Glisson v. Sangamon County Sheriff's Dept.
| Decision Date | 06 January 2006 |
| Docket Number | No. 05-3250.,05-3250. |
| Citation | 408 F.Supp.2d 609 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Central District of Illinois |
| Parties | Scott Nelson GLISSON, Plaintiff, v. SANGAMON COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT, et al., Defendants. |
Patricia L. Hayes, Hayes Law Office, Springfield, IL, for Plaintiff.
D. Bradley Blodgett, Hinshaw & Culbertson, Theresa M. Powell, Heyl Royster Voelker & Allen, Angela M. Fyans, City of Springfield, Springfield, IL, for Defendants.
This matter comes before the Court on a Motion to Dismiss (d/e 9) (County Defendants' Motion) filed by Defendants Sangamon County Sheriff's Department-Sangamon County Jail, Assistant Sangamon County State's Attorney Dwayne Gab, Sangamon County Assistant Jail Superintendent Terry Durr, Sangamon County Assistant Jail Superintendent William Strayer, Lieutenant Ronald Beckner, Lieutenant Candace Cain, Sergeant Brian Carey, Correctional Officer Carla Carey, Correctional Officer Tammy Powell, Correctional Officer Christopher Doelsch, Correctional Officer Melissa Childress, Sergeant Todd Guy, Sergeant Guy Bouvet, and Lieutenant Scott Loftus and a Motion to Dismiss (d/e 18) by Village of Grandview Police Officer D. Weiss (Weiss' Motion).1 For the reasons set forth below, the County Defendants' Motion is ALLOWED, in part, and DENIED, in part. Weiss' Motion is DENIED.
Plaintiff Scott Glisson has filed a ten-count Amended Complaint (d/e 2), alleging violations of 42 U.S.C. § 1983 based on injuries resulting from deprivations of his federal constitutional rights. The allegations set forth in the Amended Complaint are as follows. Glisson was convicted of a bad check charge in Circuit Court of Sangamon County, Illinois, Case No. 04-CF-648 on November 22, 2004. On that same day, Glisson was sentenced to probation for a term of two years. On July 13, 2005, the Sangamon County State's Attorney's Office filed a petition to revoke Glisson's probation. Some time later, Chief Circuit Judge Robert J. Eggers issued a warrant for Glisson's arrest. On August 16, 2005, Glisson was arrested on the warrant issued in Case No. 04-CF-648 and brought to the Sangamon County Jail (Jail).
According to the Amended Complaint, Glisson was mentally unstable at the time of his arrest on August 16, 2005. Glisson suffered from a bi-polar disorder and had been taking medication as a result. Due to his mental condition, Glisson has suffered from periods of mania. The Amended Complaint alleges that all the Defendants knew or should have known of Glisson's mental condition because it was documented at the Jail.
The Amended Complaint alleges that, on or about August 16, 2005, Defendant Lieutenant Loftus, along with other unnamed correctional officers at the Jail, strapped Glisson in a wheelchair and placed him in the corner of a holding room, with no bathroom, for more than four hours. Because of the restraints placed upon him, Glisson was forced to urinate on himself and then sit in his urine for several hours.
The Amended Complaint alleges that Glisson contacted his wife, Attorney Patricia L. Hayes, to discuss matters pertaining to her representation of Glisson in the criminal charges pending against him.2 On August 17 and August 18, 2005, Hayes was allowed to have unrestricted visits at the Jail with Glisson, who remained in an agitated mental state. Glisson met with Hayes three times on August 18, 2005. Glisson became agitated during one of his meetings with Hayes on August 18, 2005. As a result, Hayes pushed the call button to leave the attorney interview room, but Defendant Officer Doelsch, who was in the control room at that time, did not respond to her call.3 The Amended Complaint alleges that "the conference continued until the meeting ended." Amended Complaint, ¶ 36.
Defendant Officer Childress escorted Glisson to the attorney/client interview room when Hayes visited Glisson for the third time on August 18, 2005. During this time, Glisson informed Childress that Hayes was his wife. Moments later, Defendants Cain and Childress stormed into the interview room and interrupted the meeting, advising that Glisson could not meet with Hayes because she was married to him. Cain further advised that Hayes could not represent Glisson and accused Hayes of unethical conduct.
On August 19, 2005, Glisson, who remained in a manic state, bonded out of the Jail. On August 24, 2005, Glisson and his then-attorney Mike Harmon, appeared in court on the hearing to revoke Glisson's probation. Glisson pleaded guilty to the revocation violation, and his probation was revoked. Glisson was sentenced to 180-days imprisonment on the violation, with his Mittimus stayed until September 20, 2005. On August 26, 2005, when Glisson was out of jail and still in a manic state, he was arrested on new criminal charges in Case No. 05-CF-1143.4 According to the Amended Complaint, Village of Grandview Police Officer Weiss and Springfield Police Officer Felecia illegally searched Glisson without a warrant or probable cause. While Glisson was handcuffed, Weiss and Felecia grievously injured him by intentionally slamming him into the corner of a brick building; Glisson sustained a six-inch cut on his back. Glisson alleges that he was in a manic state when he was arrested on the new charges and that Defendants Weiss and Felecia should have known that he was suffering from a mental disorder.5
In his Amended Complaint, Glisson alleges that after he was arrested, Defendants Weiss and Felecia took him to the Jail, where Defendant Loftus, again, strapped him to a wheelchair and placed him in the corner of a holding room. Because he was prevented from using the bathroom for several hours, Glisson was forced to urinate on himself in front of other inmates and correctional officers. On that same day, Glisson called Hayes to represent him on the new charges. On August 27, 2005, Glisson and Hayes were not allowed to meet in the normal attorney/client interview room, but were forced to meet in a room divided by a glass wall and to talk via a monitored phone. Defendant Cain and other officers monitored Glisson and Hayes' meeting. Glisson alleges that confidential papers that Hayes had brought to the interview room for Glisson were reviewed initially by correctional officers before those documents were given to Glisson. The Amended Complaint alleges that, from August 27, 2005 to September 9, 2005, Defendants Durr, Cain, Strayer, Brian Carey, and Powell denied Glisson's right to have confidential meetings with his attorney at the Jail.
On August 29, 2005, Glisson posted bond on the charges in Case No. 05-CF-1143. On September 3, 2005, Glisson was rear-rested in Case No. 04-CF-648, and since that time, he has been incarcerated in the Sangamon County Jail serving the 180-day sentence imposed on August 24, 2005. Also, since that day, Glisson has had felony charges pending against him in Case No. 05-CF-1143. The Amended Complaint alleges that, since September 3, 2005, Defendants Durr, Cain, Strayer, Carla Carey, Brian Carey, Beckner, Guy, Bouvet, and Powell have denied Glisson's right to have confidential meetings with his attorney to prepare for his defenses to the charges in Case No. 05-CF-1143.6 According to the Amended Complaint, Glisson was told that he was not allowed to have unrestricted visits with his attorney because of a court order issued by Judge Eggers and because the Jail did not know which attorney represented him.
The allegations of the Amended Complaint state that Glisson made his first appearance in court for the violation in Case No. 04-CF-648 on September 6, 2005. Because Glisson's former attorney, Mike Harmon, indicated he would not represent Glisson, Hayes agreed to represent him. On September 6, 2005, Glisson alleges that someone told him that Defendant Durr had said that Glisson could not have regular attorney visits with Hayes without any justification or legitimate reason. According to the Amended Complaint, Defendant Beckner told Glisson on September 7, 2005, that he was not allowed to have confidential meetings with Hayes because the Jail did not know which attorney represented him. Also on September 7, 2005, Hayes formally entered her appearance as Glisson's attorney in Cases No. 04-CF-648 and 05-CF-1143. Glisson alleges that even after Hayes entered her appearance as his attorney, he was still denied confidential meetings with Hayes on the evening of September 7, 2005.
According to the Amended Complaint, on September 8, 2005, Hayes and Assistant State's Attorney Kelly went before Judge Holmes who entered an order directing the Jail to allow Glisson to have confidential and unrestricted visits with Hayes. The Amended Complaint alleges that Defendant Cain met with Judge Holmes ex parte and told him that Judge Eggers had ordered Hayes to meet with Glisson in a room divided by a glass wall. Glisson alleges that Judge Eggers never did this. On September 9, 2005, Judge Eggers entered an order, directing the Jail to allow Glisson unrestricted access to his attorney. Despite this order, Defendants Gab, Durr, Strayer, Beckner, Cain, Brian Carey, Carla Carey, Guy, and Powell, as well as Cathy Strayer, continued to deny Glisson the right to have confidential meetings with Hayes.7
The Amended Complaint alleges specifically that, on September 15, 2005, Defendant Durr denied Glisson unrestricted access to his attorney even after Hayes handed Durr a copy of the Seventh Circuit case, Adams v. Carlson, advising him that Defendants could not deny Glisson unrestricted access to his attorney based on the Adams case. Adams, 488 F.2d 619 (7th Cir.1973).
On September 17, 2005, Defendants Bouvet and Guy denied Glisson his right to have unrestricted access to his attorney. Glisson, therefore, had to meet with Hayes in a visiting room divided by a glass wall and had to communicate with Hayes via a monitored phone. On that day, Defendant Guy searched and...
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...to communicate privately with an attorney is an important part of that meaningful access." Glisson v. Sangamon County Sherriff's Department, 408 F. Supp.2d 609 (C.D. Ill. 2006) (quoting Dreher v. Sielaff, 636 F.2d 1141, 1143 (7th Cir. 1980)). In order to "prove a violation of this right, a ......