FILED

January 28, 1998

Cecil W. Crowson

Appellate Court Clerk

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF TENNESSEE

AT NASHVILLE

DEELICHO BESH, )

)

Plaintiff/Appellant, )

) Davidson Chancery

VS. ) No. 95-2095-II

)

TED COPPICK and ) Appeal No.

LES HARRISON, ) 01A01-9605-CH-00234

)

Defendants/Appellees. )

APPEAL FROM THE DAVIDSON COUNTY CHANCERY COURT

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

THE HONORABLE ELLEN HOBBS LYLE, CHANCELLOR

For Plaintiff/Appellant: For Defendants/Appellees:

Deelicho Besh John Knox Walkup

Pro Se Attorney General and Reporter

Lisa T. Kirkham

Assistant Attorney General

AFFIRMED AND REMANDED

WILLIAM C. KOCH, JR., JUDGE
1Tenn. Ct. App. R. 10(b) provides:

The Court, with the concurrence of all judges participating in the case, may

affirm, reverse or modify the actions of the trial court by memorandum opinion when

a formal opinion would have no precedential value. When a case is decided by

memorandum opinion, it shall be designated “MEMORANDUM OPINION,” shall

not be published, and shall not be cited or relied on for any reason in a subsequent

unrelated case.

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MEMORANDUM OPINION

This appeal involves contraband seized from a state prisoner. After prison

officials confiscated his unauthorized walkman-style radio, the prisoner filed suit

against two correctional officers in the Chancery Court for Davidson County alleging

that they had converted his personal property. The trial court granted the officers

motion for summary judgment, and the prisoner has appealed. We affirm the trial

court in accordance with Tenn. Ct. App. R. 10.1

Deelicho Besh is incarcerated at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution

in Davidson County. He works in the contract data plant operated by the Correctional

Enterprises of Tennessee (“CET”). In June 1993, he purchased a walkman-style radio

that he used at his work station. The radio could be powered either by batteries or by

current. During a routine shakedown of the contract data plant in June 1995, a

correctional officer discovered a power booster for the radio plugged into the wall

socket at Mr. Besh’s workstation. The power booster violated the prison regulations

prohibiting prisoners from using power boosters or alternating current adaptors in

their workplaces at CET. 

After consulting with his superiors, the correctional officer confiscated the

power booster, the radio, and a set of earphones and placed them in the prison vault

pending a disciplinary hearing on Mr. Besh’s alleged rule infraction. The prison

disciplinary board met on June 30, 1995 and found Mr. Besh guilty of possessing

contraband. Accordingly, the prison official did not return Mr. Besh’s radio but

rather, as far as this record shows, continued to securely store it in the prison vault.

Within a week of the disciplinary hearing, Mr. Besh sued the correctional

officer who had discovered and confiscated the radio, seeking $20,000 in

compensatory and $10,000 in punitive damages for the alleged conversion of his

eighty dollar radio. Several months later, Mr. Besh amended his suit to add another
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prison employee as a defendant. Both officers moved for dismissal or, in the

alternative, for a summary judgment. On January 8, 1996, the Chancery Court for

Davidson County granted the motion and dismissed the case.

We find this case essentially indistinguishable from Bryant v. Barbara, 717

P.2d 522, 524-26 (Kan. Ct. App. 1986) which holds that prisoners do not have a

legally protected interest in the possession of contraband. Since there is no dispute

that Mr. Besh had been found guilty of possessing contraband, he had no property

interest in the continued possession of his walkman radio while incarcerated.

Accordingly, the prison officials did not commit conversion by seizing the radio, the

power adaptor, and the earphones and by holding them pending later release.

Accordingly, we affirm the judgment and remand the case to the trial court for

whatever further proceedings may be required. We also tax the costs of this appeal

to Deelicho Besh for which execution, if necessary, may issue.

______________________________

WILLIAM C. KOCH, JR., JUDGE

CONCUR:

__________________________________

HENRY F. TODD, PRESIDING JUDGE

MIDDLE SECTION 

__________________________________

BEN H. CANTRELL, JUDGE