$3,101,876 Awarded Deceased FBI Informant's Estate After Former Agent Revealed Identity by Emily Mclntyre, as administratix of her deceased son's estate, sued former FBI Agent John Connolly for proximately causing the informant's 1984 death by revealing his identity to mobsters. The estate was awarded $3,101,876. A fisherman and FBI informant, …
PLN Sues Massachusetts DOC Over Book Ban, Added to Approved List One Week Later by For the past five years Prison Legal News has been unable to sell or distribute books to prisoners in Massachusetts because PLN was not on the Dept. of Correction’s (DOC) approved vendor list. Massachusetts prisoners …
Massachusetts DOC Denial of Ramadan Food to Prisoner in Seg Upheld by In an earlier opinion, 44 F.Supp.2d 400 (D.Mass. 1999), the court denied summary judgment to defendants on the request of the Muslim plaintiff, serving 10 years in segregation, that he be provided cereal, peanut butter, etc., three days …
Court Terminates MA Civil Commitment Center Injunction by The Massachusetts Treatment Center for Sexually Dangerous Persons is not a "prison" and persons civilly committed to it are not "prisoners" for purposes of the PLRA judgment termination provisions Persons committed to it received indeterminate sentences of one day to life to …
No Liability for Shooting Suicidal, Armed Jail Prisoner by The plaintiff was arrested and tried to kill himself. He was handcuffed to a wall on the police station booking area for observation, and set fire to his clothing while so restrained. He expressed more suicidal thoughts at the hospital where …
Subjective Knowledge Required for Punitive Damages by Under the Supreme Court's Kolstad decision, there must be proof of evil motive or reckless or callous indifference, meaning subjective knowledge that the defendant may be acting in violation of federal law. As a result, prior law holding that in civil rights cases …
Concealment of Medical Experiments Tolls Statute of Limitations by The plaintiffs sued over medical experiments ("boron neutron capture therapy") performed on their terminally ill relatives in the 1950s and then covered up. The right of access to courts is violated when government officials wrongfully and intentionally conceal information crucial to …
No Cause of Action Under International Law for Medical Experiments by Plaintiffs complaining about being subjected to medical experiments in a mental hospital "have not established a cause of action for civil responsibility for crimes against humanity." (42) Although international law "is an inseparable part of American jurisprudence and as …
Massachusetts Jail Releases Prisoners to Meet Court-Ordered Population Levels by A modified consent decree order entered by a Massachusetts federal district court has resulted in the release of at least 100 prisoners from the Worcester County House of Correction (WCHC). The order came in a class action lawsuit filed by …
Hudson v. Dennehy, MA, Order, Religious Rights Violation, 2008 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS CIVIL ACTION NO. 01-CV-12145-RGS MAC HUDSON AND DERRICK TYLER v. KATHLEEN DENNEHY, in her official capacity as Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Correction FINDINGS OF FACT, RULINGS OF LAW, AND ORDER AFTER A …
Overdetention: When Completing a Prison Sentence Just Isn’t Enough by David Reutter Overdetention: When Completing a Prison Sentence Just Isn't Enough by David M. Reutter One of the most basic functions of a prison system is releasing prisoners when their sentences expire. In April 2007, the Massachusetts Department of Correction …
Spectrum Health Systems Pays Massachusetts $7.5 Million for Fraud in Concert with Civigenics by To settle charges that it misused state money, Spectrum Health Systems, Inc. has agreed to pay the State of Massachusetts $7.5 million. Spectrum is a nonprofit organization that provides treatment for substance abusers; the settlement was …
First Circuit Upholds Ex-Boston Guard’s 46-Month Prisoner-Abuse Sentence by Matthew Clarke First Circuit Upholds Ex-Boston Guard's 46-Month Prisoner-Abuse Sentence by Matthew T. Clarke The First Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a 46-month prison sentence imposed on a former guard at the Nassau Street Jail in Boston, Massachusetts for beating …
First Circuit Upholds $500,000 Award for Whistle-Blowing Boston Guard by Matthew Clarke by Matthew T. Clarke On March 29, 2005, the First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a $500,000 jury award in favor of a former guard at a Boston jail who was harassed by fellow guards after he reported …
Conflicting State Statutes Require Reversal of Massachusetts Riot Convictions by Defendant Randall Spearin and co defendant Gualter M. Camara, both Massachusetts State prisoners, appealed their convictions from a 2001 uprising at the Bristol County House of Corrections (Bristol), where they were incarcerated and led a riot. When they filed an …
Federal Statute Requiring Supervised Releasee to Submit DNA Sample Unconstitutional by A Massachusetts federal district court has entered a preliminary injunction barring the federal probation office from requiring a person on supervised release to submit a DNA sample. The Court's order comes after it found that Leo Weikert, Jr., who …
SJ Reversed on Massachusetts Religious Diet Claims; MA Constitution Affords Greater Protections than U.S. Constitution by In a unanimous decision, Massachusetts' highest court reversed summary judgment on Muslim prisoners' claims that they were denied halal meat, which is required by their faith. Muslim prisoners Rashard Rasheed and Nathaniel Bilal Ahmad …
Police Documents Sought under Public Records Act Exempt for Irreparable Harm Probability by The Chronicle Publishing Company, dba Worcester Telegram and Gazette (T&G), motioned for a preliminary injunction in 1999 to obtain records regarding internal police reports from Worcester Chief of Police Edward Gardella and the City. The City refused, …
Records Requested by Victim Ordered When Police Failed to Justify Lawful Exemption by Massachusetts resident Tameeka Messier filed a motion to compel to acquire documents from the Boston Police Department, Area D 14 (BPD), regarding an injury she allegedly suffered in 1997 during a concert. The BPD failed to present …
Documents Exempt from Viewing under Public Records Act Allowed with Confidentiality Agreement by Because of an underlying civil action brought in Massachusetts against the Bright Horizons Children's Center, Inc. (the Center), alleging sexual abuse of a minor child, the Center sought records of the completed investigation from the district attorney …
