Claude Dallas Loses Appeal For ‘Good Time’ Credit Judges Uphold Prison’s Disciplinary Action Against Trapper Who Killed Two Fish And Game Officers

More than 15 years after trapper Claude Dallas Jr. killed two Idaho Fish and Game Department officers when they tried to arrest him for poaching, his criminal case continues in Idaho courts.

Dallas’ arrest, conviction for voluntary manslaughter, escape and subsequent capture ranks as one of the state’s top criminal cases.

Dallas still is serving the prison terms ordered by then-District Judge Edward Lodge for slaying conservation officers Conley Elms and Bill Pogue in a remote corner of Owyhee County. Lodge ordered up to 30 years in prison for the killings and a firearms charge.

Dallas has been held out of state most of the time since the late 1980s. He currently is in a state prison at Lansing, Kan.

On Thursday, the Court of Appeals rejected a petition from Dallas trying to get credit for 365 days of “good time” he lost after his 1986 escape.

Dallas escaped, was at large for more than a year despite a nationwide manhunt and was recaptured in California. He faced a criminal charge of escape but got off when he convinced a jury that he had to escape because he feared for his life in prison.

But the prison held a disciplinary hearing, and Dallas lost 365 days of “good time” off his sentence when he was found guilty of escape.

Dallas’ latest petition claimed he shouldn’t have been convicted of a prison rule violation for escape because a jury had found him innocent on the criminal charge.

But the appeals court said the proceedings were separate and prison officials met their burden of showing only that there was “some” evidence that Dallas had escaped.

The court also rejected Dallas’ argument that he had to remain silent during his prison disciplinary hearing because any statements he made might have been used against him in the subsequent criminal action.

But the court held that Dallas wasn’t convicted of the disciplinary violation solely because he wouldn’t testify on his own behalf.

In another decision Thursday, the Supreme Court held for Julia Hunting, a home economics teacher terminated by the Clark County (Idaho) School District in 1993.

The court ruled unanimously that the district had failed to meet the deadline in its rules for notifying a teacher that he or she would not be hired for the next school year.

Hunting was notified in June that her position had been eliminated, but the rules said such notice must be given by May 15.

The Supreme Court rejected the district’s claim that a state law, allowing notice by mid-June, should prevail.