Judge discards Idaho inmate suit
By REBECCA BOONE
Associated Press
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 11:26 AM PST
BOISE — A federal judge partially dismissed a prison violence lawsuit filed by several inmates against the Idaho Department of Correction, saying some of them didn’t try to properly resolve it before suing.
Still, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill said the portion of the lawsuit brought by a few other inmates can move forward — and that mediation efforts with those inmates may be combined with similar lawsuits recently filed by other Idaho prisoners.
Winmill issued the written decision last week.
Larry Hoak, Shane Elloyd Romero, Shaun Gilbert, Marlin Riggs, Arthur Allen Hoak, Robert L. Meeks and Michael T. Hayes each sued on grounds prison officials failed to protect them from gang members, despite being warned inmates were being targeted.
Gilbert said he was targeted by gangs while at the Idaho State Correctional Institution. The other inmates were at the Idaho Correctional Center, the state’s only private prison.
As the cases made their way through the federal court system, various judges noticed they dealt with similar issues.
The cases were consolidated into one joint lawsuit in February naming the Idaho Department of Correction, the Correction Corporation of America, which runs the private prison, and various state and CCA employees as defendants. Attorneys representing the defendants could not be immediately reached by The Associated Press.
All the inmates contended that prison officials knew or should have known about the gang threats but failed to adequately protect prisoners from harm.
The defendants countered that the lawsuit should be dismissed because inmates didn’t follow prison procedure for reporting threats and violence — a relatively simple grievance system that requires inmates to fill out concern forms and, in some cases, appeal the result.
Winmill partly agreed, unweaving the complicated case so that some of the inmates’ claims were dismissed.
Larry Hoak, Arthur Hoak, Romero and Meeks failed to exhaust the administrative remedies available to them at the prison, Winmill said, dismissing their lawsuits without prejudice.
But the cases brought by Hayes, Riggs and Gilbert will move forward, Winmill said, each proceeding on its own. Still, the judge noted, they could be joined with other cases that have recently been filed against ICC officials.
The inmates who filed the earlier cases told of similar experiences.
Larry Hoak said he was assaulted by two gang members in his cell and later beaten again by a gang member.
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His brother, Arthur Hoak, said he was beaten by three inmates.
Romero said he asked guards not to move him to a certain section of ICC because he had been subject to threats of violence there. He ultimately decided to strike first at the gang so he could make sure that the fight happened where it would be stopped quickly, rather than to risk being outnumbered and attacked, according to the lawsuit.
Meeks said he was beaten by gang members so badly that he sustained a fractured rib, punctured lung and psychological trauma and had to be placed on suicide watch afterward.
Hayes said he was being threatened by other inmates because he was a sex offender, and was later beaten and robbed.
