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| S.D. Files Countersuit Against Former Inmate |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 12/09/2002 |
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South Dakota has filed a countersuit against a woman who claims she had been kept in prison 416 days longer than she should have been. Citing a state law against frivolous lawsuits, lawyers for the state are asking that Nicole Figg, 25, pay damages to corrections officials. Figg had filed a federal suit against state Department of Corrections officials and members of the South Dakota Board of Pardons and Paroles. Figg's suit asked for damages because her forgery sentence was extended without her knowledge. She claimed the parole board reinstated a suspended sentence without giving her proper notification. The Scottsbluff, Nebraska, native was placed on probation for forging checks. But she violated that probation, served two months of a 24-month sentence for the crime, then violated the terms of her parole. In 1999, she was sent back to prison to serve the rest of her sentence. What she didn't know is that parole-board officials would keep her in the Pierre prison more than a year after her forgery sentence ended. The South Dakota Board of Pardons and Paroles had tacked an additional three years onto her stay - the portion of Figg's original prison term that had been suspended by her sentencing judge when he placed her on probation in 1997. But a circuit court sided with Figg in December 2001, ruling that the parole board erred and ordered her released from the women's prison in Pierre. But in its answer, which was filed last week in federal court, the state denies Figg's claims, saying she signed an agreement in 1998 indicating she understood that her suspended sentence could be reinstated if she violated her parole. The document, which was not introduced in Figg's original case, was just recently discovered in the files of an out-of-state parole agent, said the Butte County State's Attorney, who represented the state in the case. Because of that agreement, Figg made deceitful statements in her own lawsuit and committed acts of barratry, the state's lawyers contend. South Dakota law defines barratry as ''the assertion of a frivolous or malicious claim or defense or the filing of any document with malice or in bad faith by a party in a civil action.'' The barratry law is designed to protect against unfounded disputes that are filed primarily to financially benefit a lawyer. In South Dakota, barratry is a Class II misdemeanor punishable by a maximum penalty of 30 days in jail and a $200 fine. The state says Nicole Figg signed an agreement in 1998 indicating she understood that her suspended sentence could be reinstated if she violated her parole. |
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