PORTLAND – Maine’s highest court ruled Friday that a complaint by convicted murderer and rapist David Fleming about his treatment in a segregation unit at Maine State Prison should be allowed to proceed.

Fleming charged that the Department of Corrections violated its own policies and state law by denying him hot and nutritious food and the opportunity for exercise after he was moved to the prison’s special management unit for assaulting a guard in 1999.

In dismissing Fleming’s claim for judicial review of conditions surrounding his confinement, a lower court ruled that he failed to exhaust administrative remedies and did not state a claim upon which relief can be granted.

The Supreme Judicial Court disagreed, sending Fleming’s appeal back to the Superior Court.