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Woman convicted of murder sues jail

The Associated Press | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 11 years AGO
by The Associated Press
| April 19, 2014 9:00 PM

BOZEMAN (AP) — A woman sentenced to 200 years for killing her husband and his lover in Helena is now suing the Gallatin County Detention Center, where she was held for a period prior to her conviction last year.

Michelle Coller Gable, 50, is seeking $100,000 over claims that she was discriminated against because of disability before her conviction. Her lawsuit, filed Wednesday, said she had difficulty walking and standing, but jailers denied her the use of a wheelchair and forced to use a walker instead.

Gable said she could not move to the toilet in her cell and was refused medication on numerous occasions because she could not stand at her cell door to take them, according to the lawsuit.

She also said her jailers would retaliate against her complaints by taking her mattress pad, blanket, extra clothing and toilet paper. She once was left on the concrete floor with no blanket, water or toilet access for more than eight hours, the lawsuit says.

County attorney Marty Lambert said he did not know whether the county had been served the lawsuit and declined to comment.

Gable was sentenced to two consecutive 100-year prison sentences for the 2011 shooting deaths of Joseph Gable and Sunday Cooley Bennett just days after Joseph Gable filed for divorce.

Gable sneaked into her husband’s house with two guns and surprised the victims in bed, prosecutors said.

Michelle Gable said the gun went off during a struggle with her husband, and then she shot Bennett because “I thought she was going to kill me.”

She was convicted in January 2013, and Gable was in the Gallatin County jail for part of 2012.

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