By Michael Van Cassell
The Wyoming Tribune-Eagle
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A Wyoming inmate has filed a civil suit against the Department of Corrections seeking more than $3 million and claiming prison officials destroyed personal property he accumulated over three decades.
Louis D. Cosco, serving three consecutive life prison terms for four counts of second-degree murder, filed the handwritten complaint Aug. 6 in Laramie County District Court.
In that complaint, he claimed two hobby businesses, a home audio system and thousands of CDs, tapes and records - all worth more than $100,000 - were taken from him in 1997 and then destroyed in 2005.
The suit names the Department of Corrections, the State of Wyoming, Scott Abbott, warden of the Wyoming State Penitentiary at the time, and Robert O. Lampert, director of the DOC at the time.
Cosco entered the Wyoming State Penitentiary in October of 1969. He was sentenced in Sheridan County when he was 17 years old, according to DOC officials.
In 1975, Cosco began a prison-approved custom leather goods business and began a fly tying hobby business in 1993, according to court documents.
From September of 1975 to September of 1997, Cosco claims he accumulated more than 1,500 cassettes and nearly 1,000 CDs and 1,300 record albums.
The value of records ranged, on average, from $40 to $60, with some worth more than $1,000, he contended.
In 1997, his property and businesses were seized after the penitentiary changed a rule that retroactively made it “contraband,” he claimed.
Cosco fought and lost legal battles against the rule change in federal courts with other inmates, according to his complaint.
In 2005, Cosco claims he received a letter from Abbott stating his property would be destroyed.
Cosco contended the DOC refused to resolve the issue before his property was destroyed and that he had no one to take the property and little or no chance of parole.
He is seeking a minimum of $100,000 for actual damages and more than $3 million for loss of use and enjoyment of the property.
Wyoming Department of Corrections Spokeswoman Melinda Brazzale deferred comment to the Office of the Attorney General.
Attorney General Bruce Salzburg said he had not seen the lawsuit.
“If I had seen the lawsuit, I wouldn’t comment publicly on a matter that’s in litigation,” Salzburg said.
No date has been set to hear Cosco’s complaint in district court.
Copyright 2008 The Wyoming Tribune-Eagle