Boyd v. Nichols

• Decision Date: 05 May 2009
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 7:08-cv-26 (HL).
• Citation: 616 F.Supp.2d 1331
• Parties: Billie Joanne BOYD, Plaintiff, v. Jonathan Dovward NICHOLS, Former Berrien County Deputy Sheriff and Jailer, Individually and In His Official Capacity; Jerry Brogdon, Former Sheriff of Berrien County, Individually and In His Official Capacity; and, Berrien County, Georgia, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Georgia

616 F.Supp.2d 1331

Billie Joanne BOYD, Plaintiff, v. Jonathan Dovward NICHOLS, Former Berrien County Deputy Sheriff and Jailer, Individually and In His Official Capacity; Jerry Brogdon, Former Sheriff of Berrien County, Individually and In His Official Capacity; and, Berrien County, Georgia, Defendants.

Civil Action No. 7:08-cv-26 (HL).

United States District Court, M.D. Georgia, Valdosta Division.

May 5, 2009.

Byron D. Watson, J. Converse Bright, Valdosta, GA, for Plaintiff.

Bradley Miles Hannan, Valdosta, GA, John M. Stephenson, Albany, GA, Tom W. Thomas, Jr., Adel, GA, for Defendants.

ORDER

HUGH LAWSON, Senior District Judge.

Currently pending before the Court is the Motion for Summary Judgment on Behalf of Defendants Jerry Brogdon and Berrien County, Georgia (Doc. 24). Plaintiff Billie Joanne Boyd has responded to the Motion (Doc. 29). After consideration of the briefs, discovery on file, and relevant case law, the Court grants Defendants' Motion for the reasons more fully set forth below.¹

I. BACKGROUND

On February 14, 2008, Plaintiff Boyd filed her complaint for damages pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Boyd alleges that her Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights, along with her rights under 18 U.S.C. § 242, were violated while she was an inmate at the Berrien County Jail (the "Jail"). The complaint also contains a number of pendent state law claims.

Boyd avers that while at the Jail, she was raped and sodomized by Defendant Jonathan Nichols, a Berrien County deputy and jailer. Defendant Jerry Brogdon, the former sheriff of Berrien County, allegedly failed to protect Boyd, failed to adequately train his deputies and jailers, and had policies and customs of understaffing the Jail and allowing male deputies and jailers to escort and handle female inmates without any supervision. The claim against Defendant Berrien County is that it had a custom and policy of underfunding and understaffing both the Sheriff's Department and Jail.

II. FACTS²

Defendant Brogdon served as the duly-elected sheriff of Berrien County from January 1, 1985 until August 10, 2007. As sheriff, Defendant Brogdon oversaw the Jail and Sheriff's Department. He was responsible for the hiring, training, and supervision of Jail employees, and was responsible for promulgating and implementing policies and procedures for the Jail.

Defendant Nichols was hired on December 6, 2006 by Defendant Brogdon to serve as a jailer at the Jail. Prior to being hired by Defendant Brogdon, Defendant Nichols had been employed as a jailer for the Lowndes County Sheriff. He left that employment voluntarily. While employed in Lowndes County, Defendant Nichols became P.O.S.T. certified as a jailer effective February 20, 2006. As part of his P.O.S.T. certification training, Defendant Nichols received training in inmate relations, sexual harassment, and ethics and professionalism. He was aware that as a jailer, he was not to have any intimate contact with jail inmates. He was still P.O.S.T. certified when he was hired to work at the Jail.

After starting his position at the Jail, Defendant Nichols did not receive any additional formal training. He was never given a written copy of the Jail's policies and procedures, though a copy was available in the main control room. Defendant Nichols did, however, receive some training from another Jail employee on basic tasks, including the procedure for feeding the inmates. During the time period in question, Berrien County did not have a policy prohibiting a male jailer from escorting a female inmate within the Jail. It did, however, have policies requiring that female jailers be available for female inmates in certain situations, for example, if a strip search or body cavity search was conducted.

In January of 2007, Boyd was incarcerated at the Jail for violating her probation. On February 14, 2007, Boyd attempted to call her mother from the Jail, but was unable to get through. After seeing another inmate use it, Boyd asked Defendant Nichols if she could use his personal cell phone to call her mother. He allowed her to use the phone, but she still could not reach her mother. Later that evening, Defendant Nichols offered to let Boyd use his phone again. Boyd and Defendant Nichols walked to the P-2 hallway in the housing unit.³ After Boyd completed her call, Defendant Nichols raped her in the hallway. Approximately two weeks later, Defendant Nichols again took Boyd into the P-2 hallway. There, he forced Boyd to perform oral sex on him.

There were no cameras in the P-2 hallway during the time period at issue, but there was a security camera in the vestibule. This camera would show anyone who came in and out of the door to the P-2 hallway. The Jail's main control room contained a switchboard which indicated when doors in the Jail were open and closed. A light on the grid turned red when a door was opened or unlocked and remained red as long as the door was open or unlocked. If the door was closed or locked, the light was green. The P-2 door was often left propped open.

The P-10 tower, which was on the housing unit, had a similar switchboard and surveillance monitors. A jailer stationed in the P-10 tower would have been able to see a portion of the P-2 hallway through a window. During the early months of 2007 there usually was no one stationed in the P-10 tower.

Boyd did not report the sexual assaults until April 21, 2007, when she told her mother what happened. At no time did she report the assaults to anyone with the Berrien County Sheriff's Department. Boyd did tell her cellmate, Crystal Kelly, about the rape, but not the subsequent sexual assault. She told other female detainees what happened approximately two days before telling her mother. After that disclosure, at least one other female inmate told Boyd that she had previously had sexual contact with Defendant Nichols, and at least two inmates said that Defendant Nichols attempted to have sex with them. None of those incidents were ever reported. There had been no sexual contact between Boyd and Defendant Nichols prior to February 14, 2007. In fact, prior to February 14, 2007, Defendant Nichols had never escorted Boyd around the Jail premises alone.

Boyd's mother contacted Defendant Brogdon on April 21, 2007 to report her daughter's allegations. That same day, Defendant Brogdon contacted Tony Benefield, an investigator with the Berrien County Sheriff's Department, and requested that he initiate an investigation and contact the GBI. Defendant Nichols eventually confessed to having sexual relations with Boyd, after which Defendant Brogdon immediately terminated his employment effective April 21, 2007.⁴ Prior to April 21, 2007, however, no complaints about Defendant Nichols' behavior had been lodged with Defendant Brogdon. To Boyd's knowledge, neither Defendant Brogdon nor anyone else with the Sheriff's Department was aware of Defendant Nichols having sexual contact with Boyd or any other female inmate prior to April 21, 2007.

The Jail ran on four shifts, two day shifts and two night shifts. Defendant Brogdon would have preferred to have four jailers on the day shift and three jailers on the night shift, but there were not always this many jailers present. In early 2007, there were at times three or fewer jailers working the day shift. Jailers were normally stationed in the main control room, the P-10 tower, the intake area, and on the floor. In Defendant Brogdon's opinion, the Jail was adequately staffed during his tenure as sheriff. At no time did he tell the Berrien County Board of Commissioners that the Jail was understaffed.

The jailers often decided who would work at which position during a shift. On the day at issue, Defendant Nichols was the most senior jailer on his shift. The other two employees working on February 14, 2007 were being trained by Defendant Nichols. At least one of the other jailers was in the main control area when Boyd was raped.

The Berrien County Board of Commissioners funded the Jail and set the budget for the Jail. Defendant Brogdon was in charge of overseeing the budgets for the Jail and Sheriff's Department. In his opinion, the Jail was adequately funded, and he usually had no problems with obtaining funds from the County when he requested them.

When the current Jail opened in 2004, the County employed an official jail administrator. The administrator was charged with looking after the daily operations of the Jail and supervising the Jail staff. After the original administrator resigned, one of the County jailers was moved into the position by Defendant Brogdon, though he was not given the official title or salary of the jail administrator. That jailer became responsible for the jail administrator's duties. There was no "official" jail administrator when Boyd was sexually assaulted.

On November 7, 2006, Defendant Brogdon informed the Board that given the inmate population, he might need to hire a jail administrator in the near future. He had the Board's support for this request. Approximately one month after Defendant Brogdon discussed the hiring of a jail administrator with the Board, he requested a transfer of funds out of the Jail overtime budget and into the Sheriff's Department overtime budget to cover overtime expenses for the following weeks. Berrien County approved the transfer. Since the sheriff is a constitutional officer, the County had no authority to direct Defendant Brogdon as to how to spend the funds budgeted for the Jail and Sheriff's Department.

Prior to the events of February 14, 2007, the Board of Commissioners was notified that the jail fund was being subsidized by the County's general fund, and at times there was not enough money to cover the costs and expenses of the Jail. The Board was asked to consider alternatives to help cover the costs of the Jail. The Board considered the proposed alternatives, but nothing materialized.

III. SUMMARY JUDGMENT STANDARD

Summary judgment is proper "if...