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Woman aims to prove innocence of brother who died in prison
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Photo Courtesy Of Tonja Brown
Nolan Klein holds a necklace he made for his sister, Tonja Brown, at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City. Brown believes the photo was taken in 2004 or 2005. Klein was 54 when he died in prison on Sept. 20, 2009.
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Nolan Klein
Convicted of robbing a store and raping its manager in 1988
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Updated: Mar. 22, 2011 | 9:58 a.m.
Nolan Klein died in a Carson City prison on Sept. 20, 2009, more than two decades after a jury convicted him of armed robbery and rape.
But that hasn't stopped his sister from seeking justice for him.
Tonja Brown has shared her story with just about anybody who will listen.
She maintains a website, justicefornolanklein.com, and has helped write a book, "To Prove His Innocence."
She has staged public protests. And most recently, she has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the state of Nevada.
"Had he received proper medical care, Nolan Klein would have received a new trial, and he would have been exonerated," the Carson City woman said . "There's no doubt about it."
Brown, 50, filed the federal lawsuit in October in Reno and is seeking at least $1 million in damages.
According to an amended complaint, filed in January, her brother suffered from hemochromatosis, an inherited condition that causes the body to absorb too much iron.
"As a direct result of the negligence of the Nevada Department of Corrections, Nolan Klein lost his life and died an agonizing death without treatment and proper medication," the document alleges.
Prison officials wouldn't comment, but their lawyers denied the allegation in an answer to the amended complaint.
Brown is represented by Reno lawyers Robert Hager and Treva Hearne. In her lawsuit, Brown alleges the DNA evidence that could have cleared her brother in the rape case "was compromised while in the custody of the Washoe County evidence room."
"This was a case of mistaken identity," she said.
Klein was sentenced to life in prison for robbing a Payless ShoeSource in Sparks and raping the store manager at knifepoint. The crime occurred in May 1988.
Brown said Klein was living with her family in Carson City at the time, and his girlfriend was living in Reno with the couple's infant son.
If Brown can easily recite all the details of Klein's criminal case, so can Washoe County District Attorney Richard Gammick, who bristled when asked about it.
"I've been listening to her for 23 years," Gammick said.
He then tersely recounted the history of the case, including all of Klein's failed appeals and requests for parole.
"There is no doubt whatsoever that he was guilty," Gammick said.
After becoming district attorney in 1995, Gammick said, he researched all the issues Brown had raised and "told her none of them held water."
Brown chooses to believe in a "mass conspiracy," the district attorney said.
When asked about Brown's claims regarding DNA evidence in the case, Gammick said investigators had no DNA evidence to test. A cigarette butt collected as evidence "was never tied to the scene," he said.
An attempt to ask follow-up questions was greeted with a dial tone. Gammick did not respond to a message left at his office after the call was disconnected.
According to Brown's lawsuit, Klein "was condemned to death by incarceration because of the policy and practice of the Nevada State Department of Corrections in operating its prison facility and in punishing those inmates who are successful at litigation."
Klein attended paralegal training while incarcerated and filed several complaints against the correctional system and the city of Sparks, according to Brown's lawsuit, which said that some of his litigation succeeded.
Brown's lawsuit further alleges that the state "refuses to provide reasonable medical care to its inmates proven by a recent history of unnatural deaths and suffering by inmates within the Nevada prison system litigated by the American Civil Liberties Union."
The ACLU of Nevada filed a class-action lawsuit against the state in 2008 after the organization's doctor, William Noel, met with and studied the records of 35 inmates at Ely State Prison.
Noel called the care for inmates "the most shocking and callous disregard for human life and human suffering" he had encountered in the medical profession.
The ACLU of Nevada received $325,000 in legal fees when the case settled last year.
This month, the organization released a 68-page report titled "Not Fit For Human Consumption or Habitation: Nevada's Prisons in Crisis."
The report claims overcrowding and understaffing are preventing Nevada prisons from meeting the basic human needs of those they incarcerate.
Corrections Department officials disputed the report's findings.
Klein died at the medical center in the Northern Nevada Correctional Center. He was 54.
"His last dying wish was to have a private autopsy performed and to preserve his DNA for future DNA testing," said Brown, who said she complied with his wish.
According to her lawsuit, Klein "died from respiratory arrest, hepatic Coma, Cirrhosis, Hepatitis C, all aggravated and made critical by the failure to treat his Hemochromatosis and hypertensive and arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease."
The document alleges Corrections Department officials had known of Klein's medical condition for more than 10 years.
All of the defendants had "malice and disdain" for Klein's litigation and for Brown's protests "and intentionally, vindictively or with reckless disregard, failed to provide medical treatment to Mr. Klein to save his life," Brown's lawsuit alleges.
Brown said the wrongful death case will allow her to retry her brother's rape case.
"There will be no settling this case," she said.
Contact reporter Carri Geer Thevenot at cgeer@reviewjournal.com or 702-384-8710.
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How do you refuts the two eyewitnesses? Easy. Over the years it has been proven that there have been more wrongful convictions thru eyewitness misidentification than any and all other factors combined. In the most recent study of the 266 men that have been exonerated thru DNA testing 79% were convicted based on eyewitess misidentification. 135 men were on death row. Nolan did not fit the description at all. the victims stated he had brown eyes, hair parted on side and a 2-3 DAY OLD STUBBLE beard. Nolan had none these. He had bright blues eyes that the victim could see from the witness stand. He had a 2-3 INCH BEARD that his Public Defender neglected to investigate from the defense witnesses. And as you see for your self he wears his hair in the middle, not the side. Nolan had 5 defense witnesses placing him in Carson City the night of the crime until well after the crime occurred. The jury was DEADLOCKED and told the judge they could not make a decision until they heard 2 defense witnesses bill's and Barbara's testimonies read back. The judge told the jury it would take to long to transcribe both testimonies, so he order the jury to pick one. the Bartender said that Nolan was there from the time her shift began until after 10:00 pm. Bill's said he looked at his watch and it 10:30. The jury believed that Bill was being truthful they just believed he had been mistaken as to the time Nolan left the bar. Had the judge given both testimonies as requested they would not have had to second guess what the bartender's testimony was. This was raised on appeal and to this day has never been dealt with.
thank you Norbit for locating that newspaper article. I'll add to it. Prior to the trial Nolan had asked to have DNA testing conducted. At trial we learned that nothing was tested. after trial I had obtained copies of the evidence and the filters were attached to the cigarette butts. In 1995 it was discovered that the filters had been removed and two pieces were left behind. In 1998 a hearing was held on the DNA evidence and the missing filters. Gammick conceded the filters were gone but did not now what happened to them. Just prior to the 2008 Pardons Board Gammick publically admitted to testing the evidence. The video was given to the Pardons Board and they denied Nolan a Pardon. His attorney's took to court and Judge Adams order Gammick to turn over the DNA test results and the entire file in the case. On June 10, 2009 newly discovered evidence was found in the DA's file. This info can be found on the JusticeForNolanKlein.com site under the Writ of Mandamus that is on appeal. Gammick conspired with several others to conceal a crime, the crime being that the prosecuting attorney withheld the evidence that cleared him of the crime and they knew this and let him die in prison.
The top portion is fixed. The comments are still cut off on the right side. :-)
Terence.Dixon - I am having the same problem with the right edges of the comments being cut off. Also, there are two of the same pictures of Mr. Klein stacked on top of each other just below the "tool" bar.
Also, there are two identical pictures displaying the necklace also. The first is large at the top of the article. Just below it and flushed left is a smaller version. The beginning of the article is cut out too because the tool bar and pictures overlay the print.
I'm on a Mac OXS. Other folks who use other systems view it the same way. Thanks!
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"And the board denied Nolan Klein, who was convicted of sexual assault some 19 years ago. Attorney Robert Hager raised serious questions about the evidence in that case saying the district attorney and sheriff’s office have allowed cigarette butts with DNA evidence on them to disappear from the evidence despite Klein’s request they be maintained so they could be tested.
Klein has always maintained he is innocent of the crime.
Hager said the disappearance of the evidence is especially serious in the wake of a recent TV appearance by Washoe District Attorney Dick Gammick in which he told an interviewer Klein’s evidence was tested.
“Where is that report?” Hager demanded, saying it could exonerate Klein of the crime. “It would either be exculpatory or incriminating.”
After the denial, Hager said the issue will be raised in Klein’s ongoing federal case."
GAMMICK - WHERE IS THAT REPORT? Look at Gammick's deceptive tactics. His foot is in his mouth AGAIN! In which version is the truth and which is a lie?
Retweeted ...follow me for another case of corruption against the State of Nevada that will soon have worldwide coverage.
@vegasdream...read the facts and the evidence and what his Sister Tonja has published. Gammick is as corrupt as Dave Roger, and both will be brought to justice some day.
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