PORTLAND (AP) — The first of four federal lawsuits brought by former Maine State Prison inmates beaten by fellow prisoners using prison-issued padlocks is being heard this week.
Keith Ayotte’s lawsuit against the state Department of Corrections that claims guards retaliated against him for reporting the padlock attack goes to trial on Wednesday.
Ayotte told the Portland Press Herald (http://bit.ly/1k2vfRS ) he was knocked unconscious in the attack in October 2010 in plain view of other inmates and a guard, but no one reported seeing anything. He said when he got out of the hospital and was sent back to the Warren prison, guards harassed him and warned him to keep his mouth shut.
A prisons spokesman defends use of the padlocks which prisoners are issued to secure their personal belongings in a footlocker.
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