On August 15, 1990, an inmate at the Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City, California, filed a pro se lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against the California Department of Corrections under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The plaintiff asked the court for declaratory and injunctive relief, as well as damages, alleging that the defendants had violated his constitutional rights by placing him in solitary confinement indefinitely on charges that he was a member of a prison gang. He alleged that this violated his right to due process because he was not allowed to challenge the basis for his segregation and because solitary confinement made him ineligible for parole. He also alleged that his solitary confinement (over nine years) was cruel and unusual, causing him mental problems as well as denying him necessary exercise and contact visitation with his family.

On December 12, 1990, the District Court (Judge Marilyn Hall Patel) issued an order giving the plaintiff 45 days to amend his complaint, but the plaintiff failed to do so. On November 17, 1992, the Court dismissed the plaintiff's challenge to the length of his sentence due to failure to exhaust state judicial remedies. The court also dismissed as frivolous the plaintiff's Eighth Amendment Claim and gave the plaintiff 45 days to amend his complaint for damages. Rhinehard v. Rowland, Nos. 90-2335, 92-0240, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20459 (N.D.Cal. Nov. 17, 1992).

On July 5, 1994, the District Court (Judge Barbara A. Caulfield) granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment as to the plaintiff's claim regarding the denial of exercise but denied the defendants' motion for summary judgment as to the plaintiff's due process claim regarding administrative segregation. Rhinehart v. Gomez, Nos. 90-2335, 92-0240, 1994 WL 377962 (N.D.Cal. July 5, 1994).

On October 17, 1995, the District Court (Judge Vaughn R. Walker) dismissed the case as moot due to the defendants' recent imposition of a 48-month disciplinary term in the solitary housing as punishment for the plaintiff's assault on a prison guard. Rhinehart v. Gomez, No. 90-2335, 1995 WL 630011 (N.D.Cal. Oct. 17, 1995). The plaintiff appealed, and on February 26, 1996, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit dismissed the appeal.

We have no further information on this case.

Kristen Sagar - 09/08/2006


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