First Circuit: Win on Plaintiff's Core Claims Merits Attorney Fees by On December 19, 2003 the U.S.. First Circuit Court of Appeals held that a plaintiff who prevailed on his core claims against a Massachusetts police officer was entitled to attorney fees. Plaintiff Phaly Poy, 24, claimed that while at …
Massachusetts: Fact Issues Regarding Gender-Based Punitive Segregation Preclude Summary Judgment by Massachusetts: Fact Issues Regarding Gender-Based Punitive Segregation Preclude Summary Judgment In this case brought by a state prisoner challenging the application of rules governing the Department Disciplinary Unit (DDU), the Appeals Court of Massachusetts held that material fact issues …
Massachusetts Arrestee Subjected to Unjustified Force by The U.S. District Court of Massachusetts determined that a cooperative arestee, who informed Barnstable police officers of shoulder injury, was the subject of unjustified force which precluded summary judgment. Michelle Aceto was arrested at her home for a thirteen year old traffic ticket. …
Massachusetts Prisoner Files Law Suit For Being Beaten By Prison Guards by The United States District Court, District of Massachusetts, denied in part and granted in part a motion to dismiss a prisoner's law suit, for being beaten by prison guards. Wilfred H. Evicci, a prisoner who was housed at …
Retaliation for Prisoner's Complaint is Unconstitutional by The Appeals courts of Massachusetts ruled that retaliation against a prisoner for complaining of prison conditions is unconstitutional and violates the First Amendment guarantee of free speech, provided the prisoner proves the prison officials acted as a result of his complaint. A MA …
MA Mental Health Patient Wins Over $1.5 M for Beating by Hospital Staff by On August 12, 1993, Jason Davis, a Massachusetts state mental health patient at the Westborough State Hospital left without permission and drank an undisclosed amount of alcohol. He was found later that day and returned to …
Sex Offender Treatment Records Not Subject to Discovery by The plaintiff was raped in a McDonald's parking lot and sued the company. The rapist is now in prison and receiving mental health treatment, and the victim is seeking his prison mental health records. Under state law (the case being a …
Attorney Misconduct at Depositions by Defense counsel engaged in misconduct at depositions by improperly "interpreting" questions for the witnesses, coaching them as to how to answer, engaging in lengthy speaking objections and colloquies, conferred with his witnesses during questioning, and left the room with a deponent while questions were pending. …
Seven Hour Deposition Limit by Defendants moved to depose the plaintiff for 14 hours over two days rather than seven hours in one day as contemplated by amended Rule 30(d)(2), Fed.R.Civ.P. At 24: "However, the better practice is for the deposition to go forward to determine how much is able …
First Circuit Dismisses Massachusetts Detainee's Challenge of Government Imposed SAMS by First Circuit Dismisses Massachusetts Detainee's Challenge of Government Imposed SAMS On May 27, 2004, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit dismissed as moot an appeal by alleged domestic terrorist Richard Reid challenging a district court's unfavorable …
Gay Massachusetts Jailer Awarded $623,600 For Hostile Work Environment by On June 30, 2003, a jury in an unknown Massachusetts court awarded $623,600 to a jailer at the Suffolk County House of Corrections who claimed he suffered harassment due to his sexual orientation. The male plaintiff claimed that in late …
Al Qaida Prisoners Time Magazine Censorship Upheld by Here is a paradigm case, indeed a poster child, of the judicial avoidance of uncomfortable issues. The criminal defendant, the famous "shoe bomber," residing in the Florence, Arizona maximum security prison, complained of Special Administrative Measures (SAMs) denying him incoming mail determined …
FRCP 4 (e) Governs Service on Prison, Jail Employees by The prisoner's complaint was dismissed for failure to serve process, and the district court denied the plaintiff's Rule 60(b) motion to vacate the dismissal on the ground that he had too served process, he had just failed to file proof …
Qualified Immunity Reversed on Massachusetts Chemical Toilet Claim by The Massachusetts Court of Appeals has reversed a grant of qualified immunity to a prison warden concerning his failure to provide flush toilets to prisoners. As PLN has reported extensively, for years prisoners at the Southeastern Correctional Center (SECC) in Massachusetts …
Years Later, $95,000 Attorney Fees Paid in Essex County Jail Conditions Suit by After 12 years of disputing the amount to be paid to Massachusetts Correctional Legal Servicer (MCLS) for attorney fees relating to a class action suit, officials in Essex County agreed on July 8, 2004, to pay $95,069.89 …
Damages in Disciplinary Hearing Case Upheld by The court of appeals for the First circuit upheld a lower court's award of damages to a Massachusetts prisoner denied due process in a disciplinary hearing. The lower court awarded plaintiff $390 in damages, 370 F. Supp. 1071 (D MA 1974). Prisoner was …
Injunction Entered on Jail Isolation Cell by A federal district court in Massachusetts enjoined use of a jail isolation cell due to its inhumane conditions. During a cell search drugs were found in plaintiff's cell. Plaintiff was infracted and placed in hospital isolation for 30 days. The isolation cell had …
Jail Officials Not Deliberately Indifferent in Prisoner's Beating by Affirming summary judgment for county jail officials by the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals held that jail officials were not deliberately indifferent to a prisoner's health and safety, even though the …
MA DOC Violated Prisoner's Right to Freedom of Expression by The Superior Court of Massachusetts held that a prisoner's due process rights and rights to freedom of expression and to petition the government were violated. A prisoner wrote a letter to the Secretary of Public Safety asking her to intervene …
Constructive Dismissal Defeats Summary Judgment in MA Whistle Blower Suit by A Massachusetts Federal District Court denied summary judgment to Suffolk County in a guard's 42 U.S.C.§ 1933 action alleging he was forced to quit because he broke a "code of silence" when he reported a fellow guard's misconduct. The …
