By Annmarie Timmins
The Concord Monitor
NEW HAMPSHIRE — Millionaire John Brooks has shown enough evidence to move forward with his federal lawsuit against state officials who moved him from a county jail to maximum security at the state prison, a judge ruled yesterday.
Brooks, 55, has been incarcerated since November 2006 on charges he hired men to kidnap and kill Jack Reid in 2005. He could face the death penalty.
He sued state officials in December after the state attorney general’s office abruptly transferred him to the prison over allegations he was using his personal fortune at the jail to influence inmates connected to his case.
In his lawsuit, Brooks said the move violated his rights. He enjoyed nearly unlimited visits with his lawyers and freedom to exercise and cook his own meals at the jail. At the prison, he was locked in his room 23 hours a day, he said, and denied adequate care for his diabetes.
Federal Magistrate Judge James Muirhead had already ordered the prison to treat Brooks’s diabetes and allow him the necessary food and exercise. During a three-day preliminary hearing on the lawsuit this month, Muirhead chastised state officials several times for Brooks’s move and care at the prison but did not rule on the merits of Brooks’s lawsuit until yesterday.
Muirhead said yesterday that Brooks had given the court enough information to warrant a full trial. Brooks is seeking reimbursement of his costs and attorneys fees and a return to the jail or better conditions at the prison. A trial date has not been set.
Copyright 2008 Concord Monitor