Court rules inmate is 'civilly dead' and can't sue ACI over 2010 attack

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The state Supreme Court recently ruled that a Boston gang member serving multiple life sentences is considered civilly dead under state law and cannot sue the Adult Correctional Institutions for an attack by a fellow prisoner with a razor that left his face scarred.

The high court struck down the negligence lawsuit brought against the Department of Corrections by Dana Gallop, 33, serving double life sentences plus 45 years for gunning down a rival and shooting a bystander in 2008 outside a South Providence nightclub.

The court decision cited a state law that specifies, in part, that "Every person imprisoned in the adult correctional institutions for life shall, with respect to all rights of property, to the bond of matrimony and to all civil rights and relations of any nature whatsoever, be deemed to be dead in all respects, as if his or her natural death had taken place at the time of conviction."

"The statute declares that a person, such as the plaintiff, who is serving a life sentence, is deemed civilly dead and thus does not possess most commonly recognized civil rights," Justice Maureen McKenna Goldberg wrote.

Gallop's lawyer, Ronald J. Resmini, called it "a very disappointing ruling" and dismissed the state's civil-death statute as "moronic".

"We're the only state left with the archaic law," Resmini said.

Resmini took the case, he said, after being contacted by Gallop and growing outraged by the facts.

The Providence police arrested Gallop in December 2008 just days after the shooting death of 24-year-old Anthony "Bundi" Parrish, also of Boston, and the wounding of bystander London Hardy, of Malden, Mass., outside then Club Passion on Portland Street.

According to the ruling, fellow inmate Ian Rosado attacked Gallop, leaving him with lacerations and permanent scarring to his face. Gallop alleges that Rosado warned correctional officer Matthew Galligan and other officers a day earlier that he was planning to attack. Gallop accuses Galligan of abandoning his post for 18 minutes April 26, 2010, to give Rosado the opportunity.

In February 2011, a jury convicted Gallop of five charges. The Journal reported at the time that Gallop's trial had to be delayed a week after another inmate wielding a razor blade protruding from a bar of soap slashed Gallop after an argument that occurred in a chapel, the police said. It took 60 stitches to close cut to his face and head.

Months later, Gallop sued the ACI and corrections officers, including Galligan, alleging negligence. The day before his trial on that case was to start, Superior Court Judge Sarah Taft-Carter raised the issue of the state's civil death statute, to which the state responded with a motion to dismiss, the ruling states. Gallop objected, and asked to file an amended complaint on the grounds that the death statute violated Gallop's rights.

In July 2016, Taft-Carter granted the state's motion to dismiss but did not rule on the request to file an amended complaint. The high court returned the matter to Taft-Carter for a ruling on that request.

Resmini says he plans to pursue the civil rights issues at stake and expressed outrage that correctional officers egged Rosado on in the 2010 attack and then provided him with opportunity.

"Obviously, he's incitable," Resmini said.

A spokesman for the Department of Corrections couldn't be immediately reached for comment.