Penton v. Johnson et al

CASE NAME: Penton v. Johnson et al.

TYPE OF CASE: Prisoner civil rights violation; mail withholding

COURT: U.S. Eastern District

JUDGE(S): Judge Daniel J. Calabretta

PLAINTIFF LAWYERS: Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, Pierce MacConaghy, Harrison (Buzz) J. Frahn IV, Jonathan Sanders, Hilary Wong

DEFENSE LAWYERS: Longyear & Lavra LLP, Nicole M. Cahill, Dayton "Van" Vranken Longyear

Anthony Penton had been in prison for several years, in 2007 and 2008, when he was sent notices about deadlines to file appeals and when his family wrote to him that his father was dying. He didn't learn of those events for years because a prison mailroom officer simply didn't deliver any mail to him for nine months.

Fifteen years later, a federal jury decided that Penton deserved $475,000 for the violation of his civil rights. The verdict is nearly 50 times larger than any previous award for withholding mail from a prisoner, according to Pierce MacConaghy, the plaintiff's lead attorney. Penton v. Johnson, 2:11-cv-00518 (E.D. Cal., filed Feb. 24, 2011).

HARRISON J. FRAHN IV

MacConaghy said she believed the jury was especially impressed by the plaintiff's own testimony. Penton, who had been serving a 52-year sentence for armed robbery, believed he would die in prison.

"The jury just really connected with our client's story, and in particular, his profound loss of hope and feelings of isolation when he lost all contact with the outside world because his mail was withheld for nearly nine months," she said.

The jurors were not impressed with the former mail supervisor's explanation from the stand that not delivering some mail was just what he had to do to get through the day. "I think that [statement] was somewhat shocking in the face of somebody losing all hope and thinking that ... he was going to die in prison," MacConaghy said.

Defense attorneys Nicole Cahill and Dayton Vranken Longyear of Longyear & Lavra LLP did not respond to a request to comment on the case.

The case had a somewhat complicated procedural history. Penton filed his civil rights suit pro se in 2011, but it was dismissed. After he appealed, the 9th Circuit asked Simpson Thacher to represent him. Harrison Frahn and colleagues got the suit reinstated in 2018. In 2022, working with the Northern California Innocence Project, the attorneys also won an agreement from state prosecutors to have Penton resentenced to time served, and he was released in December of that year.

MacConaghy took over the case as a new associate. She defeated the defense's contention in a summary judgment motion that the prison mail official deserved qualified immunity, and she successfully defended the win on appeal. Five days after the 9th Circuit argument, the trial began.

Those were MacConaghy's first appellate argument and first trial, Frahn pointed out.

In the trial, the prison official stated that withholding certain mail was standard practice. "I found a sworn declaration from the same defendant in a different case that said essentially the exact opposite," she said. "He lost all credibility with the jury."

Another key moment was testimony by the corrections officer who ultimately brought the withheld mail to Penton in 2008. The man had kept a log detailing when each piece of mail had arrived and when it was delivered.

According to Frahn, when Simpson Thacher attorney, Hilary Wong, asked the officer why, he answered: "Because I figured I might end up in a courtroom 15 years later testifying about it."

-- Don DeBenedictis