Beltway sniper Lee Boyd Malvo sues prison officials, claims they are putting his life at risk by being housed with a Bloods Gang member Leader.

Lee Boyd Malvo, one-half of the Beltway sniper duo that terrorized northern Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., during a 2002 killing spree, has filed a federal lawsuit accusing prison officials of violating his constitutional rights and knowingly putting his life in jeopardy in retaliation for complaining about alleged abuses taking place at Red Onion State Prison.

The lawsuit, filed Aug. 17, claims prison staff disabled their body cameras before making life-threatening remarks against Malvo, created a “substantial risk of harm” by purposely placing a known gang leader in the same protective custody unit as him, intentionally held up his transfer to another state despite safety concerns, and slapped him with “bogus” charges before a parole hearing.

Malvo made the allegations against Virginia Department of Corrections Director Harold Clarke, Red Onion State Prison Warden Rick White, Maj. C. King, Unit Manager Larry Collins, Sgt. Tyler Thornsberry, and “Sgt. Taylor.” No first name was given for Taylor in court documents.

Malvo and his surrogate father, John Allen Muhammad, were convicted of multiple murders after they shot and killed 10 people, injured three, and crippled entire communities over a three-week period 21 years ago. Malvo was 17 when he committed the crimes and was sentenced to life without parole. Muhammad, 41, was sentenced to death and executed in 2009.

In his handwritten complaint to the court, Malvo claimed he has been routinely targeted by prison officials after exercising his right to file grievances about the conditions and his treatment at the Wise County, Virginia, supermax prison. In one example, he alleged Collins and Thornsberry made him stand in “unclean showers for 3 1/2 hours to inflict hardship.”

After spending more than 16 years in solitary confinement, Malvo was released into level three protective custody in 2019. He claimed a known Blood gang leader was also transferred into the protective unit and that he made threats not only against Malvo but two other inmates. Malvo claimed the man stopped at his cell and “renewed a threat made years earlier to track down the plaintiff.”

“The Plaintiff does not want to wait until the proverbial knife is stuck in his neck to end up like Dr. Larry Nassar in the Federal Bureau of Prisons Protective Custody,” Malvo wrote.

Nassar, a former sports doctor who was sentenced to prison for sexually abusing female gymnasts, was stabbed in July six times in the chest and twice each in the neck and back at the United States Penitentiary, Coleman, in Sumterville, Florida.

In court documents, Malvo also alleged that prison officials trumped up a “bogus charge” less than two weeks before his parole hearing to make him look bad to the board.

Malvo was convicted of capital murder in Virginia and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. However, a series of Supreme Court rulings coupled with a change in the law in Virginia opened the door for him to petition for his release.

On Aug. 30, 2022, he was denied parole. The parole board ruled he was still a risk to the community.

“Considering your offense and your institutional records, the Board concludes that you should serve more of your sentence before being paroled,” the Parole Board wrote, adding that “Release at this time would diminish seriousness of crime; Serious nature and circumstances of your offense(s).”

In his lawsuit, Malvo is seeking injunctive relief in addition to “nominal and compensatory punitive damages,” as well as money for attorney fees, and “other relief as the court may deem just and proper.”

Calls to the Red Onion State Prison and the Virginia Department of Corrections for comment were not returned.