State says it will fight fed ruling on inmates

Thursday, Oct. 2, 2003 | 9:20 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The state attorney general's office said Wednesday it disagrees with a federal appeals court ruling that administrators in the Nevada prison system are open to a civil lawsuit for violating the constitutional rights of two inmates.

Tom Sargent, spokesman for the attorney general's office, said it will ask for a hearing before the full 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of two inmates serving life terms for murder.

He said the office will challenge the ruling that state officials do not have immunity from the civil suit and possible damages.

A three-judge panel of the appeals court ruled Tuesday that former Gov. Bob Miller, former Prison Director Ron Angelone and four other former employees wrongfully fired the two men from their prison jobs for refusing to sign an agreement to give up the interest earned on their inmate personal accounts to the state.

Inmates also were required to allow the prison to deduct money from the personal accounts for certain things without their approval or face loss of their jobs.

The three-judge panel said the prison officials were still subject to suit and possible damages, even though they followed the advice of the attorney general's office, which was under Frankie Sue Del Papa at the time.

"While unfortunate that the prison administrators received misguided advice from the attorney general's office, it does not per se protect the officials from suit," the appeals panel said.

The ruling said that a 1995 case by the circuit court made it "clear that prison officials could not retaliate against inmates for the exercise of their constitutional rights."

The court said the prison system had "fair notice that it could not retaliate against inmates for exercising their constitutional rights, and was sufficiently aware that an underlying due process right was implicated."