Judge allows inmate’s lawsuit to proceed against prison officials for failure to protect, retaliation – coloradopolitics.com

A federal judge has allowed an inmate to pursue his lawsuit against Colorado prison officials based on allegations they failed to protect him, instructed other prisoners to fight him and retaliated against him for filing grievances.

Although the defendants attempted to characterize Terance DeJuan Wilson as a "frequent filer" who regularly pursues scattershot claims in federal court, Wilson has plausibly alleged employees of Sterling Correctional Facility violated his constitutional rights by reportedly calling him a "snitch" and directing two inmates to jump him.

"(I)structing one inmate to attack another plainly violates the Eighth Amendment," wrote U.S. Magistrate Judge N. Reid Neureiter in his analysis of Wilson's lawsuit.

Wilson is serving a 32-year sentence for killing a member of theSureos gang. He has filed approximately one dozen other civil rights lawsuits during his incarceration, which include claims that prison officials failed to protect him against attacks bySureos members while incarcerated. Such allegations fall under the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

In November 2021, Wilson again sued corrections employees based on a series of incidents in which staff allegedly demonstrated deliberate indifference to his safety. Wilson is a "frequent filer" in the court, responded attorneys for the defendants in asking a judge to toss the case. They said his standard procedure is to "submit pleadings with a host of allegations and complaints, composed with varying degrees of (dis)organization, in hopes ... opposing counsel and the Court will divine a viable legal action from his airing of grievances."

Neureiter found that Wilson, who is representing himself, indeed failed to link certain defendants to any constitutional violation or otherwise neglected to provide sufficient details for certain encounters. But the magistrate judge deemed some of Wilson's allegations of unconstitutional conduct were specific enough to withstand the motion to dismiss.

On April 21, 2021, a prison employee went to Wilson's cell and allegedly began discussing a confidential report Wilson had made pursuant to the Prison Rape Elimination Act. The employee "winked and smiled at plaintiff. Then riled up the pod," Wilson wrote. These actions allegedly led to a white supremacist inmate accosting Wilson, who is Black, and labeling him a "snitch." Wilson reportedly received medical treatment after the inmate assaulted him.

Neureiter, in his July 28 analysis, determined that a corrections official would be acting with deliberate indifference to an inmate's safety by referring to their PREA complaint in front of other prisoners.

"The Tenth Circuit (Court of Appeals) has held that labeling an inmate a snitch and informing other inmates of that label with knowledge of the obvious risk of danger associated with that label violates the Eighth Amendment," Neureiter wrote.

Then in July 2021, prison employees allegedly encouraged two Black inmates to fight each other so they would be removed from the prison. When Wilson reported this to a lieutenant, employees then accused Wilson of "ratting" on them, and instructed the two Black inmates to "get him." Wilson reportedly sustained injuries from the ensuing assault.

Neureiter again found Wilson had plausibly claimed staff had violated his Eighth Amendment rights with their actions. In addition, the officers had engaged in retaliation, given that Wilson exercised his First Amendment right to report the alleged attempts to get inmates to fight.

Finally, Neureiter recommended that Wilson be allowed to proceed with his retaliation claim based on two other incidents. First, prison staff allegedly ransacked his cell 29 times and said it was in response to Wilson's grievances. Second, a corrections officer allegedly issued a retaliatory write-up for Wilson's complaints of assault. The write-up led to Wilson being charged $200 and placed in solitary confinement.

Although Wilson objected in general terms to the magistrate judge's findings, U.S. District Court Senior Judge Christine M. Arguello signed off on Neureiter's recommendation on Aug. 30. In allowing Wilson's Eighth and First Amendment claims to proceed against a total of four corrections employees, Arguello also permitted Wilson to file a new version of his complaint with more specific details about the dismissed claims, including allegations of excessive force.

The case is Wilson v. Long et al.

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Judge allows inmate's lawsuit to proceed against prison officials for failure to protect, retaliation - coloradopolitics.com