Colorado Politics

Nebraska settles with inmate seeking hormone therapy

The Nebraska Attorney General’s office has agreed to settle a civil rights lawsuit filed against a state prison’s medical director for refusing to provide hormone therapy to an inmate.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that the terms of the settlement that was reached this week have not been released.

“I can tell you that Riley (Shadle) does have a serious medical condition that the prison is agreeing to treat as is its obligation to treat any serious medical condition,” Shadle’s attorney Jeanelle Lust said in an email on Tuesday.

In a lawsuit filed last year, Shadle accused Dr. Randy Kohl of denying her hormone therapy treatment for gender identity disorder. According to a July 13, 2015, letter from the Lincoln Correctional Center warden, the state denied the request because it was considered an elective treatment.

Shadle, who was convicted under the name Dillon Shadle and later legally changed her name, was born male but identifies as female, according to court records.

In February, a judge allowed the case to go forward on an Eighth Amendment claim alleging prison officials had failed to provide adequate care for a serious medical need.

On Monday, Lust and Assistant Nebraska Attorney General David Lopez signed a stipulation saying Shadle’s claims against Kohl should be dismissed “pursuant to an agreed treatment plan,” with each party paying their own costs.

Neither Attorney General spokeswoman Suzanne Gage nor a spokeswoman for the Department of Correctional Services would say whether Shadle’s case has created a path for how the state’s prisons will deal with medical requests by transgender inmates going forward.

Nebraska Capitol

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