Bradley G. Dreher was a California parolee when he learned that he was HIV-positive. He was seeking treatment, but was arrested and incarcerated for alleged parole violations before he could begin a treatment regimen. He remained in the Solano County Jail for over three weeks and was incarcerated at the ...

A federal court in the District of Columbia (DC) refused to dismiss a former prisoner's claims that she was improperly confined 149 days past her sentence expiration date.

On December 15, 2005, Eloise Wormley was sentenced to 12 months in prison, but six months was suspended. She was transferred to a Fairview Halfway House (FHH) on May 30, 2006.

On June 2, 2006, Wormley left FHH to look for work, saying she would return at 2:30 p.m. When she did not return by 3 p.m., FHH staff informed the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) that she had "escaped." Wormley returned at 5:22 p.m. She was transferred to DC General Hospital because "She appeared intoxicated and was combative with staff."

When Wormley returned to FHH later that evening, she was denied re-entry and told to turn herself into the United States Marshal's Service (USMS) on Monday, June 5, 2006. Wormley spent the weekend in a homeless shelter.

On June 5, 2006, BOP official Randal White issued a "Notice of Escaped Federal Prisoner," falsely claiming that Wormley did not return to FHH on June 2, 2006 and her whereabouts were unknown. Wormley turned herself into the DC Central Detention Facility on June ...

The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office paid a witness $255,000 to settle her claims that she was illegally detained for 54 days.

Nicole Schneyder was a critical witness against Michael Overby in a 1990 rape and murder. Overby's first trial ended in a hung jury. He was convicted after a second trial, but the conviction was reversed on appeal. Schneyder refused to testify at either trial.

Judge Rayford Means granted then-Assistant District Attorney Gina Maisto Smith's request for a material witness warrant against Schneyder. Six days before Overby's third trial, Schneyder was detained on January 27, 2005.

Means ordered Smith to inform him if the trial was continued so he could release Schneyder. Just one week later, the trial was postponed until May 25, 2005, but Smith did not tell Means; even after Schneyder's family called "approximately 25 times" asking Smith why Schneyder was still incarcerated, according to court documents.

While Schneyder was still confined, her father figure died and her sisters begged the Public Defender's Office to help free her, so she could attend the funeral.

Public Defender Paul Conway arranged for Schneyder to briefly attend the viewing but she was escorted in handcuffs and not allowed to attend the ...

A former Rhode Island detective who was wrongfully convicted and served more than six years in prison for a murder he did not commit, was paid $600,000 to settle two lawsuits.

Jeffrey Scott Hornoff was a Warwick, Rhode Island detective who was convicted of the 1989 murder of Victoria Cushman. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and served more than six years before another man confessed to the crime.

In 2005, Hornoff sued the City of Warwick, the Rhode Island State Police and two state troopers, alleging that his arrest and incarceration was the result of a flawed investigation.

The City agreed to settle for $600,000 and a work-related disability pension. However, Hornoff's claims against the State defendants continued, because the Rhode Island Attorney General's Office refused to settle, according to Mike Healey, a spokesman for Attorney General Patrick Lynch.

Source: turnto10.com

The Washington state Court of Appeals held that the sentencing court must ensure that the sentence imposed does not exceed the statutory maximum sentence.

Randy Linerud pled guilty to failing to register as a sex offender in Washington. The "parties agreed that the standard range sentence of 43-57 months combined with the mandatory 36-48 months of community custody would exceed the 60 month statutory maximum for a class C felony. The court then imposed a standard range sentence of 43 months of incarceration and 36-48 months of community custody and included a notation in the Judgment… that 'combined maximum of prison time + community custody may not exceed the stat max of 60 months.'"

The Court of Appeals agreed with Linerud that the sentence imposed was indeterminate rather than determinate, holding that a sentence is indeterminate when it puts the burden on the (Department of Corrections (DOC) rather than the sentencing court to ensure that the inmate does not serve more than the statutory maximum." This violates Washington's Sentencing Reform Act (SRA) because "requiring the DOC to calculate an inmate's time served and ensure that it does not exceed the statutory maximum for the offense is not authorized by the ...

By Derek Gilna

In a decision published on December 8, 2009, from an appeal of parts of an order of the Supreme Court, Queens County dated November 28, 2007, which denied their motion to strike defendants' answer pursuant to CPLR. 3126(3), the lower court's order was reversed, the answer stricken, and the matter remitted to the Supreme Court, Queens County, for a hearing of the issue of damages.

The case arose from the arrest of plaintiff Byam for the homicide of Martin Sweeting on September 26, 1993. Byam was acquitted of that charge. His wife and he sued to recover damages for false arrest and malicious prosecution. The plaintiffs have been unsuccessful in obtaining discovery from the defendants, and the court cited their "willful and contumacious conduct... from their repeated failures, over an extended period of time, to comply with discovery orders, together with the inadequate, inconsistent, and unsupported excuses for those failure to disclose."

The discovery sanction, which resulted in the striking of defendants' answer, effectively ends the litigation in the plaintiff's favor, save the hearing on damages. Byam v. City of New York, 68 A.D.3d 798, 890 N.Y.S.2d 612 (2009).

The New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, has held that the state cannot be held liable for the Department of Correctional Services (DOCS) adding post-release supervision to prisoners’ sentences when such supervision had not been ordered by the sentencing court.

Farrah Donald, Shakira Eanes, Jonathan Orellanes and Ismael Ortiz were convicted of felony offenses and received determinate sentences without the sentencing court orally pronouncing they were subject to a period of post-release supervision (PRS). In each case, the DOCS added PRS when they were released. All except Orellanes were reincarcerated for violating the conditions of their PRS, and they filed separate actions in the state Court of Claims alleging false imprisonment. The Court of Claims granted partial summary judgment to Donald but dismissed the other cases.

On appeal, the Appellate Division reversed the partial summary judgment in Donald’s case and affirmed the dismissal of the other cases. All four claimants then appealed to the Court of Appeals. [See: PLN, April 2010, p.46].

On June 23, 2011, the Court of Appeals held that Orellanes’ claim should be dismissed because, although the judge failed to orally pronounce a period of PRS, the commitment sheet from the court did include ...

by Matt Clarke

Texas has a generous compensation package for prisoners who are exonerated, which includes $80,000 per year of wrongful incarceration, an annuity with annual payments in the same amount, free college tuition and free medical care. [See: PLN, July 2009, p.12].

However, some state officials are stingy with ...

by Matt Clarke

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals has held that Oklahoma City can not be held liable for the actions of disgraced forensic chemist Joyce A. Gilchrist, who was employed in the city’s police crime lab for over two decades, and that a man who served 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit due to forensic evidence falsified by Gilchrist could not force the city to indemnify her.

Gilchrist testified at David Johns Bryson’s 1983 trial, stating that hair and semen found at the crime scene were consistent with samples taken from Bryson. Seventeen years later DNA test results proved that he didn’t commit the crime, and Bryson was released from prison. It took another 3½ years before the charges against him were finally dismissed. Subsequent retesting of the forensic evidence used by Gilchrist indicated that the evidence should have excluded Bryson, and that contrary to Gilchrist’s testimony at trial, Bryson could not have been the semen donor.

Bryson filed a civil rights suit against Gilchrist and Oklahoma City in federal district court pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. He agreed to settle with Gilchrist for $16.5 million in 2009, but the court granted ...

A Tennessee federal court awarded $13,000 to Samuel Key for civil rights violations resulting from his false imprisonment.

The case began in 1987, when Key was convicted and sentenced to prison in Georgia. During that time, a phony escape charge was made against Key. He was paroled in 1994. Thereafter, ...