$1.1 Million Settlement for Colorado Prisoner Stabbed by Gang Members For Testifying About Prison Murder
by David M. Reutter
On February 1, 2024, an agreement was filed in the federal court for the District of Colorado by the state Department of Corrections (DOC), promising to pay $1.1 million to settle a lawsuit alleging it failed to protect prisoner John Standley Snorsky from assault by gang members. The settlement followed a Court order that Snorsky be placed in protective custody (PC).
As PLN reported, Snorsky reported that he was in fear for his life due to custody issues with other prisoners when he was transferred to Colorado State Penitentiary (CSP) in October 2016. The reason, as he informed prison officials, was that he had agreed to provide witness testimony at the trial of another CSP prisoner, Chad Wesley Merrill, for the fatal 2015 stabbing of Joshua Edmonds at Limon Correctional Facility, where all three were then held.
Because of publicity in that case, Snorsky argued that he was a well-known “snitch” and easily recognizable to violent prison gangs who targeted him. However, his request for PC placement was denied. Instead, he landed in the same unit with Merrill, who dutifully spread the word that Snorsky was a witness against him. Merrill recruited three more prisoners to attack Snorsky, and on February 22, 2017, Danny Samson, Jaray Trujillo, and Christopher Clark stabbed him 43 times. Not long after that, Merrill was one of four prisoners charged with the murder of yet another prisoner, Matthew Massaro, on July 14, 2018.
In September 2019, a month after filing for a preliminary injunction in the Court, Snorsky was transferred to Buena Vista Correctional Facility and placed in PC. But he was removed in July 2021 for allegedly “causing a disturbance” during a riot. Snorsky later testified this was “a trumped up charge” that was “retaliatory,” as the Court recalled. Sent back to CSP, he was placed in a day hall, which has only eight prisoners in each unit.
Meanwhile, his original preliminary injunction motion was denied, but the Court appointed attorney Kevin Homiak to assist Snorsky before an April 2022 evidentiary hearing on a second motion. After finding that Snorsky was housed with gang members associated with Merrill, Trujillo, Samson, and Clark, the Court found a threat was indisputably present. In its May 2022 order, the Court agreed that Snorsky “is currently on multiple hit lists from the gangs associated with Merrill, Trujillo, Samson, and Clark.” [See: PLN, December 2022, p.16.]
Snorsky’s underlying civil rights action named 17 guards and other prison officials as defendants, blaming them for conditions of confinement so dangerous that they violated the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The compensation provided in his settlement agreement with DOC included costs and fees for Snorsky’s attorneys, Brian S. Osterman, Kevin D. Homiak, Kristen L. Ferries, Matthew V. Rotbart and Ryan W. Cooke with Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell LLP in Denver, as well as Erica T. Grossman of Holland Holland Edwards & Grossman P.C., also in Denver. See: Snorsky v. Hagans, USDC (D. Colo.), Case No. 1:18-cv-03025.