Denver and the West

Updated:   03/14/2015 01:31:07 AM MDT

A class-action lawsuit has been filed in federal court on behalf of 154 Colorado prisoners seeking millions of dollars in compensation on a claim that they were cheated out of good time and held too long.

The lawsuit was filed Friday on behalf of Arlene Rosetta-Rangel and numerous other current and former inmates who accuse the Department of Corrections of failing to credit them for good behavior.

The lawsuit, which seeks attorney’s fees and compensatory and punitive damages, is very similar to a class-action suit filed more than a year ago in federal court by the law firm of Killmer, Lane and Newman.

Attorney David Lane said their case, Ankeney versus Colorado, has been appealed to the Colorado Supreme Court and once it is decided, thousands of inmates encompassed by the lawsuit could be immediately released from prison or parole.

The Rosetta-Rangel lawsuit filed by attorney Blake Embry is different because it seeks to include the names of scores of inmates who have already been released from prison, Embry said.

But Randal Ankeney, a former attorney named as lead plaintiff in the Lane lawsuit, was released from prison in 2013.

Embry said he intends to file a motion consolidating his case with the Ankeney case.

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His lead plaintiff, Rosetta-Rangel, should have been released on May 5, 1999, but wasn’t released until 839 days later, in part because a judge didn’t credit her for serving 180 days in jail before…