Larry Coffman v. Myrna Trickey

HENLEY, Senior Circuit Judge.

Larry Coffman appeals from a final judgment entered in the district court upon a jury verdict in favor of defendant Myrna Trickey on Coffman’s claim that he was deprived of liberty without due process of law. We reverse and remand for a new trial.

Coffman has been an inmate at Missouri Eastern Correctional Center (MECC) in Pacific, Missouri since December, 1985. While at MECC, Coffman developed a social correspondence with a Wilma Smith, whom he would later marry while still incarcerated. The two had been corresponding for approximately a month, when on May 2, 1986…