In March 2024, the Oregon Department of Corrections (DOC) agreed to settle a retaliation lawsuit filed by PLN contributing writer Mark Wilson, paying him $50,000 and vacating a prior prison disciplinary finding. Less than a year later, on January 9, 2025, Wilson, 55, was released from prison serving nearly 36 years for a double murder conviction.

Wilson’s release date was set when he was found eligible for parole in 2019, and the Oregon Board of Parole and Post-Prison Supervision (BPPPS) concluded that he was “likely to be rehabilitated.” At the time, Wilson was “a well-known prisoner’s rights advocate who [wrote] regularly for Prison Legal News, participate[d] in legislative matters involving prisons and prisoners, and assist[ed] other [prisoners] with their cases,” according to the retaliation complaint that he filed. “Since February 2012, Wilson ha[d] worked as [a prisoner] legal assistant in [the DOC], working both on his own case and cases of other prisoners.”        

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Wilson and other incarcerated legal assistants encountered numerous difficulties with ongoing litigation, including communicating with their attorneys and timely filing legal documents through the DOC’s Department of Administrative Services (DAS). Wilson was also employed as a legal assistant in the law library at the Oregon State Correctional Institution (OSCI); law library coordinator Pam McKinney was Wilson’s immediate supervisor. McKinney contacted her superior concerning issues legal assistants were having with timely filing documents, and she obtained permission to scan and email them to DAS. McKinney did not allow Wilson or any other legal assistant to personally send or receive email or telephone calls.

On December 4, 2020, OSCI received an anonymous tip alleging that McKinney had engaged in misconduct, including bringing her cell phone into a secured perimeter, giving library workers special privileges, using her cell phone to pass messages between parolees and prisoners, and using her DOC email for Wilson. DOC Investigator Jerry Plante was assigned to investigate the tip.

On January 19, 2021, Plante searched Wilson’s work area and found a toy cell phone that McKinney had left on his desk. Two days later, Plante and another DOC employee, Captain Hyde, informed Wilson that he was suspended from his job and could no longer assist other prisoners with legal work. On January 24, 2021, Plante and Hyde seized thumb drives from Wilson’s work area. Plante interviewed Wilson on March 23, 2021 raising concerns about the emails that McKinney sent on Wilson’s behalf to DAS. Wilson countered that she had permission to do so and had also sent similar emails for other prisoners, not just him.

Plante then interviewed McKinney on April 15, 2021. In what she later described as an “interrogation,” Plante “browbeat” and “pressured” her to accept a particular “narrative,” she claimed. At the conclusion, McKinney admitted that she had been “compromised” by Wilson and resigned in lieu of being fired. No further investigation was conducted.

Three months later, on August 4, 2021, Plante issued a misconduct report against Wilson, alleging that he violated four rules: (1) Rule 4.15, Compromising an Employee; (2) Rule 1.11 Contraband II; (3) Rule 1.25, Unauthorized Use of Information Systems I; and (4) Rule 4.01 Disobedience of an Order 1. The complaint was based on Wilson and McKinney’s interviews, as well as the toy cell phone, thumb drives, and emails McKinney sent to DAS on Wilson’s behalf. On August 31, 2019, a hearing officer named Foss found Wilson guilty of three of the four violations and sanctioned Wilson with 120 days in disciplinary segregation. Wilson was not allowed to bring anything with him, so he was unable to continue litigating pending cases while held in segregation. Shortly thereafter, Wilson, through counsel, sued Plante and other DOC employees for retaliation, alleging that the disciplinary action was brought in response to his work as a legal assistant, his prisoner rights advocacy, and the cases he brought against the DOC. He further alleged that the guilty finding could interfere with his scheduled parole date.

As PLN reported, DOC defendants moved to dismiss the case and argued that it was barred under Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477 (1992), because Wilson’s success in the lawsuit could affect his release date. The district court rejected this argument, reasoning that Wilson’s claims were similar to those in Wilkinson v. Dotson, 544 U.S. 74 (2005), because the relief he sought would not result in his immediate or speedier release. [See: PLN, Feb. 2023, p.48.]

The DOC then agreed to settle the case by paying Wilson $50,000 and vacating the disciplinary finding, along with all associated records. The DOC also agreed to “process Mr. Wilson’s request for a ‘positive recommendation’ for a prison term reduction as provided under OAR 255-040-0005(4)[,]” and to “exclude and not consider the vacated disciplinary violation when determining its recommendation.” The settlement payment included costs and fees for Wilson’s attorneys, Juan Chavez and Benjamin Haile of Oregon Justice Resource Center (ORJC). See: Wilson v. Plante, USDC (D. Or.), Case No. 6:21-cv-01606.

With that, Wilson was released as scheduled in January 2025, and he was transferred to parole supervision in Multnomah County. He is expected to continue working as a legal assistant as well as policy associate, now for ORJC. PLN congratulates Wilson on the settlement and his long overdue release, and we look forward to what he will do next.  

Additional source: The Oregonian

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