Texas Prisoner Gets 40 Years For Cellphone; Guards Get Probation by Michael Rigby In April 2006 a Texas prisoner was sentenced to 40 years in prison for possessing a contraband cell phone--8 years more than the 32-year sentence he was already serving for auto theft. The sentence, the longest anyone …
Texas Jail Suicide Suit Settles For $300,000 by In December 2005 Nueces County, Texas, agreed to pay $300,000 to settle with a woman whose husband committed suicide in the county's jail. In 1995, while imprisoned in the Nueces County Jail in Corpus Christi, Texas, Jose Orlando Sanchez-Ortiz committed suicide. His …
Beaten Texas Prisoner Who Was Denied Safekeeping Awarded $87,500 by Michael Rigby On March 20, 2006, a federal jury awarded $87,500 to a Texas prisoner who was beaten by gang members after his request for transfer to protective custody was denied. While imprisoned at the McConnell Unit in southeast Texas …
Brownsville Texas Border Corruption Continues by Gary Hunter Coronado Cantu took over the Cameron County Sheriff's office in January 2001. He took up residence inside the Texas jail in June 2005. Cantu was charged with heading a crime ring that included drug trafficking, extortion and prostitution of female prisoners. Animo …
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ordered to Pay Prisoner $500 For Misconduct by Michael Rigby On April 6, 2005, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas levied a $500 sanction award against two Assistant U.S. Attorneys for their unethical, unprofessional, and dishonest conduct in a prisoner …
Sexually Abused Texas Prisoner Loses Federal Lawsuit, Returns To Prison by Michael Rigby Roderick Keith Johnson, a prisoner who garnered national attention with allegations that Texas prison officials allowed him to be bought and sold as a sex slave, has lost his federal lawsuit against the Texas Department of Criminal …
McCoy v. TDCJ, TX, 3rd Amended Complaint, asthma death, 2006 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS CORPUS CHRISTI DIVISION L.J. MCCOY and ANTONIO V. THOMPSON Plaintiffs v. § § § § TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF CRIMINAL § JUSTICE, BRAD LIVINGSTON, in his official § capacity as the Executive Director …
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Reinvigorates DNA Testing Law by Matthew T. Clarke The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) handed down a decision that removed previous restrictions against prisoners seeking DNA testing to prove their innocence. Billy James Smith, a Texas state prisoner, filed a motion for DNA testing. …
Texas State Representative Criticized For Helping Prisoners and Families by Matthew T. Clarke Texas Representative Terri Hodge has been taking heat for (gasp!) helping prisoners and their families, in other words--for doing her job. Hodge is accused of the following: (1) helping arrange rare face-to-face meetings between parole-eligible prisoners and …
Texas Politicians Provided Perks Using Prisoner Slave Labor by Matthew T. Clarke Texas Correctional Industries (TCI), the industrial division of the Texas prison system, has been operating as a cut-rate, custom craft-goods supplier for dozens of Texas legislators. One politician furnished his new home with prisoner made goods. The goods …
Survivors of Texas Jail Suicidee Win $516,000 Against Phone Provider by Matthew T. Clarke The mother and son of a prisoner who committed suicide by hanging himself from a telephone in his jail cell won a lawsuit against the phone provider. On appeal, the award was upheld, but some of …
McCoy v. TDCJ, TX, Response Motion Summary Judgement, Asthma Death, 2006 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS CORPUS CHRISTI DIVISION L.J. MCCOY, et al. Plaintiffs v. TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE, et al. Defendants ' ' ' ' ' ' ' CIVIL ACTION NO. 05-CV-370 PLAINTIFFS’ RESPONSE TO …
Texas Prison Slaves No Savings for Direct Marketing Firm; Data Mining Results in $ 15 Million Settle by Michael Rigby Texas Prison Slaves No Savings for Direct Marketing Firm; Data Mining Results in $ 15 Million Settlement Fund by Michael Rigby A class action lawsuit involving thousands of women who …
Hurricane Threat Forces Texas Prison Evacuations, Damage Worsens Overcrowding by Michael Rigby As Rita churned westward through the Gulf of Mexico, at times a monstrous Category 5 hurricane with wind speeds of 175 mph, officials with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) ordered the evacuation of entire prisons in …
Non-Sex-Offender Parolee Entitled to Due Process Before Being Treated As Sex Offender by Matthew Clarke by Matthew T. Clarke The Fifth Circuit court of appeals held that a parolee who has never been convicted of a sex offense is entitled to a due process hearing prior to being required to …
Fifth Circuit Joins Four Others in Denying Prospective BOP Good Time Credits by The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a federal prisoners habeas corpus petition seeking advance good time credits because the claim was not ripe. The appellate court further opined that even if it were ripe, a reasonable …
Texas Federal District Judge Throws Out VitaPro Convictions by Matthew Clarke by Matthew T. Clarke In another bizarre twist to an already bewildering prosecution history, on September 9, 2005, Texas federal district judge Lynn Hughes, by judicial fiat, acquitted Andy Collins, the former executive director of the Texas Department of …
Wrongfully Convicted Texas Prisoner Finally Receives $118,000 in Compensation by Matthew T. Clarke In 1988, a 17-year-old Josiah Sutton was convicted in a Texas court of a rape he did not commit and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. Sutton spent close to five years in prison before new DNA …
Unpaid Prisoners Clean Up Rita Ravaged Southeast Texas by With few federal funds headed for areas of Southeast Texas devastated by Hurricane Rita, state officials are using the free labor of Texas prisoners to augment clean up efforts. As of January 30, 2006, prisoners from the Larry Gist State Jail …
GEO Buys CSC After Settling $38.8 Million Judgment in Texas Boot Camp Death by Correctional Services Corporation (CSC) has settled a $38 million judgment that held the company responsible for the 2000 death of Bryan Dale Alexander, an 18 year old prisoner at a Texas boot camp. The terms are …
