Washington State’s King County Jail has paid $4,000 to settle the claim of Michael Chiofar, which sought 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 29, ...

Washington State’s King County has paid $8,000 to settle the claim of Pantaleon F. Alba, who was overdetained by 10 days due to King County Correctional Facility records clerk, Kimberly Carver, failing to correct his good time credits. Carver transmitted to the Washington Department of Corrections an improper number of ...

The California Court of Appeal for the First Appellate District has affirmed the denial of a habeas petition filed by a parolee seeking discharge from parole based on time served in excess of the prisoner’s base term.

Ronnie Bush was paroled from prison on March 19, 2005, after serving 20 years for a 1985 conviction for conspiracy to commit kidnapping. After his release, Bush filed a habeas petition asking that he be discharged from his five year parole period. Bush argued that the six-and-a-half years he served beyond his 12 ½ year base term should be applied to satisfy his five year parole.

The Superior Court denied relief, Bush appealed and the appeals court affirmed. “Custody credits in excess of a life prisoner’s base term are not applied to reduce the parole period,” the court of appeals held. See: In re Bush, 161 Cal. App. 4th 133, 74 Cal. Rptr. 3d 256 (1st Dist. 2008).

Washington State’s King County paid $2,500 to settle the claim of Randy A. Field, who was wrongfully arrested on September 20, 2004 and January 21, 2005 for violation of a non-contact order (NCO) with his wife, which had been withdrawn on November 9, 2001 after Field was acquitted of assaulting ...

Washington State’s King County Jail paid $3,848.54 to settle the false imprisonment claim of Amanda Markholt, who was arrested on a warrant out of Pierce County for failing to take a blood test. The same day of her arrest, December 31, 2003, Markholt submitted to the test and the jail ...

Washington State’s King County paid $7,540.64 to settle the claim of Richard D. Sweat, who was arrested for attempted robbery. During the investigation, Deputy Kirk Rains of the King County Sheriff’s Office was advised that the alleged crime was committed by a Hispanic man with black curly hair. Rains withheld ...

Washington State’s King County paid $16,000 to settle the civil rights suit of Christopher L. Larson, who was due to be released from the Olympia City Jail on June 27, 2004, but a computer check revealed that Larson had an outstanding warrant in King County. The warrant at issue was ...

Washington State’s King County paid $20,511.02 to Thomas Padgett, Jr. for being falsely imprisoned from June 3 through 15, 2001. When Padgett was arrested and taken to the jail, he was not brought before a judge until June 15, which resulted in his release. As a result of his imprisonment, ...

California Governor's Reversal of Lifer's Grant of Parole Not Based On "Some Evidence"

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California granted a writ of habeas corpus to a California lifer whose grant of parole from the Board of Parole Hearings (Board) had been reversed by Governor Schwarzenegger on ground that his crime was "especially grave." The court held that the prisoner's second degree murder, after 23 years, no longer constituted "some evidence" of his current dangerousness. It further held that the Governor's alternative reason that the prisoner did not have a job was legally insufficient in light of Board regulations that only require "develop[ment] of marketable skills that can be put to use upon parole."

Robert Mendoza entered a plea to second degree murder in 1982. The Board found him suitable in prior years, but each time it was reversed. He challenged Governor Schwarzenegger's reversal of his 2004 grant of parole without success in state court. The federal district court, however, granted relief based on the recent ruling in Hayward v. Marshall, 512 F.3d 536 (9th Cir. 2008). That ruling held that only evidence of current dangerousness would meet the "some evidence" standard for reversal. The mere ...

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has held that a petitioner’s habeas corpus is moot when it is only “likely” that a sentencing court will reduce the terms of supervised release. The Court’s holding comes in an appeal filed after a district court found the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) violated the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) by failing to give notice of a “legislative” rule that limited eligibility for early release.

Prisoner John Burkey had previously been granted early release and upon violating his supervised release was resentenced to prison. He entered a residential drug abuse program in hopes of again gaining early release. The BOP, however, denied him early release upon completing the program under the authority of Paragraph 5(c) of BOP’s Program Statement 5331.01, which denies early release to prisoners who had been granted prior early release.

After exhausting administrative remedies, he brought his habeas petition in a Pennsylvania federal district court. That Court held the BOP was required to provide prior notice through publication in the Federal Register to adopt an administrative rule and it had failed to do so with regard to Program Statement 5331.01. Thus, Burkey was entitled to early release upon completing the drug program. ...