Legal
Colorado ACLU Cases

Legal Department Docket, 2002-Present

Case Name: Vandehey v. Vallario
Case Number: 06-CV-1405, United States District Court, District of Colorado
ACLU Case Number: 2006-03

Description: This class action, filed July 19, 2006, alleges that prisoners in the Garfield County Jail in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, are subjected to a pervasive pattern of disproportionate and excessive force carried out by deputies’ misuse and abuse of pepperball guns, restraint chairs, tasers, electroshock belts, and pepper spray. The jail has no written policies that limit deputies’ use of the first four of these devices, and the suit alleges that the one-page policy on pepper spray is insufficient as written and widely violated in practice.

In an amended complaint filed on August 1, 2006, attorneys for prisoners also alleged that the jail regularly denies mental health care to indigent prisoners with serious mental health needs. The suit further alleges that the jail regularly imposes harsh disciplinary sanctions without providing prisoners with notice, an opportunity to be heard, and other procedural protections required by due process.

While ACLU attorneys were investigating the prisoners’ allegations in the month before this suit was filed, the Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario adopted a new policy on attorney visits. The new policy prevented ACLU attorneys from meeting with some prisoners who had written to the ACLU seeking legal assistance. That policy, which the ACLU originally challenged in a separate lawsuit, is also at issue in this class action.

Issues: Rights of prisoners; due process of law

ACLU of Colorado Attorneys: Greg Whitehair, Taggart Hansen, Marisa Hudson-Arney, Reid Allred, Autum White, Taylor Pendergrass, and Mark Silverstein

Links to Selected Documents:

"ACLU files class action lawsuit challenging abuse of prisoners in Garfield County Jail," ACLU News Release, July 19, 2006

First Amended Complaint, filed August 1, 2006

Amended Motion to Certify Class, filed August 1, 2006

Plaintiffs' reply brief in support of motion for class certification, October 24, 2006

Plaintiffs' supplemental brief in support of class certification, February 28, 2008

Court's ruling granting class certification, March 13, 2008

"Federal court orders class action status in ACLU case on behalf of prisoners in Garfield County Jail," ACLU News Release, March 14, 2008 

 

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