On July 17, 1995, an inmate at the Riverview Correctional Facility in Ogdensburg, New York, filed a pro se lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against representatives of the prison in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York. The plaintiff asked the court for $80,000 in damages, alleging that his constitutional rights had been violated when the defendants failed to treat him for a tooth cavity.

On April 14, 1997, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York (Judge Rosemary S. Pooler) dismissed the plaintiff's complaint on the ground that the defendants were protected by qualified immunity. The inmate appealed. On July 17, 2000, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (Judge Dennis G. Jacobs) reversed the district court's decision and remanded the case, holding that the defendants' alleged refusal to treat the plaintiff's tooth cavity would constitute deliberate indifference to serious medical need under the Eighth Amendment, and that the defendants were not entitled to qualified immunity. Harrison v. Barkley, 219 F.3d 132 (2nd Cir. 2000).

On June 7, 2001, the parties settled the case, and on June 20, 2001, the district court (Judge David E. Peebles) closed the case.

Kristen Sagar - 09/10/2006


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