An inmate transferred from the Arkansas Department of Corrections to a federal facility in West Virginia earlier this year was back in Arkansas on Tuesday to testify in federal court about the transfer, which he claimed was retaliation for his activities as a “jailhouse lawyer” with a record of successful litigation.
Gregory Holt, 48, is serving life in prison for a 2010 conviction for aggravated domestic burglary and first-degree domestic battery, and is classified by the Arkansas Department of Corrections as a habitual offender. He contended in a federal complaint filed July 10 that he was transferred June 9 to USP Hazelton in Bruceton Mills, W.Va., to short-circuit several civil rights lawsuits he filed that are currently pending, as well as in retaliation for successful litigation he has brought against the prison system in the past.
Holt was returned to Arkansas for a bench trial before U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky in the matter.
According to the complaint, Holt, a self-described jailhouse lawyer and practicing Muslim who goes by the name Abdul Maalik Muhammad, gained notoriety for a lawsuit he filed against the Department of Corrections over its policy against beards that eventually wound its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in his favor in 2015.
A 2022 strip search prompted another lawsuit that was settled in June with an order by U.S. Magistrate Judge Tricia Harris to allow Holt to wear modest clothing in accordance with his Muslim beliefs during cell “shakedowns,” and that he be provided with a hard copy of the order and judgement to show to officers.
Holt claimed in the complaint that Arkansas Division of Correction Director Dexter Payne initiated his transfer in direct response to ongoing, active litigation and after confidential mediation talks failed. The complaint asserts that the transfer was a deliberate attempt to disrupt Holt’s legal advocacy on behalf of himself and other inmates.
In court Tuesday, Holt was called to the stand by Carolyn Homer, an attorney with Morrison & Foerster LLP in Washington D.C., who is part of the team representing him. Homer first asked Holt if he wished to go back to West Virginia.
“I do not,” he said, emphatically. “I didn’t do anything to be transferred there … Arkansas is home … This is where I grew up … I’ve lived here my whole life.”
Holt testified that he has been in the Corrections Department for 16 years and that on June 9, he was abruptly transferred to USP Hazelton “in retaliation for my cases helping other people and myself in litigation.”
Holt, who has six cases pending in federal court over civil rights violation claims, said as soon as he was transferred, the state began trying to get the cases dismissed as moot, citing his relocation to West Virginia. After he was moved, he said, he was denied access to his legal files, which he said crippled his ability to work on the cases.
He testified that he has filed “approximately 10” federal lawsuits, his first one a Section 1983 civil rights challenge to ADC’s grooming policy that at the time prohibited beards.
At one point, Holt said, department officials offered him a transfer to Tennessee, which he said he rejected.
“I wasn’t trying to run from the problem,” he explained, saying his goal was to effect “systemic change” in how inmates are treated.
After the Supreme Court ruling, Holt said, the department changed its grooming policy to allow closely cropped beards.
His reason for filing the lawsuit to start with, he said, was because of the tenets of Islam that he follows.
“It is a command from the Prophet Muhammad,” he said, “that a Muslim is to trim the mustache short and to keep the beard as it is.”
Holt testified that during his time in prison, he has assisted approximately 500 inmates with legal help and said in one case, he succeeded in getting a fellow inmate’s sentence reversed by the Arkansas Supreme Court.
On May 8, Holt said he attended talks with prison officials that were mediated by U.S. Magistrate Judge Joe Volpe, which he said was where the idea of transferring him out of state began to take off. Holt said he told Volpe the major issues had to do with his legal papers and other property that had been taken from him after prison officials suspected he was in violation of the rules by having too much property in his cell.
At one point, Holt said, he told Volpe “the only way I would even remotely consider a transfer is if it involved going to the Bureau of Prisons.”
“He lit up,” Holt said. “He jumped all over it.
“I had only thrown it out there,” he then explained. “I was not trying to get transferred like that. It was more of a flippant remark.”
The transfer, Holt testified, came just after midnight on June 9.
“I was put in a transport van and driven 14 hours,” he said. “No food. No water. I didn’t use the bathroom.”
Once he arrived at USP Hazelton, he said, it became obvious that no one expected his arrival and no one knew why he was there. Describing his arrival, he said prison officials at the federal lockup regarded the transport officers as a threat and approached them with “hands on guns.”
After his arrival, Holt said a motion was filed almost immediately to dismiss the jailhouse lawyer case as moot, which he said, “confirmed what I suspected all along.”
Asked if he would consider mediation with Corrections Department officials again, Holt was adamant.
“I will never mediate with them again,” he said. “They can’t be trusted. They’re treacherous.”
Arkansas Division of Correction Director Dexter Payne, named as the defendant in the case, said under questioning that he submitted a transfer packet to the Bureau of Prisons on May 1 but said he didn’t tell Holt about it and didn’t mention it to Volpe. After the transfer was accepted on June 3, he said no one told Holt or his legal counsel it was approved.
Asked about various cases Holt had filed, Payne professed to have little knowledge of the details but said in an email on May 12 to Classification Administrator Daisha Thompson that she was to tell the Bureau of Prisons that Holt “had become a management problem.”
“He insists on being a jailhouse attorney,” Payne wrote in the email, “and assisting other inmates in their legal ventures.”
Regarding the lack of disciplinary records documenting policy violations, Payne placed blame on prison staff for failure to write Holt up for disciplinary violations.
“Staff just failed to do their business and do their jobs,” Payne said.
Regarding the transfer, Payne said he was told following the May 8 mediation conference with Volpe that Holt himself had requested to be transferred, and he said he initiated the transfer request at that time.
“It appears you initiated that request on May 1,” Rudofsky then asked from the bench. “Can you explain that?”
Payne said the May 1 request was simply an “exploratory” maneuver to determine if BOP would approve the transfer.
“Once I received information during the settlement conference that this was something Mr. Holt had raised,” he said, “I stepped on the gas.”
“I haven’t made up my mind yet,” Rudofsky said, his voice sounding skeptical, “but this comes about as close as I’ve ever seen to a lie. Explain to me why you don’t think this is a lie.”
“My intentions were exactly what I said,” Payne replied. “When I said May 1, it was exploratory … To explore the federal option I would have to do it prior to the settlement case.”
Following Payne’s testimony Homer rested for the plaintiffs.
Trey Cooper, lead defense attorney, told Rudofsky he expects to call one witness Wednesday morning before resting. Rudofsky, citing a 9 a.m. hearing in another matter, told the attorneys to reassemble and be ready to begin by 10 a.m.