CA- Man can sue officials for keeping him in prison

6-16-2009 California:

A Bay Area man can sue California officials for allegedly violating his rights by keeping him in prison for 18 months after a state court had overturned the law under which he was convicted, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.

William Cousins claimed in his lawsuit that the state attorney general, prison system director and prison warden should have taken steps to free him in October 2003 after an appellate panel in San Francisco ruled in another man's case that part of the state's sex offender registration law was unconstitutional.

In Monday's decision, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco did not say whether state officials have a duty to examine any new ruling that overturns a law and release all prisoners convicted under that law.

But the court overturned a federal judge's dismissal of Cousins' suit and said California law does not immunize the attorney general or prison officials from such claims. The ruling allows Cousins to try to prove that those officials acted negligently by failing to look into his case and set him free. He seeks unspecified damages.

Cousins' suit said he lives in Alameda County but gave no further details of his circumstances or background. His lawyers were unavailable for comment.

Deputy Attorney General Wilfred Fong, the state's lawyer, said his office disagrees with the ruling and will consider a further appeal. "There's no duty owed by these (state officials) to undertake this kind of effort," he said.

Cousins was arrested in San Jose in 1999 and was charged with failing to report to police within five days of changing his address, as required for all registered sex offenders. He was convicted in January 2000 and, because of previous felony convictions, sentenced to 25 years to life in prison under the state's three-strikes law.

In October 2003, the First District Court of Appeal ruled that the registration law was unconstitutionally vague as applied to transient sex offenders, who were required to report to police within five working days each time they changed their location. The law also compelled them to specify all the places they were regularly located in a city.

The court said the terms of the law were unclear and that homeless people wouldn't know how to comply.

Cousins, who had been convicted under that law, sued for his release in January 2004. State officials took more than a year to reply, arguing at first that the law was valid in Cousins' case, but eventually dropping their opposition and releasing him from the Mule Creek (Amador County) prison in June 2005.

In Monday's ruling, the three-judge panel said an attorney general can't be sued under federal law for actions taken as a prosecutor. But the court said California law doesn't provide the same immunity to the attorney general or prison officials for allegedly negligent conduct that results in a "false imprisonment." ..Source.. by Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer