PLN Files Censorship Suit Against Michigan Jail over “Postcard Only” Policy by On August 9, 2011, Prison Legal News filed a federal lawsuit against Livingston County, Michigan and the county’s sheriff, Bob Bezotte, alleging First and Fourteenth Amendment violations due to improper censorship at the Livingston County Jail. The suit …
Michigan Prisoner’s Failure to Protect Case Settles for $100,000 by The State of Michigan has agreed to pay a prisoner $100,000 to settle a failure to protect lawsuit filed in federal court. In 2007, Joseph Lyons, 42, was serving a larceny sentence at a Jackson, Michigan prison. He was forced …
Smith v. Wayne County, MI, Complaint, Jail Suicide, 2011 2:10-cv-14257-NGE-PJK Doc # 51 Filed 09/12/11 Pg 1 of 37 Pg ID 1111 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN SOUTHERN DIVISION GLORIA H. SMITH, individually and as CoPersonal Representative of the Estate of Jason Lewis Smith, and CAMILLE MITCHELL, …
Michigan Auditor Finds Prisoner Health Care Delivery Inadequate by David Reutter By David M. Reutter The Michigan Department of Corrections’ (MDOC) efforts to comply with the requirement to deliver medical services are not effective. That is the conclusion drawn in an audit report issued in March 2008 by Michigan’s Office …
Placement in Maximum Security Facility May Trigger Due Process Protections; Religious Diet Claims Remanded by The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has reversed a district court’s grant of summary judgment to Michigan prison officials in a procedural due process and religious diet lawsuit. Lamont Bernard Heard received …
Sixth Circuit Reinstates Michigan Prisoner’s Denial of Toothpaste Suit by On May 6, 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed the dismissal of a Michigan prisoner’s federal civil rights lawsuit in which he claimed he was denied toothpaste for nearly a year. In January 2005, while …
Prison Legal News v. Bezotte, Livingston County Jail Censorship Complaint, 2011 2:11-cv-13460-DPH-MAR Doc # 1 Filed 08/09/11 Pg 1 of 7 Pg ID 1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN SOUTHERN DIVISION PRISON LEGAL NEWS, a project of the Human Rights Defense Center, Plaintiff, v Case No. 11-cv-13460 …
Low Rates in Michigan DOC Phone Contract Demonstrate Actual Cost of Prison Phone Services by Alex Friedmann PLN’s April 2011 cover story detailed the results of our comprehensive multi-year research project on prison phone services, including a state-by-state comparison of prison phone rates, commission (kickback) percentages, and the amounts of …
6th Circuit: County Prosecutor Protected by 11th Amendment by In a decision filed on July 30, 2009, the 6th Circuit affirmed a ruling of a Michigan court granting summary judgment to Arenac County and Arenac County Prosecutor, Curtis G. Broughton. The complaint was brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 …
People of the State of Michican v. Pilton, MI, Motion to Permit a Professional Jail Visit for Defense Paralegal, 2011 STATE OF MICHIGAN OAKLAND COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN, vs. Plaintiff, Case No. 2008-221114-FC Hon.Rae Lee Chabot ELLIOT PILTON, Defendant ________________________________________________/ OAKLAND COUNTY PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE By: …
Releasees from Rural Michigan Jail Frighten Neighbors on Long Walk Home by The remoteness of Michigan’s Ottawa County Jail is leaving released prisoners who have no transportation with no choice but to walk home. Consequently, local residents who live on the county roads that the releasees must travel are scared. …
Requests to BOP by Sentencing Judge not Reviewable on Appeal by Federal criminal defendants may not appeal requests made by district judges to the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit decided October 26, 2009. Jerry Hebert pled guilty to bank robbery. At his …
Sixth Circuit Rules on Whether Prisoner Must Name Defendants in Grievance by The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the Michigan Department of Corrections (DOC) internal grievance policy rule that prisoners name all defendants did not invalidate a prisoner’s grievance for purposes of exhaustion of administrative remedies when prison …
Michigan Jail Nurse Denied Qualified Immunity in Detainee Death Case by Mark Wilson By Mark Wilson The Sixth Circuit affirmed the denial of a Michigan jail nurse’s motion for summary judgment on qualified immunity ground related to a prisoner’s death from untreated alcohol withdrawal. On March 1, 2004, Larry Bertl …
Sixth Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Michigan Legal Mail Case by Mark Wilson The Sixth circuit court of appeals affirmed a lower court’s sua spente dismissal of a Michigan prisoner’s suit against a guard for reading his legal mail two times and issuing him a misconduct report. Michigan prisoner Aubrey Stanley …
Attorney Fees and Costs Against Exoneree Who Lost Lawsuit Denied by On May 21, 2009, a Michigan federal court denied a motion by defendants for attorney fees and costs in an unsuccessful lawsuit brought by an exoneree. During a custody dispute with his ex-girlfriend in 1987, Mark Norman Cleary's seven-year-old …
Summary Judgment for Michigan DOC Denied In Kosher Meal Suit by A Michigan federal district court ruled that the question of whether a prison's policy is a "less restrictive" means of determining a prisoner's religious sincerity before allowing a Kosher diet is a question of fact precluding summary judgment. Michigan …
Mitchell v. Woodcum, MI, Motion to Preclude Police Report, Naked False Arrest, 2011 Case 2:09-cv-14647-SJM-MKM Document 29 Filed 05/02/11 Page 1 of 5 UNITED STATE DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN SOUTHERN DIVISION LATESHA MITCHELL Plaintiff, Case No. 09-CV-14647 Honorable Steven J. Murphy v DETROIT POLICE OFFICER OSCAR WOODCUM, Badge …
Mitchell v. Woodcum, MI, Motion to Preclude Prior Criminal History, Naked False Arrest, 2011 Case 2:09-cv-14647-SJM-MKM Document 28 Filed 05/02/11 Page 1 of 5 UNITED STATE DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN SOUTHERN DIVISION LATESHA MITCHELL Plaintiff, Case No. 09-CV-14647 Honorable Steven J. Murphy v DETROIT POLICE OFFICER OSCAR WOODCUM, …
