Visiting Denial to Colorado Sex Offender Who Refuses Treatment Upheld by The plaintiff, a convicted sex offender, challenged various measures taken against him for refusing to participate in a treatment program. The plaintiff's declaratory and injunctive claims were mooted by his release from prison. His damage claims were not moot, …
Fed Prisoner's Five Years in Segregation During Murder Investigation Not Unconstitutional by Fed Prisoner's Five Years in Segregation During Murder Investigation Not Unconstitutional Mark Jordan, a federal prisoner, was housed in a segregation unit for five years while his involvement in a prison murder was investigated. Prison officials testified that …
CO Jail Strip Searches Illegal by The court of appeals for the Tenth Circuit held that it was illegal for jail guards to strip search a Colorado motorist arrested for speeding and driving with a suspended license when no reasonable suspicion existed that he was concealing contraband on his person. …
Colorado Upholds 100 Years-to-Life for Sex Offender Under New Lifetime Act by The Colorado Court of Appeals has affirmed two consecutive, 50 years-to-natural-life sentences for a sex offender convicted of class 3 and class 4 sex offenses under Colorado's new Sex Offender Lifetime Supervision Act (the Act). Delbert Larson was …
Duress Defense Unavailable to Prisoner Volunteering Assistance to Help Another Escape by The en banc Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a prisoner convicted as a principle to possession of escape paraphernalia waived a defense of duress, and that failure to give instructions on that defense was not plain …
$1.75 Million Awarded In Ex Prison Guard Sexual Harassment Suit by Joyce K. Broughton, a former prison guard at the Colorado Women's Correctional Facility (CWCF), in Canon City, filed a law suit against CWCF, alleging that her supervisors sexually harassed her on the job. Broughton, started working at CWCF on …
Parole Board May Revoke Parole on Subsequent Drug Test if Positive by The Colorado appellate and Supreme Court agreed that parolees may have their parole revoked only on subsequent, positive drug tests. Former Colorado prisoner Alexander Whidden was released on mandatory parole on October 24, 2000. As part of his …
Parolees' Claims for Sexual Assault Dismissed as Untimely by The U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a Colorado District Court's dismissal of claims against officials of the Colorado State Department of Corrections (CSDOC) charged with concealing information about sexual assaults by a halfway house director. Four Colorado parolees claimed …
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 …
