The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal has held that prosecutors, parole board members and state agencies are entitled to absolute immunity for participating in or making parole decisions. The Court’s ruling comes in the case of Liza Brown, who appealed the California federal district court’s grant of summary judgment.

Brown’s claim stemmed from the Ninth Circuit decision granting her habeas petition and ordering her release on parole. Brown v. Poole, 337 F.3d 1155 (9th Cir. 2003). During a plea agreement to Brown’s sentence for first degree murder for shooting her husband, the prosecutor said that if Brown avoided disciplinary action while in prison, she would be released on parole in “half of the 15 years” that was her minimum sentence.

Despite being disciplinary action free, Brown was denied parole after having served more than seven and a half years. She alleged in her lawsuit that the prosecutors intentionally interfered with their contractual obligation when they recommended during her parole hearing that she be denied release.

The Ninth Circuit joined its “sister circuits in holding that prosecutors should be afforded absolute immunity for parole recommendations, because parole decisions are a continuation of the sentencing process.” The Court also cited its precedent ...

Oregon Detainee Paid $30,000 for 90 Days Illegal Jail Confinement

The State of Oregon and Multnomah County have paid a man $30,000 to settle his suit for 90 days of illegal confinement.

Ira Robinson was detained in the Multnomah County jail to face criminal charges. Oregon’s speedy trial law mandates ...

On March 15, 2007, a California superior court erroneously granted a motion requesting the involuntary commitment of David Litmon, Jr. for an indeterminate length of time. The State filed the motion under the terms of Proposition 83, which went into effect in 2006 amending the Sexually Violent Predator Act (SVPA) to include “indeterminate commitments” as opposed to the two-year commitments previously allowed.

Litmon was initially committed under the original SVPA to a two-year term beginning in May 2000. The State later filed three consecutive recommitment petitions, consolidating two of them, to keep Litmon incarcerated to May 2008. Prior to the hearing for the 2006-2008 commitment petitions, Proposition 83 was passed, and the State succeeded in its efforts to have it applied retroactively to Litmon. Therefore, Litmon never received a trial on the consolidated petitions that had been pending for a number of years.

Litmon’s court-appointed attorney filed an appeal alleging 14th Amendment violations for excessive delay in bringing Litmon to trial on the consolidated petitions, as well as the retroactive application of Proposition 83 authorizing his indeterminate commitment. The Sixth Appellate District agreed with Litmon and reversed the lower court's order imposing an indeterminate commitment upon him, stating that "no ...

On October 19, 2005, a federal jury in Mississippi awarded Michelle Hobbs $75,000 after she was wrongfully detained for 4 hours based on an arrest warrant mistakenly issued by a court clerk.

Hobbs's initial arrest occurred in November 2003 in Horn Lake, Mississippi after she was cited for disturbing the ...

On May 20, 2005, a federal jury in Eastern Missouri awarded ex-prisoner, Daryl Davis, $10,600 after corrections officials in that State failed to release him for almost 60 days after his court-ordered release.

Convicted of theft in St. Louis County, Missouri, Davis received a seven-year sentence, which was reversed on ...

Following their arrest, conviction and imprisonment in 2002, Plaintiffs Kimberly Sykes and Tevya Urquhart, had the convictions overturned on appeal in 2004. Each woman then filed suit against various police officers in 2005 pursuant to 42 U.S.C. sec. 1983 alleging Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment violations. The cases were consolidated in ...

Washington state’s King County Jail has paid $4,000 to settle the claim of Michael Chiofar, which asserted damages for the failure of the jail to assure that he was arraigned within 72 hours of his arrest as required by Washington law. He claimed that he was arrested on November 28, ...

On July 14, 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a $15,000,000 verdict for three LA police officers who suffered civil rights violations related to an improper and negligent investigation into the officers’ alleged illegal conduct.

Paul Harper, Brian Liddy and Edward Ortiz sued the City ...

by John E. Dannenberg

The California Court of Appeal upheld a Superior Court verdict of $21,800 against state prison officials in a lawsuit filed by a prisoner whose eventually-corrected good time credit earning rate resulted in his being released nine months late. Suing under a theory of false imprisonment, he ...

On May 8, 2008, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals upheld the dismissal of a prisoner suit challenging the loss of diminution credits.

Alfred Fraction and Gregory Nutter, Maryland prisoners, sued the Secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services over the loss of diminution credits following their reincarceration for new offenses. Both Fraction and Nutter had been previously convicted and released on mandatory supervision. When they were returned to custody, the Maryland DOC refused to apply diminution credits earned prior to their release on mandatory supervision. Diminution credits are essentially “good time” credits earned for working and participating in educational programs.

The DOC refused to apply the diminution credits, relying on a Maryland Parole Commission (MPC) policy that prohibits application of such credits to offenders who are reincarcerated. Fraction and Nutter attempted to indirectly attack the MPC policy through the DOC’s refusal to provide the credits.

The court held that the plaintiffs’ challenge was improper because it was the MPC, not the DOC that denied the diminution credits. The court expressed no opinion on the validity of the MPC policy and affirmed the dismissal of the suit. See: Fraction v. Secretary, Department of Public Safety and Correctional ...