Thursday,  May 10, 2012 • Vol. 12--No. 301 • 18 of 32 •  Other Editions

(Continued from page 17)

DOC denies negligence in prison guard killing
KRISTI EATON,Associated Press

• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- The South Dakota Department of Corrections and several of its staff acknowledge many of the facts surrounding the slaying of prison guard Ronald Johnson last year but deny they knowingly contributed to his killing, according to a response filed Wednesday to a wrongful death lawsuit.
• The lawsuit brought by Johnson's widow, Lynette Johnson, alleges that Warden Doug Weber, state corrections secretary Denny Kaemingk and others disregarded the risk that inmates Rodney Berget and Eric Robert posed to staff in the South Dakota State Penitentiary. Berget and Robert have pleaded guilty to killing Ronald

Johnson in a failed escape attempt and have been sentenced to death.
• In a response filed Wednesday in federal court, lawyer James E. Moore acknowledged corrections staff knew the two inmates had prior escape attempts and that Berget had been disciplined for possession of contraband, but said they had no knowledge the inmates were plotting an escape attempt by killing a guard.
• Robert had a 903-page file at the prison and a previous escape attempt,

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