Opinion ID: 617149
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Dreadlocks Incident

Text: In his original complaint, Shepherd charged numerous prison officials and employees with various violations of his constitutional rights. The court or the jury resolved all but one of these claims in favor of defendants. Accordingly, we here discuss only the claim on which Shepherd prevailed, as it provides the sole basis for the challenged attorney's fee award. On July 4, 2001, Shepherd was incarcerated in New York State's Elmira Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison, where he was serving an aggregate life sentence for robbery in the first degree, robbery in the second degree, and criminal possession of stolen property. See People v. Shepherd, 260 A.D.2d 649, 650, 687 N.Y.S.2d 269, 269 (2d Dep't 1999). That day, as Shepherd was leaving for evening recreation, defendants Twedt and Post searched Shepherd, including his hair, which was arranged in dreadlocks. [2] While one defendant held a metal detector over Shepherd's head, the other manually searched Shepherd's hair, despite Shepherd telling defendants that touching his dreadlocks without his permission violated his Rastafarian beliefs. See id.