Third Circuit Upholds Ban on UCC Materials; Sixth Circuit Disagrees by Brandon Sample The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PDOC) may lawfully ban the receipt and possession of materials related to the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), the Third Circuit Court of Appeals held on July 29, 2008. In a more recent …
Jail Guards Allowed to Assert Qualified Immunity Defense; Nurses Not by The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a Michigan federal district court’s decision that denied a group of jail guards qualified immunity in a case in which a prisoner died after complaining of chest pain and breathing problems. …
Audit Report Finds Michigan Prisoner Transportation System Wasteful by David Reutter by David M. Reutter Michigan’s Auditor General has issued a report that criticizes the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) prison transport system as inefficient and wasteful of taxpayer money. The report notes that MDOC has failed to implement recommendations …
$1,800,000 Settlement in Michigan Jail Prisoner Suicide Case by On January 1, 2008, the defendants in a Michigan federal civil rights action involving the suicide of a jail prisoner settled the case for $1,800,000, the largest jail suicide settlement in Michigan history. Tatisha Grant, 23, was arrested by River Rouge, …
Neal et al v. Michigan DOC, MI, Plan of Allocation - Settlement, sexually hostile prison guard sexual misconduct, 2009 STATE OF MICHIGAN IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE COUNTY OF WASHTENAW NEAL, et al., Plaintiffs, Case No. 96-6986-CZ Hon. Timothy P. Connors vs. MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, et al., Defendants. …
Neal et al v. Michigan DOC, MI, Notice of Settlement, sexually hostile prison guard sexual misconduct, 2009 NOTICE OF SETTLEMENT OF CLASS ACTION TO: ALL WOMEN PRISONERS UNDER THE JURISDICTION OF THE MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS (MDOC) PAST AND PRESENT, WHO DURING THEIR INCARCERATION WERE SUBJECTED TO SEXUAL MISCONDUCT, SEXUAL …
Neal et al v. Michigan DOC, MI, Settlement, sexually hostile prison guard sexual misconduct, 2009 STATE OF MICHIGAN IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE COUNTY OF WASHTENAW TRACY NEAL, et al., Plaintiffs, Case No. 96-6986-CZ Hon. Timothy P. Connors v MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, et aI., Defendants. ---------------------------------~/ NICOLE ANDERSON, …
Michigan Sex Offender Freezes to Death on Street As Housing Crisis Continues by Jimmy Franks Michigan Sex Offender Freezes to Death on Street As Housing Crisis Continues by Jimmy Franks On January 26, 2009, Thomas Pauli, 52, was found dead on the cold streets of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Pauli, a …
Michigan Jail Officials Lied and Hid Documents in Lawsuit Over Prisoner’s Death by David Reutter Michigan Jail Officials Lied and Hid Documents in Lawsuit Over Prisoner’s Death by David M. Reutter On the eve of trial, a Michigan U.S. District Court adjourned a civil rights suit to reopen fact finding …
Michigan DOC Rehabilitation Programs Emphasize Education, Reentry Support by Matthew Clarke Michigan DOC Rehabilitation Programs Emphasize Education, Reentry Support by Matt Clarke In 1998, Michigan passed a law requiring most prisoners without a high school diploma to earn a GED before being released on parole. That law has since been …
New Trial and JNOV Denial Upheld in $15,545,000 Michigan Prisoner Sexual Harassment Case by Matthew Clarke New Trial and JNOV Denial Upheld in $15,545,000 Michigan Prisoner Sexual Harassment Case by Matt Clarke On January 27, 2009, the Michigan Court of Appeals upheld a trial court’s denial of a motion for …
Trethewey v. Pekrul, MI, Complaint, Excessive Force, Spoliation of Evidence, 2009 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN -SOUTHERN DIVISION- Michael J. Trethewey, Plaintiff, -v- Case No. Honorable: Magistrate: Daniel E. Pekrul, Defendant. / The F.L. Gibson Group, P.C. Fred L. Gibson P39530 Attorney for Plaintiff 17001 …
Sexual Abuse by Prison and Jail Staff Proves Persistent, Pandemic by Gary Hunter Sexual assault, rape, indecency, deviance. These terms represent reprehensible behavior in our society. They also represent recurring themes in our nation’s prisons – not only by prisoners, but also by guards and other staff members. PLN’s August …
Michigan Auditor General: DOC Overspends Millions on Overtime by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke In October 2008, Michigan’s Auditor General released a performance audit on selected personnel and other administrative costs at the Department of Corrections (DOC) for the previous fiscal year. The report revealed that the DOC had overspent …
Michigan Sex Offender Registration Act Does not Apply to Bestiality Conviction by After pleading no contest to committing an "abominable and detestable crime against nature" with a sheep, Jeffrey Haynes was sentenced as a habitual criminal in a Michigan court to 2½ to 20 years behind bars. The trial court …
Plaintiffs Prevail in Objections to Taxed Bill of Costs by Following their arrest, conviction and imprisonment in 2002, Plaintiffs Kimberly Sykes and Tevya Urquhart, had the convictions overturned on appeal in 2004. Each woman then filed suit against various police officers in 2005 pursuant to 42 U.S.C. sec. 1983 alleging …
Homeless Michigan Man Nets $20,000 for Outrage Claim Stemming from Pepper Spray Arrest by A federal jury in Michigan awarded a mentally ill homeless man $20,000 for outrage claims involving two Mt. Clemens police officers pepper spraying him during an arrest. The arrest occurred on June 27, 2002, after Officers …
Court Denies Michigan Prison Officials Summary Judgment In Discrimination Suit by David M. Lawson, U.S. District Judge, has denied summary judgment to Michigan prison officials in a suit alleging racial discrimination in the termination of a visit by an interracial couple. Gordon Butter, a black prisoner in the Michigan Department …
Court Monitor Criticized Care to Michigan Dialysis Treatment Afforded Prisoners by David Reutter by David M. Reutter Before the Michigan Department of Corrections closed the Southern Michigan Correctional Facility (SMCF) in late 2007 to avoid further litigation in the long-running class action known as Hadix, the federal judge overseeing the …
Federal Prisoner’s §2241 Petition Dismissed for Non-Exhaustion; Prisoner Sought Sentence Reduction for Revealing Weapons by A federal court in Michigan denied a federal prisoner’s motion for relief from judgment summarily dismissing his habeas corpus petition. The court found that the prisoner failed to show that he exhausted his administrative remedies. …
