Defense Lawyer Sues Prison Panel Over Assault by Client

A West Los Angeles criminal defense lawyer sued the U.S. Bureau of Prisons in Los Angeles Federal Court on Tuesday, alleging that Metropolitan Detention Center employees negligently allowed “a psychotic prisoner” to stab him in a locked meeting room in the prison’s maximum security unit.

Gregory Nicolaysen is seeking $500,000 in damages, and added that he hopes the lawsuit will lead to corrective measures as well. “A key objective behind this lawsuit is to pressure the Bureau of Prisons to come to grips with its lack of security for professional visitors, particularly with high-risk inmates,” he said in an interview.

The lawsuit stems from a Feb. 4, 1994, incident in which inmate Marcus Castaneda stabbed Nicolaysen, his appointed attorney, in the eye and face with a pen on the eighth floor of the detention center, requiring reconstructive surgery.

“He ripped the eyelid off,” Nicolaysen said. “They put my eyelid back together at the Santa Monica Hospital emergency room. The trauma was unbelievable.”

After the stabbing, Castaneda’s case was reassigned to another attorney. He was convicted on bank robbery charges, received a 27-year sentence and was sent to the federal penitentiary in Atlanta. He later was convicted by a federal jury in Los Angeles of assault in the stabbing and sentenced to an additional six months.

Nicolaysen’s civil complaint states that Castaneda had a psychiatric history dating to the early 1960s, had been treated with antipsychotic drugs and been hospitalized several times, including in a federal medical facility in Missouri and Atascadero State Hospital in California from 1966-67 under the designation of being “criminally insane.”

The complaint also states that Castaneda had been convicted of numerous violent crimes, including more than five robbery convictions, that he had fatally stabbed another inmate in 1977 while incarcerated at the federal prison at Terminal Island and that he had been isolated from the general prison population in Rochester, N.Y., in 1991 “because he could be dangerous and would pose a threat in mingling” with the other inmates.

Nicolaysen was appointed to represent Castaneda in May 1992 on bankruptcy charges. He refused to meet with the accused man unless he was handcuffed. Castaneda declined to meet with the attorney under those conditions.

After various proceedings, Nicolaysen and his paralegal Cynthia Parker-Shea came to the prison to meet with Castaneda on Feb 4, 1994, to prepare for the trial. Castaneda attacked his attorney with a chair and then with a ballpoint pen he had concealed in his pants.

Nicolaysen, 39, contends that prison personnel failed to provide adequate security during the meeting, leaving him vulnerable to serious injuries.

Bureau of Prisons officials declined to comment on the lawsuit Tuesday, but in the past they have said that they investigated and found no merit in Nicolaysen’s contentions.

In June 1994, responding to an inquiry from Nicolaysen, W.H. Seifert, the warden at the detention center, told the attorney in writing that after investigating the incident he had determined that the security procedures in effect had not been deficient. “Therefore, no changes have been made nor are any changes contemplated at this time.”

Seifert’s letter also states that Nicolaysen had agreed to allow prison officials to remove Castaneda’s handcuffs. Nicolaysen maintains that this is not true.

Last year, Nicolaysen filed an administrative complaint with the federal government, asking for $571,000 in damages--a prerequisite to filing a federal lawsuit. That claim was denied in December.