Man denied clemency moves to revive suit vs DOC

A man who was recently denied clemency by Gov. Ralph DLG Torres is now asking the court to reopen court proceedings in his lawsuit against the Department of Corrections.

Price Shoiter, though his lawyer, Michael Dotts, recently filed a motion asking the U.S. District Court for the NMI to enforce the parties’ previous settlement agreement or to vacate the dismissal order, which would reopen the proceedings in his case against DOC.

Dotts said that, pursuant to the agreement, in the event that clemency is denied by the governor, the case would be put back on the trial calendar.

“It is unfortunate that the governor denied clemency but that is the right of the governor. It should be noted that both the Board of Parole and the attorney general recommended clemency. But the situation is there was a failure of consideration for the settlement when the governor denied clemency. The parties had anticipated that this could happen. In case it did, they provided in their agreement the remedy of placing the case back on the trial calendar. The court retained jurisdiction so it could enforce the settlement agreement that included this remedy,” Dotts said.

With Torres denying clemency for Shoiter, the settlement agreement has become null and void, Dotts said, and Shoiter wants to pursue his previous lawsuit against the department and its former and current officials for allegedly denying him adequate medical care.

“Shoiter, among other things, was to receive a conditional clemency, heart surgery and knee surgery before a certain deadline, and payment to his counsel of a lump sum amount to cover his damages. Since conditional clemency was of such importance for Shoiter, the whole settlement was conditioned upon Shoiter receiving conditional clemency from the governor. Without clemency, Shoiter would have never agreed to dismiss his case,” Dotts said.

Back in 2016, Shoiter, 74, was sentenced to a 10-year imprisonment for sexually abusing a 7-year-old girl. He filed his suit against DOC in 2020. In February 2021, the parties executed the settlement agreement that was contingent on the governor’s approval of Shoiter’s application for conditional clemency. However, on Dec. 3, 2021, defendants announced that the governor had denied Shoiter’s application for conditional clemency.