Nicholas Reyes, a native of El Salvador, filed a civil rights action against Harold Clarke and other defendants, alleging civil rights violations under 42 U.S.C. Sect. 1983 during his prolonged solitary confinement in a Virginia state prison. The plaintiff spoke only Spanish and suffered from mental health issues. Plaintiff claimed that he was unable to participate in a program to transition out of solitary confinement due to language barriers and a lack of accommodations for his mental health conditions. Plaintiff made claims under the 8th and 14th Amendments as well as the Americans with Disabilities Act. The court denied defendants’ motion to dismiss, finding that plaintiff had sufficiently alleged facts to support his claims. The court also applied the continuing violation doctrine to address the statute of limitations, allowing the plaintiff’s case to proceed.
