Dismissal of Assault Claim Affirmed by The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a Michigan federal district court's dismissal of a state prisoner's civil rights suit claiming that a Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) official was deliberately indifferent to prisoner safety. Michigan prisoner Prince Varmado-El got into an argument …
Jury Awards $136,501 to Handicapped Michigan Prisoner Sent to Virginia Prison by Dwayne Hubbard, a one-legged Michigan state prisoner was sent to a Virginia prisoner due to overcrowding. The Virginia prison had no accommodations for his handicap. He fell and injured his back in the shower. The Virginia guards made …
MI Prisoner's § 1983 Action Dismissed for Claiming Only Emotional Injury by MI Prisoner's § 1983 Action Dismissed for Claiming Only Emotional Injury Bobbie Adams, a Michigan state prisoner, claimed the Melanic Palace of the Rising Sun as his religion. Melanics were designated as a security threat group in the …
$145,000 Verdict in Retaliatory Transfer Case by While at a Michigan prison work camp, prisoner Gerald L. Petrowski committed a major infraction, resulting in transfer to a high security level prison. Petrowski had a preexisting foot deformity that prevented him from wearing regulation prison shoes. At the new prison Petrowski …
$1,000 Verdict in Religious Freedom Case by Michigan prisoner David Marsh is a follower of Wicca. He had previously prevailed in a lawsuit requiring the Michigan Department of Corrections to recognize Wicca as a religion. Despite that order, prison officials refused Marsh the opportunity to practice a part of his …
$105,000 Verdict in Michigan Illegal Imprisonment by Three to four months after completing their Michigan prison sentences in 1994, Willie Thomas, Jr., Larry Reed, and Edward Grant were picked up and imprisoned in Jackson prison without a hearing. The defendant prison officials believed they had miscalculated the time served by …
Class Certification Explained by As to numerosity (at 286): "Numbers alone are not dispositive when the numbers are small, but will dictate impracticability when the numbers are large." Here there are at least 168 members, far more than necessary to establish numerosity. Other factors supporting certification include that most class …
Jail Not Liable for Arrestee's Cocaine Overdose Death by The decedent died in jail of a cocaine overdose after denying that he had ingested cocaine (though there was an empty plastic bag with drug residue around it at the scene of his arrest) and refusing medical treatment. At 686-87: ". …
Snitch's Assault Claim Dismissed by The plaintiff was assaulted after he was named as an inmate informant in a disciplinary report. The court refuses to reconsider summary judgment for the hearing officer, since plaintiff shows no facts indicating that the hearing officer was aware of a significant risk before including …
Title VII Requires Class Wide Administrative Change for Certification by Under Title VII's exhaustion requirement (151-52), a class action must be supported by at least one representative charge, timely brought by one of the named plaintiffs, which adequately identifies the collective, class-wide nature of the claimed discrimination. . . . …
Michigan County Settles Suicide Suit For $150,000 by In January 1997, Eaton County, Michigan, paid $150,000 to settle with the estate of a woman who committed suicide in the county jail. While imprisoned in the Eaton County Jail in January 1995, Mullins, a wife and the mother of four minor …
Federal Court Reaches Merits of Michigan Disciplinary Habeas by The petitioner challenged a disciplinary proceeding in which he lost good time after exhausting state judicial remedies. Under AEDPA, a federal court in habeas is bound by state court determinations unless they are contrary to or involve an unreasonable application of …
No Total Exhaustion Rule for Michigan District Court by The author of the opinion in Jenkins v. Toombs adheres to his "no total exhaustion" position, with some acerbity, in a case wherein the magistrate judge adopted the "yes total exhaustion" position of a different judge in the same district who …
Failure to Exhaust Dismissals Count as PLRA Strike by Failure to Exhaust Dismissals Count as PLRA Strike The plaintiff argued that a previous case should not be counted as a strike because some claims were dismissed as frivolous but others were dismissed for failure to exhaust. Another judge has already …
Michigan District Court Discusses Administrative Exhaustion by The plaintiff may amend his complaint, which consisted of exhausted claims, to add new claims which had subsequently been exhausted. At 551: . . . [A] rule requiring separate cases every time a new grievance is exhausted is fundamentally at odds with Congress' …
MI Detainees' Five Days in Seg Without Privileges Doesn't Violate Due Process Clause; Damages Verdic by MI Detainees' Five Days in Seg Without Privileges Doesn't Violate Due Process Clause; Damages Verdict Vacated Willie Thomas and three other prisoners had been released from the Michigan prison system based on a ruling …
Michigan Statute Denying Appointed Counsel to Indigent Criminals Enjoined by A challenge by indigent criminal defendants under § 1983 to state court judges' practice of denying appellate counsel based on plea-based convictions, and to the statute that codified the practice, was barred by Younger abstention. Each plaintiff had ongoing state …
Police Must Produce Informant Used to Justify Drug Raid by The plaintiffs alleged that they were unlawfully subjected to a drug raid which the City said was based on information from a confidential informant. At 510: ". . . [A]s a condition precedent for invoking the informer's privilege, the government …
Michigan Court Requires Total Administrative Exhaustion of All Claims by Detailed allegations that a prisoner exhausted but did not receive a response at the final step sufficiently alleged exhaustion, even in the Sixth Circuit. The court refuses to apply Sixth Circuit law requiring the plaintiff to have named each defendant …
Censorship of Photos States §1983 Claim by Censorship of Photos States §1983 Claim The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan held that a state prisoner's complaint that a prison mail room supervisor denied black prisoners nude photographs of white women while permitting white prisoners to have nude …
