Court says no compensation for prison head-butt

A Wyoming prison inmate will not receive worker's compensation after the state Supreme Court rejected his suggestion that movements in the earth's crust -- and not a fellow inmate's angry head-butt -- may have led to his nose being broken.

Steven DeLoge -- who is serving six consecutive life sentences for repeatedly raping an 8-year-old girl and has had numerous appeals before Wyoming's high court and others -- began his bizarre quest for compensation on July 1, 2008.

A fellow inmate working in the Wyoming State Penitentiary's kitchen, Scott Bronson, believed DeLoge had complained to a supervisor about a dirty bread slicer. Bronson was upset DeLoge went to a supervisor first, and an argument ensued.

According to Bronson, the conversation reached a point where it went something like this:

DeLOGE: "Get the (expletive) out of here."
*BRONSON argues, then turns to leave*
DeLOGE: "and stay the (expletive) out of here."
BRONSON: "Why don't you make me stay out of here?"

By that point, the two were in each other's faces and Bronson told DeLoge to get out of his face.

“He didn’t, so I head-butted him," Bronson later told a detention lieutenant -- adding that he had only wanted DeLoge out of his face and hadn't meant to break the fellow inmate's nose.

DeLoge sought worker's compensation, but was turned down by the Wyoming Workers’ Safety and Compensation Division because injuries resulting from illegal activities* -- like a battering -- aren't covered. DeLoge, through Laramie attorney Vaughn Neubauer, appealed to the Supreme Court after an unsuccessful effort in the Carbon County District Court. Neubauer argued that Bronson hadn't actually illegally battered DeLoge under state law because there was no evidence Bronson did the head-butting in a "rude, insolent or angry manner."

"Mr. DeLoge must concede that inmate Bronson’s statement, 'he didn’t [get out of my face], so I head-butted him' ... could possibly be interpreted as an indication that Bronson intended to touch Mr. DeLoge in a rude manner, but this would suppose facts not in evidence," Neubauer wrote. "At no time did inmate Bronson clarify whether or not the bump of heads occurred due to an intentional act of his own volition, an accident, or a sudden geologic shift in the surface of the earth which caused his head to contact Mr. DeLoge’s."

The state attorney general's office, defending the worker's compensation division, said the evidence showed the head-butting was clearly intentional.

"(N)othing in the record suggests that Bronson suffered some sort of muscle spasm or incontrollable (sic) twitch, or otherwise was subjected to some movement of the earth or stars which forced his head into DeLoge’s face," wrote senior assisant attorney general Mike Causey.

The Supreme Court agreed and flatly rejected DeLoge's appeal on Nov. 9.

"Bronson’s admission of his intent leaves little room for speculation as to the possible involvement of tectonic plate activity," wrote Justice Barton Voigt. "This appeal borders on the frivolous."

The court did not address what a wholly frivolous appeal would look like.

*Personally, I think a more novel position for the worker's compensation division would have been to argue that anyone in prison is there as a result of illegal activity, and, therefore, that all injuries suffered while incarcerated are ineligible for compensation.