Skip navigation

Articles in Verdict1

Sanction for Lawyers' Exposing Secret Wackenhut Sexual Abuse Settlement Upheld

by Matthew T. Clarke

The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the district court's sanctions against the prisoners' lawyers in a suit against Wackenhut Corrections Corporation (WCC) after the lawyers revealed the terms of a secret settlement agreement.

Five young girls who were allegedly sexually, mentally, and physically ...

Montana Supreme Court Upholds Refusal to Seal Settlement Agreement

The Montana Supreme Court held that prevailing party did not establish that privacy rights of parties outweighed the public's right to know what costs it incurred in a settlement agreement.

Steve Pengra brought suit against Montana, contending that the State's negligent acts and omissions led to the brutal rape and ...

$400,000 Settlement in Oklahoma Jail Failure to Protect Suit

On April 19, 2001, the insurer for the Garfield county jail in Oklahoma agreed to pay $400,000 to a former jail prisoner who was attacked and beaten by his cellmate. On April 26, 1998, Larry Thomas, then 58, was imprisoned in the Garfield county jail for five days to serve ...

Illegal Strip Searches Cost Chicago Jail $6.8 Million

In July 2001, the Cook County, Illinois Board of Supervisors unanimously agreed to end a five-year long class-action suit brought by female prisoners who alleged that the strip-searches they were subjected to at the Cook County jail were unconstitutional. The Board approved a $6.8 million settlement which could be split ...

$50,000 Settlement in D.C. Retaliation Suit

In the January 2001, issue of PLN we reported Garcia v. District of Columbia, 56 F. Supp.2d 1 (D DC 1998) in which the district court denied prison guards' motion for summary judgment. District of Columbia prisoners Freda Garcia, Lawrence Caldwell and Antonio Tirado filed suit claiming that prison guard ...

Wisconsin Jail Settles Escape Lawsuit with Escapee

In September, 2001, Wausau Insurance, the insurer for the city of Shawano, Wisconsin, agreed to pay Nicholas Bishop, 22, $5,000 to settle a lawsuit Bishop had filed against the city in federal court in Madison.

The lawsuit claimed that two city policemen negligently allowed Bishop to escape from custody on ...

$3.54 Million Paid For Falsely Imprisoning Unconvicted Mentally-Incapacitated California Man For Two Years In New York

A mentally incapacitated misdemeanant detainee at the Los Angeles County, California, jail was unlawfully extradited to New York, where he was imprisoned for two years in the Green Haven Correctional Center without further legal process. During that time, his mother _ duly appointed as Conservator for his Person and Estate ...

Medical Monitoring Suit Settled for $675,000

Oregon State Prisoners' Class Action Victory

A class action lawsuit by Oregon prisoners involved in radiation experiments from 1963 to 1973 and still living as of December 31, 1997, who were not treated under Oregon's Medical Monitoring Statute (MMS) was settled for $675,000 in damages, attorneys' fees, costs and expenses. ...

Oregon Radiation Suit Settled for $1.5 Million

On April 24, 2001, a class action lawsuit by Oregon prisoners who participated in radiation experiments from 1963 to 1973 was settled for $1,517,000 in damages, attorneys' fees, costs and expenses.

Sixty_seven prisoners at the Oregon State Penitentiary participated in experiments in which their testicles were irradiated to determine the ...

Not Part of my Sentence: The Rape of Washington Prisoners

Gig Harbor, Wash.: Annette Guzman-White, a 32-year-old minimum-security prisoner incarcerated on a second-degree burglary charge at the Washington Correction Center for Women (WCCW), is eager to get out of prison.

It's something that could probably be said of most of Washington's 15,000 prisoners, just slightly over 1,000 of whom are ...