Federal civil jury finds prison guard liable for malicious prosecution in retaliation for inmate’s refusal to act as a ‘snitch’ and hearing officer’s refusal to hear his plea of innocence

A Fox Rothschild pro bono litigation team led by Ashley Barton Chandler and Lucas Nelson secured a civil rights verdict for a North Carolina prison inmate who said he was framed by a guard on false charges of drug possession.

Plaintiff Abdulkadir Ali told the eight-member jury that a correctional officer at Caswell Correctional Institution planted drugs in his clothing in retaliation for Ali’s refusal to work as a “snitch” for the officer. Ali further alleged that the prison’s internal disciplinary hearing violated his due process rights when he was not permitted to speak in his own defense and the hearing officer summarily found him guilty of internal prison infractions. Ali was later acquitted by a state court jury of criminal charges of illegal drug possession.

Lawyers defending the prison officials urged the jury to reject Ali’s claims, relying on Ali’s status as an inmate to prove his story untrustworthy and arguing that he was just trying to use the courts to get rich.

But Chandler reminded the jury of Ali’s testimony that he would be satisfied with a single dollar, symbolic of the prison officials’ constitutional wrongs. Chandler and Nelson presented a clear case that Ali’s primary motivation was to prove that no one is above the law, not even those tasked with enforcing it.

The jury returned a verdict in favor of Ali on both claims — malicious prosecution and denial of due process.

“When the jury read the first finding of liability, Mr. Ali was overcome with emotion,” said Chandler. “After more than five years, he finally received public vindication that what was done to him was wrong. And that no matter the circumstances of your past, you have a right to be heard in the present.”

The Fox team was appointed to represent Ali under the Middle District of North Carolina’s Pro Bono Representation Program, which appoints counsel for pro se litigants whose cases have survived summary judgment and been set for trial. This was the third case that Fox lawyers have tried under that program in the last five years.