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Judge throws out eight inmates' lawsuits over prison-bus killings

The inmates argued that they were also victims when officers Curtis Billue and Christopher Monica were murdered

MACON, Ga. — A federal judge has thrown out lawsuits filed by eight Georgia prison inmates who argued that they were also victims when two corrections officers were shot and killed.

The shootings happened in June 2017, when two inmates escaped from a prison bus in Putnam County after allegedly killing correctional officers Curtis Billue and Christopher Monica.

The escapees, Ricky Dubose and Donnie Rowe, are both charged with murder and may face the death penalty.

But in June, eight other inmates who were aboard the bus that day said their rights were violated.

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They sued the Georgia Department of Corrections and a slew of state prison officials. Their lawsuits argued that lax security aboard the prison buses led to the shootings and escapes.

Some inmates argued that they've suffered post-traumatic stress since the fatal shootings and that they were held in solitary confinement afterward, even though they'd done nothing wrong.

Last week, federal Judge Tillman E. Self dismissed all eight lawsuits, ruling that the eight inmates --  Timothy Dotson, Timothy Faison, James Geiger, Timothy Ghiden, Samuel Moss, J.D. Powell, Dennis Roberson and Christopher Trammell - had no grounds to sue.

Under Georgia's "sovereign immunity law," people can't sue the state or its agencies unless they agree to the lawsuit.

Also, Self wrote, Georgia courts have ruled that where a plaintiff's injuries were caused by an assault and battery caused by a third party, the state is immune from suit, "even if state officials' actions contributed."

The lawsuits named Gregory Dozier, commissioner of the corrections department, and the wardens of the Baldwin, Hancock and Jackson state prisons as defendants.

But Self ruled that the inmates did not show that corrections officials' actions helped cause the killings or that they knew something like that likely to happen.

The inmates had asked for at least $250,000 apiece in damages.

Their lawsuits cited a Department of Corrections investigation says prison officials -- including Monica and Billue -- violated their own rules numerous times on the day of the shootings.

But Putnam County's sheriff this spring called the lawsuits "absurd" and "frivolous." DuBose and Rowe may go to trial next year.

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