Prisoner Civil Rights Claim For Harassment, Retaliation, Feces in Food And Excessive Force Denied by Prisoner Civil Rights Claim For Harassment, Retaliation, Feces in Food And Excessive Force Denied Texas state prisoner David Trevino filed a Federal civil rights petition against numerous Texas prison officials for allegedly engaging in harassment, …
$50,000 Paid in Texas Improper Housing Classification/Assault by Imprisoned at Texas' Bastrop County Jail for traffic tickets and DWI probation violation, the plaintiff in this case found himself placed in a cell block with convicted felons and other violent offenders. On September 25, 1995, the prisoner plaintiff was attacked by …
Regret Expression Issued for Improper Arrest by On December 15, 1995, Texas' Grand Prarie police SWAT team burst into 18-year-old Bryan McMillen's parents' house and put guns to McMillen's head while awaking him from bed. Their purpose was to arrest him for the murder of Adrianne Jones, whose boyfriend said …
$95,000 Award in Excessive Force on Quadriplegic by During a struggle while being arrested on December 12, 1996, Boyd Knight, a quadriplegic, was pulled from his wheelchair by Texas police officer Glen Osborn, who hit, kicked, and dragged Knight around his house, while officer David Houser watched. When taken to …
Escape Triggers Texas Statute of Limitations for Civil Case Filing by The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has held that a prisoner's escape lifts his disability to allow the statute of limitations to run for the filing of a tort suit. This action was filed by Texas a prisoner, alleging …
TX Transsexual Prisoner's Lawsuit Seeking Hormone Therapy Dismissed by Joshua Praylor, a Texas state prisoner, sued the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) and several of its officials in federal district court after they denied his request for estrogen therapy and brassieres. He claimed, as a pre-op transsexual, that the …
Texas Prisoner's Rights Not Violated by Not Allowing Him to Represent Himself at Trial for Tattooing by Texas Prisoner's Rights Not Violated by Not Allowing Him to Represent Himself at Trial for Tattooing Fellow Prisoner On March 3, 2002, Timothy Worstell, a Texas State prisoner, forcibly tattooed the words child …
$34,000 Paid in Texas Prisoners' Retaliation Claim by This case involved six Texas prisoners at the Wallace Park unit. After they filed a lawsuit to practice their Jewish religion, guards began retaliating against them. The retaliation came in the form of job changes, cell reassignments, transfers, and disciplinary action for …
$1,000 Awarded in Texas Prisoner's Retaliation Claim by While serving a life sentence at the Coffield Unit in Texas' prison system, Sonny Wilson filed a grievance in August 1996 against guard Patria Perez Lara. He claimed she would wake him up in the middle of the night, would refuse to …
Mentally Disturbed Prisoner Capable Of Own Litigation For Method Of Execution by The Fifth Circuit held Texas State prisoner Angel Maturino Resendiz was competent to litigate his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 suit alleging Eighth Amendment violation for the method of his execution; however, the lower court erred by dismissing with …
White Texas Prisoner Assaulted By African-American Cellmate Awarded $90,000 by During the week of August 10, 1998, a Texas state court awarded $90,000 to a white prisoner who was assaulted by his African-American cellmate in the Dallas County Jail and suffered a broken jaw. Plaintiff Curtis Ohme, a 27-year-old white …
Female Guard Supervision of Naked Male Prisoners Upheld by The plaintiff challenged the use of female guards to monitor male prisoners in bathrooms and showers even though male guards were not used to monitor women under similar circumstances. The plaintiff's challenge to strip search practices was dismissed by the district …
$40,000 Jury Award for Texas Jail Beating that Left Soccer Star Quadriplegic by While held in Texas' Lubbock County Jail, former West African soccer star Mohamet Sheriff Njie was assaulted by guards on October 7, 1996, at 3:00 a.m., according to his lawsuit. After the beating, Njie was left naked …
Police Retaliation Against Expert Witness States Claim by Intimidating expert witnesses is within the scope of the civil rights conspiracy statute. Expert testimony (in this case, testimony for plaintiff in an excessive force case by instructors at a police academy) is protected speech. Actions by police chiefs and sheriffs to …
ADA Injunctions Allowed Under 11th Amendment by State officials can be sued in their official capacities for injunctive relief under the ADA notwithstanding the Eleventh Amendment. The court declines to decide the constitutionality of the statute on an interlocutory appeal from the denial of Eleventh Amendment immunity. See: McCarthy v. …
Release of DNA Evidence Must Be Brought As Habeas by The plaintiff sued to obtain the release of biological evidence for DNA testing, alleging it would be exculpatory as to his criminal conviction. His suit was, in effect, a challenge to the validity of his criminal conviction that must be …
University of Texas Medical Branch Not Subject to Federal Suit for Not Diagnosing Cancer by The plaintiff federal prisoner complained of undiagnosed cancer and sued among others the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB). UTMB is a state agency and protected by sovereign immunity. Texas has not waived its sovereign …
El Paso County Jail Conditions Unconstitutional by The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reviewed a district court's order that found conditions at Texas' El Paso County Jail were unconstitutional and ordered injunctive relief to correct the violations. The district court ordered that exercise and recreational areas be installed; prisoner diets …
PLN Sues Dallas County Jail for Censorship by On February 26, 2007, Prison Legal News filed suit against the Dallas County Jail in Dallas, Texas, challenging the jail?s total ban on magazines and newspapers. PLN claims the policy, which took effect on March 31, 2006, violates the publication?s right to …
Texas Prisoners Face Mandatory Testing For HIV by Gary Hunter From January to May 2006, 480 Texas prisoners tested HIV-positive upon their release from prison. Testing for the virus has now become mandatory in Texas before a prisoner can be released. The bill for mandatory testing, passed in May 2005, …
