Boston Bomber Sues Feds After His Hat Is Taken Away

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, whose terrorist attack on the Boston Marathon in 2013 took the lives of three people and caused 17 others to lose limbs, is complaining about his hat being taken away. The Supermax inmate is suing the federal government for $250,000, alleging that mistreatment has contributed to his "mental and physical decline," Fox reports. The 26-year-old says the "unlawful, unreasonable, and discriminatory" treatment from guards at the Colorado prison included taking away a white hat and bandana he bought at the prison's own commissary in 2015 and wore without incident for four years, the Boston Herald reports. Tsarnaev claims guards told him the hat was "disrespectful" to his victims. Before his arrest, investigators referred to him as "White Hat" because of the hat he was wearing in security footage of the bombing.

In his lawsuit, Tsarnaev, who is serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole, also complains about being limited to three showers a week and accuses guards of secretly communicating with his victims, reports the Boston Globe. "I am concerned that she might be communicating with victims in my case, thus making her unable to be fair and impartial to me," Tsarnaev wrote of the unit manager at the prison. He says that based on his behavior he should be permitted to shower daily. Court records show that the lawsuit was assigned to a judge, who said Tuesday it was deficient because it lacked a "certified copy of prisoner’s trust fund statement" and a $402 filing fee. (Last year, an appeals court overturned Tsarnaev's death sentence.)