Overview
- A federal judge in Colorado granted a motion to dismiss Tuesday, entered judgment for ADX officials Mistelle J. Starr and John Holbrooks, and ordered Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán’s civil case closed.
- Guzmán had alleged that Special Administrative Measures and near-total isolation at ADX Florence harmed his physical and mental health, citing sleep problems and chronic ear, nose and throat pain in court filings.
- The dismissal affects only this civil suit over detention conditions and does not change Guzmán’s 2019 conviction or his life-plus-30-years sentence.
- Guzmán’s legal team has opened an investigation into a batch of disputed handwritten letters sent recently to a Brooklyn federal court after an attorney said the letters are not from him.
- The decision is another legal setback for Guzmán and highlights the limited legal remedies for high-profile inmates held under strict SAMs at ADX Florence, a federal supermax prison that restricts inmate communications and contact for security reasons.