PLEASE NOTE: All case results listed on our website have either been published previously by various entities unrelated to Lichtenstein Fishwick & Johnson, plc, or have been prepared by us for dissemination to visitors to our website. The results obtained in specific cases depend on a variety of factors. It is generally impossible to know all factors that have influenced a specific result or an accumulation of specific results. Each legal matter consists of circumstances that are peculiar or unique to the specific case. The result obtained under one set of circumstances cannot be a predictor of the result likely to be obtained in a case that necessarily involves different circumstances. You should draw no conclusions about your particular legal matter from reading these accounts.

VA. PAYS $350,000 IN INMATE'S DEATH

Date: December 2, 2003
Byline: Laurence Hammack, The Roanoke Times

Summary: Virginia paid $350,000 to settle a lawsuit claiming an inmate at one of its supermax prisons died at the hands of the state.

The Department of Corrections has refused to say how much it paid the family of Larry Frazier, a Wallens Ridge State Prison inmate who died three years ago after being shocked repeatedly with a stun gun, strapped to a bed and left to lapse into a coma. But the amount was disclosed Monday by a different state agency in response to a request made under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.

The state has denied any liability in the lawsuit that raised questions about the use of force at Wallens Ridge. However, human rights groups have complained that guards at the supermax prison treat every inmate as if he were Hannibal Lecter. "I think the case did raise public policy issues about the use of stun guns, and it was an important case," said John Fishwick, a Roanoke attorney who represented Frazier's family.

Although Fishwick declined to comment on the specifics of the settlement, citing a confidentiality agreement, others said the amount might have been larger were it not for an earlier settlement involving another defendant.

Last year, the state of Connecticut agreed to pay $1.1 million to Frazier's family. Frazier was serving 30 to 60 years in a Connecticut prison for rape when he and 500 other inmates were transferred to Wallens Ridge in 1999 to ease overcrowding. Frazier's family contended that the 50-year-old's medical problems made him unsuitable for a supermax prison.

The $1.1 million settlement would have been subtracted from any damages awarded by a Virginia jury, said Dan Frith, a Roanoke lawyer with experience in civil cases. If the jury found for the plaintiffs but awarded $1.1 million or less, the Department of Corrections would not have had to pay a cent.

"By agreeing to this settlement, they [prison officials] are acknowledging a potential value in excess of $1.1 million," Frith said.

Shortly after the case was settled Oct. 23 in U.S. District Court in Roanoke, the Department of Corrections turned down a Freedom of Information request made by The Roanoke Times seeking the amount of the settlement.

In denying the request, prisons spokesman Larry Traylor wrote that the amount was exempt from disclosure because it was included in documents protected by the attorney-client relationship between the Department of Corrections and the state Attorney General's office.

A second FOI request submitted by the newspaper's attorney, Stan Barnhill, took issue with that interpretation. The newspaper's request for the amount of public funds paid to settle a lawsuit involving a state facility "is clearly within the scope of mandatory disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act," Barnhill wrote.

Barnhill expanded the initial FOI request to include the Department of Treasury, which on Monday provided a copy of the settlement check.

Later in the day, Barnhill's request received a different response from Assistant Attorney General Mark Davis, who represented the Department of Corrections in the lawsuit. Davis wrote that while "the Attorney General firmly supports having an open government subject to the critical review of its citizens," a confidentiality agreement that was part of the settlement barred him from releasing papers containing the amount.

At the time of the settlement, Traylor said the Department of Corrections admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to settle the lawsuit "in light of the uncertainty of litigation." Traylor declined to comment further Monday.

Frazier, who suffered from diabetes, experienced hypoglycemia the morning of June 29, 2000, and was taken to the Wallens Ridge infirmary, according to a $204 million lawsuit filed last year. Prison officials have said he became combative and was shocked several times with an Ultron II, a stun gun that delivers 50,000 volts of electricity.

He was then placed in five-point restraints and left alone as he fell into a coma. Five days later, he died at a Richmond hospital.

Had the case gone to trial, Fishwick would have argued that what prison officials thought was resistance by Frazier was actually the result of diabetic shock.

Prison officials said at the time that use of the stun gun was appropriate and played no role in Frazier's death. But after an autopsy suggested otherwise, they suspended use of the Ultron II.

The moratorium on the stun gun remains in place, Traylor said Monday. Since Frazier's death, Wallens Ridge has been reclassified to a maximum-security prison.

Attorneys:

• John P. Fishwick, Jr.

Practice areas:

• Civil Rights

Lichtenstein Fishwick & Johnson PLC
Liberty Trust Building
Suite 400, 101 South Jefferson Street
P.O. Box 601
Roanoke, Virginia 24004-0601
Phone: 540-343-9711
Telefax: 540-343-9713
info@vatrials.com | Disclaimer

Charlottesville Office
401 E. Market Street, Suite 105
Charlottesville, VA 22902

© Lichtenstein Fishwick & Johnson PLC