Posted on 12/08/2005 12:40:50 PM PST by Radix
An imprisoned child rapist who lost his TV privileges for mailing out pornographic stories about children will be allowed to sue his jailers.
Unlike his writing, U.S. District Court Judge Rya Zobel ruled Tuesday, state prison rules are not explicit enough.
She said they only prohibit inmates from distributing ‘‘pictorial’’ pornography.
The ban does not apply to Joseph Schmitt’s literary efforts, Zobel ruled.
‘‘Without ruling on the merits of plaintiff’s allegations, plaintiff has stated a claim for denial of due process,’’ Zobel said in her decision.
Schmitt, 40, served eight years in prison for raping two young children in 1992. He is now being held in Bridgewater at the Massachusetts Treatment Center for the sexually dangerous.
In 2002, officials at the maximum-security Cedar Junction prison in Walpole caught Schmitt trying to send a story describing sexual acts by children to a Georgia prisoner.
As a result, Schmitt was banned from watching television, listening to the radio and using the telephone for 10 weeks.
He filed suit against the Department of Correction last year, claiming that officials had no right to punish him for his writings. The agency moved to dismiss the suit, but Zobel refused.
The judge allowed the suit to go forward on free speech and due process grounds. She also said prison rules only prohibit mailing sexually explicit material to ‘‘unwilling recipients.’’
Zobel denied Schmitt’s claims that his punishment was excessive and that he was discriminated against because he is gay.
Schmitt had previously been disciplined for selling stories about sex between homosexual adults to publishers of gay sex magazines such as ‘‘Kinky Fetishes,’’ ‘‘Boy Next Door’’ and ‘‘Coming Out.’’
In court papers, the Department of Correction argued that a rule barring a child rapist from possessing or mailing ‘‘sexually explicit material involving children’’ had a ‘‘rational connection to the successful treatment and rehabilitation of inmates,’’ especially sex offenders such as Schmitt.
But Zobel said the state had not demonstrated the connection or cited any rule that banned written material.
The lack of regulations deprived Schmitt of due process because he did not know he was breaking a rule, Zobel’s ruling said.
Schmitt pleaded guilty in 1992 to raping a 10-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl in Fitchburg.
At the time, he was serving time in Connecticut for molesting a 12-year-old boy.
He began serving his Massachusetts sentence in 1994 after completing the Connecticut term. When the Massachusetts sentence ended in 2002 authorities moved to commit him as a sexually dangerous person, citing his writings from prison as one reason.
Schmitt is appealing his conviction and his commitment. He has filed more than 20 lawsuits in state and federal courts against prison officials for allegedly violating his rights and mistreating him; most were quickly dismissed.
Schmitt contended that his stories about child sex described real events that happened to him and that he has been trying to uncover unreported child abuse.
Schmitt said in court papers that prison authorities had known since at least 1996 that he was peddling articles to adult sex magazine publishers because officials keep track of inmates’ income.
Authorities did not move against him until 2001 when there was an alleged crackdown in the Cedar Junction disciplinary unit, Schmitt said in a court filing.
Prison officials are considering their legal options, including appealing or trying to dismiss Schmitt’s suit on different grounds, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Diane Wiffin said yesterday. She said she could not comment on the substance of Zobel’s ruling.
This has to be a parody. Doesn't it? Doesn't it???
HANG THE SCUMBAG!!
Then we won't need a debate about his 'rights' anymore.
The Birdman of Alcatraz lives again.
Democrats must NEVER be allowed to have power in this country ever again.
I'm sure a judge will declare tales of pedophilic rape to be not only protected by our glorious Constitution, but a testament to the creative genius of the proletarian revolution.
No it's not a parody. Take your reality pills. they are in the Zebra.
I smell a Nobel Peace Prize.
Makes me sick.
I'm thinking of suing for my right to paint a mural with this guy's brains. I have a right to free expression too, you know.
Not a parody. I saw it in another Massachusetts paper, and so I went right to the on line source of the article.
Or a "Zobel Piece Prize".
Arafat, Carter and Porn Writers. Good company.
Put him in the 'general population' and let him write and brag about the things he has done and would like to do to little kids.
Everyone's problems will be quickly solved.
There in-lies the problem, reformation and rehabilitation does not work. Punishment works in as much as when done correctly, it punishes, it might not reform the slime ball, but it will make their life uncomfortable. One of the points of punishment is to deprive the prisoner of things that they enjoy, or that make them feel like a whole person. It seems to me that pornography would be something that brings enjoyment to this reprobate, so they should be able to deny it.
Why is it that we all knew what your search would turn up?
2 Dem Presidents, 12 years total out of 38 White House years, responsible for 100% of the most repugnant rulings of this lifetime.
Zobel is a bizarre moron/shyster, appointed by Carter. An absolute nightmare of a judge.
What planet do they even find monsters like Zobel?
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