID# 1 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA EVEL YN SAWYER as Administratrix of the ESTATE OF DOUGLAS POOLE 721 Stanwix Square Norfolk, VA …
No Right to Destruction of Juvenile Records in Virginia by David Reutter By David M. Reutter The Virginia Supreme Court has held that there is no vested right under state law to have juvenile records destroyed. The Court, however, found that an expert’s testimony was inadmissible because that testimony was …
Former Virginia Beach Sheriff Received Insider Information on Jail Contract by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke Within a few days after his retirement as Sheriff of Virginia Beach, Virginia in late 2009, Paul Lanteigne went to work for Conmed Healthcare Management, Inc. and began exchanging emails with and receiving documents …
Blind Virginia Prisoner Settles Suit to Accommodate Disability by A blind prisoner has settled her federal lawsuit that claimed the Virginia Department of Corrections (VDOC) and Virginia Department of Correctional Education (VDCE) violated Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act by failing …
Virginia DOC Settles Censorship Suit Over The Final Call by The Virginia Department of Corrections (VDOC) has agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by a prisoner at Red Onion State Prison over the rejection of numerous issues of The Final Call, a newspaper of the Nation of Islam. Kelvin Brown …
Hopes Dashed for Criminal Defendants Facing Deportation in Virginia by Derek Gilna In an interesting development resulting from the case of Padilla v. Kentucky, 130 S.Ct. 1473 (2010) [PLN, Aug. 2010, p.11], a General District Court in Loudoun County, Virginia reopened four cases involving defendants who said they would not …
Virginia ACLU Requests DOJ Investigation into Jail Deaths by Mark Wilson The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Virginia has asked the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate conditions at the Richmond City Jail following the June 2010 deaths of two prisoners, one of which was heat-related while the …
Fourth Circuit: Most Police Records in DNA Exoneration Case Are Public by On October 1, 2004, the Fourth Circuit court of appeals decided that most of the sealed documents in a lawsuit involving the DNA exoneration of a man convicted of a rape-murder should be available to the public. Earl …
Virginia Prisoner’s 8th Amendment Claims Dismissed by From January 1994 to September 1994, Darrell Coppage was a prisoner at the Rappahanock Security Center (RSC) in Virginia. For several months of his stay at RSC, Coppage experienced pain, paralysis, and incontinence due to an undiagnosed cancerous tumor at the base of …
Virginia Federal Court Invalidates DOC Ban on Sexually Explicit Books by David Reutter by David M. Reutter A U.S. District Court has held that a Virginia Department of Corrections (VDOC) policy which prohibits “works of literature which include an explicit description of a sexual act or intercourse” is unconstitutional, both …
D.C. Department of Corrections Employee Exposed to Environmental Pollutants Settles for $10,000 by On July 18, 2006, the District of Columbia paid $10,000 to settle with a Department of Corrections employee who suffered respiratory illness after exposure to environmental pollutants. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the …
Virginia Prisoner Kills Cellmate, Requests Death Sentence by Mark Wilson “I murdered that man cold-bloodedly. I planned it, and I’m gonna do it again,” said Virginia state prisoner Robert Gleason, Jr., 40, after murdering his cellmate, Harvey Gray Watson, Jr. “Someone needs to stop it. The only way to stop …
Fourth Circuit Vacates Pornography Restriction on Federal Defendant by The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has vacated a set of supervised release conditions that prohibited a defendant from possessing pornography, entering places where pornography could be obtained, having contact with children and requiring that the defendant undergo …
Virginia Grand Jury Finds Misconduct at County Jail by Michael Brodheim The findings of a Virginia grand jury convened in September 2007 to investigate “conditions that involve or tend to promote criminal activity” at the Henry County Jail were released to the public on February 1, 2010. After interviewing current …
PLN Settles Censorship Suit Against Virginia DOC for $125,250 by Prison Legal News announced on September 23, 2010 that it had settled a censorship lawsuit against the Virginia Department of Corrections (VDOC) for $125,250 in damages, attorney fees and costs. In October 2009, PLN filed suit against Gene M. Johnson, …
Minnis v Johnson VDOC, VA, Consent MTD - Settlement Agreement, deaf disabled prisoners, 2010 Case 1:10-cv-00096-TSE-TRJ Document 107 Filed 11/09/10 Page 1 of 32 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA Alexandria Division GARY MINNIS, et al., Plaintiffs, v. GENE JOHNSON, et al., Defendants. ) …
Burnette v. Fahey, VA, Opinion, Class Action Parole Denial Eligibility, 2010 Case 3: 10-cv-00070-REP Document 20 Filed 10/25/1 0 Page_.~ .9f 28 n II ~ IN THE UNITED ST~ES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA Richmon~ Division OCT 25 Plaintiffs, Civil Action No. 3:10CV70 HELEN F. FAHEY, et …
Virginia Issues Report on Monitoring of Sex Offenders Subject to Registration by by Matt Clarke In January 2010, the Virginia State Police (VSP) issued a report on the monitoring of sex offenders who are required to comply with registration laws. The report noted a high rate of compliance (94%) with …
Thou Shalt Not: Sexual Misconduct by Prison and Jail Chaplains by David Reutter by David M. Reutter Traditionally, the role of a chaplain in the correctional setting is to serve as a spiritual advisor to prisoners and help them meet the requirements of their religious faiths. Equally traditionally, chaplains have …
