SCREENING STATEMENT

 

No. 08-0927

 

Polk County No. LACL107387

 

 

 

MELISSA LEE RENDA,

          Plaintiff-Appellant,

 

vs.

 

STATE OF IOWA, JAMES CARTER, JIM

ACKLES, MIKE THOMAS, and VICKI GARRETT,

          Defendants-Appellees.

 

 

Trial Judge:          Scott D. Rosenberg                         

 

Appellate Counsel:

          Roxanne Barton Conlin of Roxanne Conlin & Associates, P.C., Des Moines, for appellant.

 

          Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, and Mark Hunacek, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.

 

Trial Counsel:

          Appellate counsel for both sides

 

Trial judgment date: 5-6-08

 

Ready date: 10-28-08

 

Case context: While incarcerated at the Mt. Pleasant Correctional Facility, the petitioner alleged she was subjected to sexual harassment during her confinement and employment at the prison. The petitioner filed suit against the State and several individual prison employees. She claimed the defendants, through their harassment, retaliation, punishment, and threats, consistently and deliberately deprived her of her constitutional rights as guaranteed by the Iowa Constitution. Specifically, the petitioner claimed she was denied her right to equal protection, procedural and substantive due process, freedom of speech, and freedom from the infliction of cruel and unusual punishment. The district court granted the State's motion to dismiss. The court noted the Iowa Legislature had not passed any law that provides for a cause of action based on alleged violations of the Iowa Constitution and it declined to grant the petitioner's request to create such an action. The petitioner appeals.