Bandy-Bey v. Crist
| Decision Date | 25 August 2009 |
| Docket Number | No. 08-2084.,08-2084. |
| Parties | Joe H. BANDY-BEY, Appellant, v. David CRIST; Joan Fabian, individually and as Commissioner of Corrections for the State of Minnesota; Mr. Hokonson, individually and as Program Director of MCF/Lino Lakes; Ken Thole, individually and as Lt. for MCF/Lino Lakes; Jerome G. Sauer, individually and as Lt. for MCF/Lino Lakes Due Process; John Wing, individually and as Sg. for MCF/Lino Lakes Due Process; Sean Swanson, individually and as Custody Officer for MCF/Lino Lakes; Matthew VanderVegt, individually and as Custody Officer for MCF/Lino Lakes, Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
Before WOLLMAN, RILEY, and SMITH, Circuit Judges.
Joe H. Bandy-Bey, an inmate at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Lino Lakes, Minnesota (MCF-LL), appeals the district court's1 adverse grant of summary judgment in his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action against various prison officials. We review the district court's grant of summary judgment de novo. See Mason v. Corr. Med. Servs., Inc., 559 F.3d 880, 884 (8th Cir.2009).
Bandy-Bey's complaint alleged that defendants (1) denied him access to the courts by refusing to allow him adequate time in the law library; (2) retaliated against him for pursuing his claims by imposing disciplinary measures; and (3) violated his substantive due process rights by falsely charging him with rule violations, finding him guilty, and placing him in segregation.
We agree with the district court that Bandy-Bey's access-to-courts claim fails because Bandy-Bey did not demonstrate that defendants' failure to grant him the library time he requested "resulted in an actual injury, that is, the hindrance of a nonfrivolous and arguably meritorious underlying legal claim." See Hartsfield v. Nichols, 511 F.3d 826, 831 (8th Cir.2008); Moore v. Plaster, 266 F.3d 928, 933 (8th Cir.2001); see also Entzi v. Redmann, 485 F.3d 998, 1005 (8th Cir.2007) ().
We also agree that Bandy-Bey could not prevail on his claim that the defendants retaliated against him for pursuing his claims by imposing disciplinary measures. The discipline at issue was for Bandy-Bey's (1) alleged misrepresentations about defendant Lieutenant Ken Thole in an Offender Kite Form ("Kite") and (2) alleged failure to follow the direct order of defendant Custody Officer Sean Swanson to go to Thole's office.
First, Bandy-Bey received a "Due Process report" charging him with lying and misrepresentation stemming from a Kite that he wrote to and about Thole. In the Kite, Bandy-Bey stated, inter alia, that Thole "continues to insist that I write my documents out by hand" and that because of Thole's "action or inaction" in not affording him an extended period of library time, Bandy-Bey "was forced to send [his] legal documents out open to a non-legal address violating [his] privacy and the documents pos[s]ibly not making it to the destination." In response to the Kite, Thole had written an incident report outlining the "misrepresentations" that Bandy-Bey made in the Kite. According to Thole, he "never told Bandy[-Bey] to write anything by hand" and "did not tell Bandy[-Bey] or instruct Bandy[-Bey] to send his legal or non-legal paperwork out to anyone."2
At Bandy-Bey's disciplinary hearing, Bandy-Bey testified, in relevant part, that his statements regarding Thole were merely his opinion and that he was not insinuating that Thole was forcing him to send legal documents out to a non-legal address; instead, he said that it was Thole's action or inaction that forced him to send his legal documents out to a non-legal address. Defendant Hearing Officer Jerome Sauer found that Bandy-Bey had no basis to accuse Thole of intentionally causing him severe stress, forcing him to write documents by hand, interfering with his access to the courts, or making misrepresentations to Bandy-Bey. Accordingly, Sauer found Bandy-Bey guilty of the violation and sentenced him to ten days in segregation. Defendant Warden David Crist denied Bandy-Bey's appeal.
"An inmate may maintain a cause of action for retaliatory discipline under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 where a prison official files disciplinary charges in retaliation for an inmate's exercise of constitutional rights." Hartsfield, 511 F.3d at 829. But an inmate's retaliation claim fails "if the alleged retaliatory conduct violations were issued for the actual violation of a prison rule." Id. "Thus, a defendant may successfully defend a retaliatory discipline claim by showing `some evidence' the inmate actually committed a rule violation." Id. "[A] report from a correctional officer, even if disputed by the inmate and supported by no other evidence, legally suffices as `some evidence' upon which to base a prison disciplinary violation, if the violation is found by an impartial decisionmaker." Id. at 831.
Here, Sauer, the hearing officer, after considering the testimony of Bandy-Bey, Thole, and Custody Officer Matthew VanderVegt, who also wrote an incident report regarding Bandy-Bey's allegations against Thole, and reviewing the documentary evidence, concluded that Bandy-Bey's factual allegation that Thole insisted that Bandy-Bey...
To continue reading
Request your trial
- Minn. Majority v. Individual
-
Davids v. N. Iowa Cmty. Sch. Dist.
...challenge to its constitutionality, so that it necessarily satisfies substantive due process. See Friends of Lake View Sch. Dist., 578 F.3d at 763 n.13 ("'[A] rational basis that survives equal protection scrutiny also satisfies substantive due process analysis.'" (quoting Executive Air Tax......
- Friends of Lake View School District 25 v. Beebe
-
Thompson v. Sperfslage
...actually committed a rule violation." Id. (citing Goff v. Burton, 7 F.3d 734, 738-39 (8th Cir. 1993)); see also Bandy-Bey v. Crist, 578 F.3d 763, 766 (8th Cir. 2009)(quoting Hartsfield, 511 F.3d at 829.) "[A] report from a correctional officer, even if disputed by the inmate and supported b......