Maldonado Santiago v. Velazquez Garcia, 86-1191

• Decision Date: 05 June 1987
• Docket Number: No. 86-1191,86-1191
• Citation: 821 F.2d 822
• Parties: Linda MALDONADO SANTIAGO, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. Nestor VELAZQUEZ GARCIA, et al., Defendants, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 822

821 F.2d 822

Linda MALDONADO SANTIAGO, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. Nestor VELAZQUEZ GARCIA, et al., Defendants, Appellees.

No. 86-1191.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Submitted March 4, 1987.

Decided June 5, 1987.

Luis Angel Lopez Olmedo, Santurce, P.R., on brief, for plaintiff, appellant.

Vannessa Ramirez, Asst. Sol. Gen., Rafael Ortiz Carrion, Sol. Gen., and Norma Cotti Cruz, Deputy Sol. Gen., Hato Rey, P.R., on brief, for defendants, appellees.

Before BOWNES and SELYA, Circuit Judges, and PETTINE, ^* Senior District Judge.

PETTINE, Senior District Judge.

This appeal concerns a due process damages claim filed by the appellant pursuant to 42 U.S.C. section 1983 and dismissed by the district court after a non-jury trial in January, 1986. The appellant claims that during the period of her incarceration in Puerto Rico, she was subjected to a prison transfer and post-transfer hearing that failed to comport with the requirements of due process. Because we find that a due process violation occurred for which at least nominal damages might be recoverable, we reverse the decision of the district court and remand the case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND ¹

The events giving rise to the appellant's claim occurred over a seventeen-day period in July and August, 1983. The appellant, Linda Maldonado Santiago ("Ms. Maldonado"), was then incarcerated at the Vega Alta women's correctional institution ("Vega Alta") in Vega Alta, Puerto Rico. The three appellees held positions in the Puerto Rico Correctional Administration at that time. Nestor Velazquez Garcia ("Mr. Velazquez") was an official at Vega Alta who served as its acting superintendent on the evening of July 23, 1983. Felipe Torres Torregrosa ("Mr. Torres") served as the director of security programs for the Puerto Rico Correctional Administration. Jorge Collazo Torres ("Mr. Collazo") served as director of the Correctional Administration.

On the evening of July 23, 1983 a fight broke out between two inmates in one of the living quarters at Vega Alta. Ms. Maldonado went to the scene of the fighting, for reasons that remain in dispute: she contends that the fight occurred in or near her own living quarters and that she sought to break it up, whereas the appellees contend that she rushed to the scene to see the fight. Sergeant Curbolo, a custody officer, arrived on the scene, unsuccessfully tried to stop the fight and sent a second custody officer for reinforcements. The second custody officer went to the prison's administrative office and summoned a third custody officer ("Mr. Pellicia") and acting superintendent Velazquez to the scene.

Mr. Velazquez ordered Mr. Pellicia to take one of the fighting inmates away from the scene, but she resisted his efforts. The two engaged in a scuffle, which apparently led a number of prisoners to rush towards them. The appellees contend that Ms. Maldonado "agitated" the other prisoners, shouting profanities at Mr. Pellicia and other prison authorities, whereas Ms. Maldonado contends that she had helped stop the fight prior to Mr. Pellicia's arrival and that he attacked a prisoner without justification. Conflicting testimony indicates that Mr. Pellicia threw a can of tear gas into the crowd of inmates gathered around him. About that time the prison's "clash force" arrived on the scene and broke up the encounter by throwing tear gas and shutting off the lights and water in the area. Order was restored a short time later.

That same evening, Ms. Maldonado was placed in an isolation cell at Vega Alta, where she remained until 2:00 p.m. the following day, July 24, 1983. While she was in isolation, acting superintendent Velazquez telephoned the director of security, Mr. Torres, requesting and receiving authorization to transfer Ms. Maldonado to another prison. Both her placement in isolation and her transfer were governed by disciplinary rules promulgated by the director of the Correctional Administration pursuant to P.R.Laws Ann. tit. 4 section 1113(l ). ² Disciplinary rule 22 carves out an exception from other rules that require inter-prison transfers and intra-prison status changes to be preceded by administrative hearings. The rule enumerates seven types of emergency situations during which the prison superintendent may temporarily isolate or transfer a prisoner without a prior hearing. In addition to satisfying one of the enumerated criteria, the transfer must "never last for more than the time required ... to maintain the state of security and institutional discipline that will avoid one or more persons suffer[ing] corporal harm and will prevent ... the property of the state suffer[ing] destruction or damage." In any case, an administrative hearing must be held "within the seven working days" after the emergency action, to determine whether the situation that gave rise to the action persists.

Although the record refers only to rule 22(c), the testimony suggests that Ms. Maldonado's transfer was predicated on both 22(c) and 22(e). Rule 22(c) permits emergency seclusion or transfer when necessary to prevent a prisoner's "suffer[ing] harm or ... inflict[ing] it to others." Rule 22(e) permits the same "[i]n cases of riot or insurrection."

On the afternoon of July 24, 1983 Ms. Maldonado and one other prisoner were transferred to the women's ward of the Guyama correctional institution ("Guyama"), located in Guyama, Puerto Rico. The two transferees spent one night in an admission cell with three other women, then were transferred to a maximum security cell, which they shared with two other women. Ms. Maldonado alleges that her life was put at risk by her transfer, owing to the crossfire of gang rivalries that she faced at Guyama. First, she suggests that her husband was a known member of a gang opposed by the predominant men's gang at Guyama. Ms. Maldonado contends that she warned acting superintendent Velazquez of this fact on the day of her transfer. Second, she alleges that her cellmates included the killers of a woman who had been affiliated with the predominant men's gang at Guyama. According to Ms. Maldonado's testimony at trial, custody officers at Guyama revealed that some of the male inmates wanted to break into her cell and avenge the killing committed by her cellmates. Ms. Maldonado contends that these threats caused her headaches and anxiety for which she received treatment at Guyama and from which she suffered irreparable psychological injury.

Pursuant to disciplinary rule 22, Ms. Maldonado was entitled to a post-transfer hearing on Thursday, August 4, 1983. ³ The hearing took place on Monday, August 8, 1983, two days late by the terms of rule 22 and four days after the date required by the rule. ⁴ The hearing examiner, Emilio Medina Bernard ("Mr. Medina"), testified that he was the only hearing examiner employed by the Correctional Administration and that he scheduled Ms. Maldonado's hearing on the first available day. The summary of Mr. Medina's testimony does not clarify when he received notice of her transfer or who was responsible for providing such notice. At the post-transfer hearing, the superintendent of Vega Alta, Alice V. Vasquez Castro, testified that the conditions giving rise to Ms. Maldonado's transfer no longer persisted. Mr. Medina therefore ordered Ms. Maldonado's immediate return to Vega Alta, and she returned the following day.

Ms. Maldonado submitted a pro se complaint that was filed on January 10, 1984, challenging the validity of her transfer to Guyama and claiming damages under 42 U.S.C. section 1983 for emotional distress and irreparable psychological damage. On November 30, 1984, after obtaining legal counsel, Ms. Maldonado filed an amended complaint, again challenging the validity of her transfer and again seeking damages for both mental distress "suffered during ... her stay at the Guyama Regional Jail," and "irreparable psychological damage from the fear of losing her life during ... her detention in Guyama." Although not raised in the initial complaints, the due process implications of the lateness of the post-transfer hearing were argued in defendant-appellee Collazo's motion for summary judgment and in the appellant's objection thereto, and the issue was addressed in the district court's final ruling.

After hearing testimony on January 14 and 15, 1986, the district court issued a ruling from the bench dismissing the appellant's case. The district court held that neither the initial rule 22 transfer nor the late post-transfer hearing presented actionable due process violations under 42 U.S.C. section 1983. The court specifically found, inter alia, the following: acting superintendent Velazquez reasonably believed he faced a riot situation on the evening of July 23, 1983; Ms. Maldonado was a leader in the penal community who instigated disobedience that evening; Guyama was no more dangerous for her than Vega Alta; Ms. Maldonado's psychological problems all pre-existed her rule 22 transfer; and no earlier hearing date was possible, both because only one hearing examiner was available and because superintendent Alice V. Vasquez did not make herself available to testify until Monday, August 8, 1983.

II. DISCUSSION

The appellant challenges the district court's findings of fact and rulings of law. In addition, she claims that the district court displayed prejudice against her case through certain allegedly hostile instructions addressed to her attorney. Four separate issues are therefore presented for review: first, whether the appellant's due process rights were violated by the circumstances attending her transfer and post-transfer hearing; second, if a due process violation is found, whether such violation is compensable in damages; third, if compensable injury is found, whether any of the named appellees can be held liable; and fourth, whether there existed any prejudice at the appellant's trial that affects our...