PORT ANGELES — A former Clallam Bay prison inmate who won a free speech lawsuit against the state Department of Corrections in 2008 is once again suing the agency for allegedly violating his constitutional rights.
Allan Parmelee claims that Corrections and 13 guards and supervisors at three prisons, including the Clallam Bay Corrections Center, are responsible for harassing him in retaliation for the inmate standing up for prisoners’ rights.
Parmelee — who is serving a 24-year sentence for bombing the cars of two lawyers — is seeking up to $200,004 in damages.
The inmate, who is representing himself and claims he has authored several self-help books for prisoners and written a “thousand prison conditions or treatment articles,” is currently imprisoned at Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Aberdeen.
Most of the claims in the lawsuit, filed Thursday in Clallam County Superior Court, are vague.
But Parmelee refers to one incident in particular that was the subject of his previous free speech case.
That involved the inmate being placed in isolation for 10 days at Clallam Bay in October 2005 for a letter he had written to the state secretary of corrections.
He was punished for libeling the reputation of the superintendent of the Clallam Bay prison by writing in that letter that she is a “man-hater lesbian.”
The libel law under which he was punished was repealed last year, and the state Court of Appeals ruled the law violated his constitutional rights.
Parmelee also received 10 days of “loss of privileges” for the letter.
He previously received media attention in February 2009 for collecting numerous fines from government agencies who take too long to respond to burdensome public records requests.
During one five-month period in 2005, he made 788 records requests to Corrections.
Parmelee won a $19,000 judgment in one case when the department illegally delayed turning over records.
In response, Gov. Chris Gregoire signed a bill last year that allows a court to block an inmate from requesting certain records if a judge finds the request is intended to harass an agency or its employees or that fulfilling the request would threaten security or assist in criminal activity.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
