Justice has been served! Barry Hazle Reaches a 2 million dollar settlement for being forced to attend a 12 step based program. This should put a damper on all the mandating of AA and NA meetings and 12 step rehab programs across this country. Something needs to stop the unconstitutional coercion of religious AA and NA meetings and 12 step rehabs programs!
Seven-Figure Settlement for Atheist Calif. Addict
By TIM HULL October 14th 2014
(CN) – A California atheist who was jailed after refusing to join a 12-step program because of its religious themes reached a $2 million settlement, his attorney said Tuesday.
Barry Hazle sued his parole officer, California corrections officials and Westcare Corp. after they revoked his probation for a drug conviction.
After pleading no-contest in 2006 to possession of methamphetamine, Hazle said he told officials several times that his atheism made him reluctant to participate in religious-treatment programs
In 2007, however, Hazle was allegedly paroled to a 90-day residential program that offered only the 12 Steps, many of which call for explicit acceptance of God.
Finding Hazle “disruptive,” though in a “congenial way,” for refusing to participate, staff reported him to his parole office, who sent him back to prison for about 100 days.
Hazle then filed a federal civil rights action seeking damages for false imprisonment, among other things.
U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell in San Francisco found that the defendants’ decision to return Hazle to prison had violated the First Amendment. Burrell turned the issue over to a jury to determine the amount of damages, but the jurors came back with an award of no damages.
Hazel appealed to the 9th Circuit after Judge Burrell refused his move for a new trial, and a three-judge appellate panel ruled in August 2013 that some kind of compensation was mandatory, “given this undisputed finding that Hazle’s constitutional rights were violated.”
The appellate panel also reversed the lower court’s summary judgment in favor of Westcare and remanded Hazle’s civil rights claims against the state contractor for trial.
The parties filed a stipulation Tuesday for voluntary dismissal with prejudice in Sacramento.
Under the settlement, Hazle will dismiss his civil-rights claims in exchange for $1 million from the state and $925,000 from Westcare, San Franciso-based attorney John Heller said.
“The settlement compensates Hazle for the violation of his rights, and for litigation fees and costs in the lengthy trial and appellate proceedings,” Heller said in a statement. Attorneys for the state and Westcare Corp. did not immediately return a request for comment.