FTCA Judgment Facts Suit Against U.S. Bars Bivens Action Based on Same Facts by The Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held that a judgment in a Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) suit against the United States bars a Bivens action based on the same conduct. A transsexual former …
BOP Guards Conviction for Beating Prisoner Affirmed by The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed the conviction and sentence against a guard at the United States Penitentiary in Florence, Colorado. Escort teams were moving prisoners from their cells to a conference room in order to conduct individual interviews about …
Mental Health Supervisor Granted Qualified Immunity in Prisoner's Sexual Assault by Mental Health Supervisor Granted Qualified Immunity in Prisoner's Sexual Assault The U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a federal district court's grant of summary judgment on qualified immunity grounds to a mental health institution's supervisor against a …
Colorado DOC Miscalculates Parole Eligibility Date by The Colorado Court of Appeals has found that the Department of Corrections (DOC) miscalculated a prisoner's sentence reduction credits for crimes committed before the 1979 change in law. Ronald Vashone-Caruso, in his fourth decade of a 94 years-to¬-life sentence, sought a declaratory judgment …
Imposition Of Constructive Trust To Collect Pension Benefits Prohibited by The U.S. Supreme Court held that a constructive trust imposed against the recipient of pension fund benefits in order to satisfy a monetary judgment against him violated the anti-alienation provision of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). …
PLRA: Exhaustion Of Nonexistent Administrative Remedies Not Required by The United States District Court for the District of Colorado held that class certification for prisoners suing a county jail for unconstitutional mental health care was inappropriate, and that the prisoners were not required to exhaust administrative remedies pursuant to the …
Colorado Prisoners Awarded $45,466 In Attorney Fees And Costs by The U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado held that prisoners who had settled their civil rights lawsuit over conditions of confinement were entitled to attorney fees. Plaintiffs, prisoners confined in the Rifle Correctional Center, brought civil rights action …
CO Warden Improperly Denied Summary Judgment Because She Had No Control Over Civil Rights Violators by CO Warden Improperly Denied Summary Judgment Because She Had No Control Over Civil Rights Violators Floyd Serna was a prisoner at the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility when Warden Juanita Novak initiated a prison wide …
Expulsion from Sex Offender Treatment Program Implicates Liberty Interest by Bob Williams By Bob Williams Finding confinement and treatment inextricably linked, the United States District Court for the District of Colorado has ruled that a Colorado prisoner may have a liberty interest in participating in a Sex Offender Treatment Program …
§ 1983 Or Bivens Required When Suing Post Office For Lost Property by The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has found the United States immune from a tort action over a prisoner's property lost by the Postal Service. Peter Georgacarakos, a federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) …
Class Certification Can Be Bifurcated for Liability and Damages by The court rejects the Fifth Circuit rule that an action cannot be certified under Rule 23(b)(2), Fed.R.Civ.P., if the class claims include compensatory and punitive damages other than "incidental" damages. (These are damages that are capable of objective calculation and …
11th Amendment Bars Consent Decree Enforcement by Children who were in state custody alleged denial of meaningful access to adoption services. A consent decree was entered. Plaintiffs moved to hold defendants in contempt. Defendants moved to dismiss. Read to the end for an important lesson in settlement-drafting. The suit is …
BOP Mail Rule Banning Internet Downloads and Soft Cover Publications Not Sent by Publisher Held Unconstitutional by John Dannenberg by John E. Dannenberg On October 26, 2006, in an unpublished order, the U.S. District Court (D. Colo.) held that 28 C.F.R. § 540.71(a)(2), which restricts Bureau of Prisons (BOP) prisoners …
Expungement, Not Rehearing, Mandated in Colorado Disciplinary Reversals by Bob Williams In an unpublished opinion, the Colorado Court of Appeals has held that expungement of a prisoner?s disciplinary record, not a rehearing, is an appropriate remedy when reversed on administrative or judicial review. Colorado prisoner Lewis Simpson was convicted of …
Colorado Prisoners Caging Prisoners by Gary Hunter Colorado State Penitentiary II (CSP-IT) is slated for construction in early 2007. It will hold the state?s most dangerous prisoners locked down for 23 hours per day. Ironically, the 948 pre-fab cells will be built by prisoners in the Freemont prison facility located …
US Settles Prisoner’s UNICOR Whistleblower Suit for $6,000 by US Settles Prisoner's UNICOR Whistleblower Suit for $6,000 On October 27, 2006, the United States paid $6,000 to settle with a federal prisoner who claimed he was fired from his UNICOR job in retaliation for filing safety complaints with the Occupational …
Colorado Parolee’s Disenfranchisement Upheld by Colorado Parolee's Disenfranchisement Upheld The Colorado Supreme Court has held that a person on parole does not have a right to vote. That ruling came in an appeal filed by Pastor Michael Danielson after the District Court for the city and County of Denver dismissed …
Tenth Circuit Reinstates Colorado Ad Seg Conditions Claims by Bob Williams The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has reversed a Colorado state prisoner?s administrative segregation (Ad Seg) conditions of confinement claims which were dismissed as frivolous by the United States District Court for the District of …
$225,000 Settlement for Female Colorado Prisoner Raped By Guard by In August 2005, Penifer Salinas, a female Colorado Department of Correction (CDOC) prisoner at Denver Womens Correctional Facility (DWCF) entered into a proposed $225,000 settlement with the State of Colorado. The settlement was a result of a Federal civil rights …
Jordan v. Hood, Co, Civil Docket, 2006 U.S. District Court District of Colorado (Denver) CIVIL DOCKET FOR CASE #: 1:03−cv−02320−PSF−MJW Jordan v. Hood, et al Assigned to: Judge Phillip S. Figa Referred to: Magistrate Judge Michael J. Watanabe Demand: $2,000 Cause: 42:1983 Prisoner Civil Rights Plaintiff Mark Jordan TERMED Date …
