Pendency of Federal Lawsuit Doesn't Toll 31-Day Texas Limitations by A Texas state court of appeals has held that the pendency of a federal civil rights lawsuit on the same matter does not toll the statute requiring Texas state prisoners to file lawsuits in state court within 31 days after …
CSC: More Misery and Misfortune by C.C. Simmons Page 1 of the August 2002 issue of Prison Legal News carried a story about Correctional Services Corporation (CSC), the scandal-ridden private prison outfit beset with self-inflicted troubles. Since that story appeared, CSC's troubles have multiplied. Consider the following: Ø In August …
Texas Magistrate Suspended for Verbally Abusing Prisoners by Texas Magistrate Suspended For Verbally Abusing Prisoners by Matthew T. Clarke A Brazoria County, Texas, Justice of the Peace (JP) has been suspended pending the outcome of judicial misconduct proceedings, after he used profanity and racial slurs to verbally abuse prisoners in …
Deaths and Beatings Rampant in Texas' Nueces County Jail by Gary Hunter Nueces County Jail in Corpus Christi Texas has become a regular source of dead and beaten prisoners. Ten prisoners have died in the jail between 1996 and 2000. Two cases have already cost the county $2 million and …
Behind the Walls: A Guide for Families and Friends of Texas Prison Inmates by Michael Rigby by Jorge Antonio Renaud, University of North Texas Press, 2002, soft cover, 218 pages, $14.95 Review by Michael Rigby If you or someone you know is one of the nearly 150,000 people incarcerated in …
Dallas Police Convicted of Framing Drug Defendants, DA Refuses to Help Innocent Prisoners by by Matthew T. Clarke In April, 2000, former Dallas police officers Quentis Roper and Daniel Maples were convicted of extorting more than $125,000 from drug dealers and illegal immigrants and falsifying evidence against those who refused …
Texas Guard Stabbing Prisoner Not State Action Under § 1983 by The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a guard's actions in cutting a prisoner with a knife was not under color of state law for purposes of 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Texas prisoner Fred Townsend was working as …
$22,500 Award Upheld in Texas Gang Assault Set-up by Guards by John E Dannenberg $22,500 Award Upheld in Texas Gang Assault Set-Up By Guards by John E. Dannenberg The Fifth Circuit US Court of Appeals affirmed a district court's denial of defendant prison officials' summary judgment motion in a prisoner …
Houston Crime Lab Closed, Prisoner Freed by Michael Rigby On March 6, 2003, the Houston Police Department (HPD) Chief C. O. Bradford announced that the department's DNA crime lab had been shut down and that internal affairs had launched an investigation into possible criminal and other misconduct. The announcement came …
Texas Medical Provider Investigated for Mixing, Selling Bodies by Texas Medical Provider Investigated For Mixing, Selling Bodies Officials at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston (UTMB) are investigating the improper handling of at least 78 bodies donated to the Willed Body Program, which uses them for education and …
YSI: Another Death, Another Settlement by Youth Services International (YSI), a company already under fire for a multitude of problems, including contract violations, financial mismanagement, prisoner mistreatment and prisoner deaths, was again in the news this past September. YSI, a subsidiary of Corrections Services Corporation, operates juvenile prisons, including boot-camp-style …
Texas Tries to Hire Incompetent Doctors to Review Medical Care by by Matthew T. Clarke In October, 2002, Chancellor of the University of Texas (UT) System Mark Yudof asked Texas Health Commissioner Eduardo Sanchez to appoint a three-member panel of experts "with laudable records in correctional health care" and without …
Texas Prisoners Have Limited Right to Appear at Expungement Hearing by Texas Prisoners Have Limited Right to Appear at Expungement Hearing by Matthew T. Clarke Guadalupe Guajardo, Jr., a Texas state prisoner, filed a motion to expunge the record of two of his prior arrests pursuant to Articles 55.01 and …
Guajardo (Texas Prison Mail) Suit Dismissed by by Matthew T. Clarke On September 24, 2002, a federal district court in Texas dismissed the long-standing class-action lawsuit which has governed the mail system in Texas prisons for twenty-five years. The Guajardo suit resulted in three published opinions (432 F.Supp. 1373, 580 …
Ex-Employee Wins $500,000 Religious Discrimination Award Against TDCJ by The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) will appeal a half-million dollar judgment against it in favor of an ex-employee who claims she was forced to retire early after complaining of religious discrimination. Vicki Allen-Curry, an ex-employee, sued TDCJ and Richard …
$250,000 Award for Texas Jail Paraplegic Upheld by by Matthew Clarke The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a $250,000 award against Dallas County, Texas, for a paraplegic prisoner who developed life-threatening decubitus ulcers due to the jail's deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs. Brent Lawson, a former …
Texas Parole Officer Hires Parolee for Murder by Gary Hunter In May 2002, Texas Parole Officer Connie Lynn Stones pleaded guilty to charges of solicitation of capital murder after police recorded her trying to hire a hit-man to kill her lover's girlfriend. Stone was in love with Brett Williams, who …
Erroneously Released Texas Prisoner Has Right to Street Calendar Time by by Matthew T. Clarke The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a Texas prisoner erroneously released on mandatory supervision has a right to calendar time spent on the streetbut not any potential good conduct timefollowing revocation. Fernando Thompson, …
Texas Prison Guard Charged with Raping Male Prisoner; Prisoner Files §1983 Complaint by Texas Prison Guard Charged with Raping Male Prisoner; Prisoner Files §1983 Complaint Nathan Essary, a slightly built 22-year-old prisoner, was gang-raped at the Rogelio Sanchez State Jail near El Paso, Texas. Following the rape, Essary was transferred …
Twenty Years for Flinging Feces on Texas Guards by On June 23, 2002, in the first case prosecuted before a jury under a new harassment law, a Texas jury convicted a prisoner of harassment and sentenced him to 20-years in prison. Jeffery Wayne Wheatly, a 35-year old Texas state prisoner, …
