CHEYENNE -- A Hispanic inmate from Wyoming says his civil rights were violated when he was left to the mercy of black inmates at a Nevada prison after racial conflict there prompted a pullout of other Hispanic inmates from Wyoming.

Daniel James Montoya is suing state corrections officials over his move to the High Desert Prison in Nevada, claiming he was transferred to that prison after other Hispanic prisoners from Wyoming were moved back to the Rawlins state prison for their own safety.

Montoya says he was badly injured when five black inmates assaulted in him the Nevada prison chapel bathroom.

Montoya's lawsuit, filed in Carbon County District Court at Rawlins, said he was transferred to the Nevada prison on Sept. 9, 2004, six days after other Wyoming Hispanic inmates had been transferred back to the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins.

Montoya said a case manager at the Nevada prison told him that all the Nevada Hispanic inmates were on lock-down status because of the conflicts between the Hispanic and black inmates.

Although Montoya is of Mexican descent, he said was told he should have no problems because he "appeared to look white," the lawsuit said.

The Wyoming Department of Corrections began moving 128 Wyoming inmates out of the Nevada prison beginning in September 2004 and ending in February 2005, department spokesman Melinda Brazzale said Monday.

The department canceled the state's contract because the Nevada institution was not providing the level of care required, she said.

Although there had been "conflicts" at the institution, she said the main reason for the pullout was to fulfill the department's goal of getting all inmates who could not be housed in Wyoming consolidated in the same state.

Earlier, Wyoming moved its inmates out of Colorado prisons because Colorado needed the beds.

"We are race neutral," Brazzale said of the state's corrections system. "We deal with individuals, not races."

As inmates enter the system, they are screened for any "verified conflict" with other individuals they may come in contact with, she said.

Meanwhile, Montoya claimed that he was placed in a "hostile environment" in Nevada despite his pleas to be returned to Wyoming, his lawsuit said.

Later, when he left church services to use the bathroom, he was assaulted by five black inmates who beat him unconscious, the lawsuit said.

He later was found to have a fractured frontal left eye socket and claims he received inadequate medical treatment from Nevada and Wyoming prison officials.

He is seeking an order to allow hin to receive surgery to correct damage to his eye and face along with physical therapy and $500,000 in compensatory damages each from about a dozen corrections officials named as defendants.

Montoya, 23, is serving a five- to eight-year sentence imposed in Laramie County District Court for possession of methamphetamine laboratory equipment.

He is serving as his own attorney. Carbon County District Judge Wade Waldrip last week rejected Montoya's request for a court-appointed attorney, a District Court spokesman in Rawlins said Monday.

NewsTracker

* Last we knew: Wyoming pulled all its male inmates out of Nevada Department of Corrections prisons.

* The latest: A Hispanic Wyoming inmate claims he was badly injured when black inmates assaulted him at a Nevada prison shortly after other Hispanic prisoners from Wyoming were moved back to Rawlins for their own safety.

* What's next: The inmate's lawsuit will be considered in Carbon County District Court.

Capital bureau reporter Joan Barron can be reached at (307) 632-1244 or at joan.barron@casperstartribune.net.