Plaintiffs Granted SJ in Maine Strip-Search Case by A federal court in Maine granted a class of detainees summary judgment against the Knox County Jail for strip searches conducted without individualized suspicion. Class counsel called the decision a "slam dunk," while defense counsel complained that the judge "got it wrong." …
$35,000 Settlement in Maine Jail Strip-Search Case by After he was arrested on a misdemeanor charge, Geoffrey V.V. Wood was strip-searched at Maine's Hancock County Jail. Wood filed suit, alleging the strip search procedures were illegal and unconstitutional. He settled his lawsuit in May 2004 for $35,000. See: Wood v. …
An Unprecedented Crime: Mass Torture in America. And How to Stop It by Lance Tapley By: LANCE TAPLEY 11/14/2007 1:49:18 PM Editor's Note: This is an edited version of a speech given by Phoenix contributing writer Lance Tapley to a seminar at the National Lawyers Guild 70th Anniversary Convention in …
Little State, Big Problems: Maine’s Prison Crisis Continues Unabated by Lance Tapley Little State, Big Problems: Maine?s Prison Crisis Continues Unabated by Lance Tapley Only big prison systems mistreat prisoners, right? Only prison systems where racism, right-wing tough-on-crime attitudes, or prison-industrial-complex power have full reign, like in California or Texas, …
Old Media Access Consent Decrees Violated in Maine by Lance Tapley The Maine Department of Corrections has been violating at least two of three 35-year-old federal court orders that grant prisoners access to the press, allow them to write to newspapers, and prohibit prison officials from arbitrarily transferring prisoners out …
District Court Denies Physician's Assistant's Motion to Dismiss by The U.S. District Court for the District of Maine denied a motion to dismiss filed by a jail's physician's assistant in a claim of deliberate indifference to a serious medical need. In September 2001, Robert Dellairo was seen by an emergency …
Maine Prisoner Subjected to Excessive Force Awarded $30,000 by On October 3, 1997, a federal jury in Bangor, Maine awarded a state prisoner $30,000 in punitive damages and $2.00 in nominal damages. The prisoner had claimed he was subjected to excessive force by two guards at the state's supermax prison …
Court Denies Leave to Add Parties to Medical Suit by The plaintiff is denied leave to add new parties because he was months past the court-set deadline and gave no reason for it. The plaintiff's state law medical negligence claim is barred by the failure to present it to a …
PHS Avoids Liability in Maine Prison Suicide by The decedent committed suicide in prison. The court refuses to draw an adverse inference against the medical defendants from missing records because almost all of them were from a period later than when they had any dealings with the decedent, and the …
Jail Insurance Agreements Subject to Discovery by In a jail strip search suit, the court holds that reinsurance agreements between a self-funded insurance pool of counties and its reinsurers are subject to disclosure under Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(a)(1)(D) governing discovery of insurance agreements. See: Tardiff v. Knox County, 224 F.R.D. 522 (D.Me. …
Jail Liable for Guard's Rape of Female Prisoner by The plaintiff was sexually abused by a jail officer on two occasions. The plaintiff denied this conduct when jail administrators investigated based on another prisoner's report. She filed a grievance upon leaving the jail and the officer was suspended and a …
No Liability in Jail Prisoner's Medical Neglect Death by The decedent was found unconscious in his cell. Staff attempted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and a physician's assistant attempted "full CPR." The decedent was transferred by ambulance to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The cause of death was toxic diffuse goiter. …
Prisoner Loses Dental Suit Against PHS by The plaintiff told the prison dentist that he wanted his remaining teeth pulled and to be provided with dentures. The dentist said he would try to avoid dentures and that the plaintiff had many sound teeth that he could keep with proper care. …
Exposed Toilet in Maine Jail Upheld by The plaintiff alleged that he was placed in a cell where he was in the direct view of female prisoners in another cell when he performed his bodily functions. There is no evidence that any jail staff member knew that this was the …
Spoliation of Evidence May Imply Liability by A U.S. District Court in Maine held that the spoliation of relevant missing or tampered documents precluded summary judgment, and that certain supervisors were not liable to the estate of a deceased prisoner, but a clinical social worker and two prison guards were …
Attorney Awarded $1.50 in Fees in Nominal Damages Case by The First Circuit court of appeals has reduced an attorney fees award from $3,892.50 to $1.50; the fees were awarded to an attorney who helped a pretrial detainee win an award of nominal damages in an excessive force case. The …
Sending State Must Provide Transferred Prisoner Legal Assistance by The First Circuit Court of Appeals held that prisoners transferred from the State of Maine to a Leavenworth, Kansas prison are entitled to receive legal assistance from Maine. After being transferred from Maine State Prison to a federal prison in Leavenworth …
Denial of Mail and Phone Privileges Unreasonable Disciplinary Measures by The U.S. District Court of Maine held that denial of detainee's access to mail and telephone privileges were unreasonable disciplinary measures. Jeffery Simpson, a pre-trial detainee, while at the Penobscot County jail, violated jail rules. He was placed in disciplinary …
Former PHS Employee Awarded $200,000 for Retaliation, Age Discrimination by On August 16, 2001, a Maine jury awarded $200,000 to a registered nurse who claimed she was fired by Prison Health Services (PHS) for voicing concerns about the quality of care being provided to juvenile prisoners and because of her …
Class Action Allowed in County Jail Strip Search Cases by The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has approved class certification in two jail strip search cases. The cases were both brought in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine and challenged the strip search policies …
