By Corrections1 Staff
PHILADELPHIA — A federal court dismissed the claim of an inmate who said he was subjected to retaliation after assaulting a CO and destroying the officer’s eye.
PennLive reports that a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit dismissed Michael Rivera’s claim and said the inmate deserved the disciplinary actions against him. In January 2015, Rivera assaulted the officer, resulting in the CO losing his eye, according to court documents.
Months after the attack, Rivera alleged that a sergeant threatened to take out his eye in retaliation and that the sergeant fabricated misconduct reports against him.
Rivera alleged that the sergeant falsely wrote up him up for possessing contraband, using foul language and disobeying orders, which he said unjustly cost him 60 days in detention.
But the appeals court found Rivera’s claims to be unsubstantiated. Circuit judges said Rivera refused to be brought to the security offices to be interviewed nor would he give the names of the other inmates he alleged can back up his retaliation claim.
The judges said the evidence supported prison officials’ decision to discipline him.
“There is a sufficient quantum of evidence of misconduct to demonstrate that the discipline imposed on Rivera was reasonably related to legitimate penological interests and that he would have been disciplined regardless of his grievance against” the sergeant, the circuit judges wrote.
Rivera, who was serving a 20- to 40-year murder sentence prior to the attack, was sentenced to another 4 to 10 years last month after he pleaded guilty to the attack.