A former police officer who blew the whistle on inmate hazing at the Lone Peak Minimum Security Facility in Bluffdale has been denied a final appeal of the dismissal of his case.
The Utah Supreme Court ruled last week that although Clifford Hall, who worked for the Utah State Department of Corrections until 1995, was correct in arguing that the department is not immune to whistle-blower complaints under the Governmental Immunity Act, he "failed to comply with the notice of claim requirements of that act."
Hall said that prison inmates often celebrated parole dates by binding with duct tape those offenders about to be released and then taunting them.
Although witnesses or participants to the hazing claimed it was harmless fun, department officials say they did not condone or approve of it.
Hall said he quit his job at the prison, in part, to bring the hazing incidents to the public's attention. But he claimed that after his resignation, he was "unable to secure a position in law enforcement."
Hall filed a lawsuit in October 1996, claiming "at least $100,000 in damages" under the state's Whistle-blower Act.
"As a result of Hall's good faith communication of information relating to hazings at UDC facilities . . . Hall has been subjected to adverse action," his lawsuit claimed.
But the lower court dismissed most of Hall's claims as "time-barred" under the act's 180-day statue of limitations.
Third District Judge William A. Thorne also ruled that the state has immunity in cases such as Hall's.
It was with that point that the high court took issue Tuesday.
"We find that the Governmental Immunity Act does not protect the state and its political subdivision from lawsuits arising under the Whistle-blower Act," justices said. "Barring such claims through governmental immunity would nullify a very specific statutory provision at the expense of preserving a much more general one."
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