Andrews v. Siegel, 90-5242-MN

• Decision Date: 10 April 1991
• Docket Number: No. 90-5242-MN,90-5242-MN
• Citation: 929 F.2d 1326
• Parties: Charles W. ANDREWS, Appellant, v. LeRoy SIEGEL, Tom Dowdle, Robert Erickson, John Twohig, and State of Minnesota, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 1326

929 F.2d 1326

Charles W. ANDREWS, Appellant, v. LeRoy SIEGEL, Tom Dowdle, Robert Erickson, John Twohig, and State of Minnesota, Appellees.

No. 90-5242-MN.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Dec. 10, 1990.

Decided April 10, 1991.

Randy V. Thompson, Minneapolis, Minn., for appellant.

M. Jadqueline Regis, St. Paul, Minn., for appellee.

Before WOLLMAN, Circuit Judge, HEANEY and FRIEDMAN, ^* Senior Circuit Judges.

FRIEDMAN, Senior Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from an order of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota (Magnuson, J.) granting summary judgment dismissing a suit under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 (1988) by an inmate of a state prison against prison officials growing out of the stabbing of the inmate by another inmate. The victim contends that the prison officials subjected him to cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of the standards of the Eighth Amendment, by failing to protect him from the attack. The district court held that based on the facts in the record, a reasonable jury could not have found that the defendants violated the victim's Eighth Amendment rights. We affirm.

I.

A. Michael E. Wright was tried and convicted on November 8, 1984, in a Minnesota state court in Ramsey County of two counts of second degree assault, two counts of false imprisonment and one count of unlawful possession of a pistol. The assaults were committed against Wright's stepmother and others, and included firing the pistol near the head of one of those assaulted. The court sentenced Wright to five years imprisonment.

Prior to trial, a psychiatrist, Dr. Karayusuf, examined Wright to determine his fitness to stand trial. Dr. Karayusuf concluded:

The defendant is mentally ill. He does have the capacity to understand the proceedings against him and to participate in his defense. In his current condition he is an extremely depressed individual who, under stress, has a strong potential to engage in either homicidal but more likely suicidal activity. In my opinion, he has a strong likelihood that he will engage in seriously harmful conduct in his present very depressed condition.

. . . . .

Dr. Karayusuf's report was included in Wright's pre-sentence investigation report (pre-sentence report). The day after sentencing, a Ramsey County corrections official mailed a copy of the pre-sentence report to the appellee Erickson, the warden of the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Stillwater, Minnesota (Stillwater). The same day, the sentencing judge wrote to the state Commissioner of Corrections:

You will note when you read the presentence investigation report that Mr. Wright has been diagnosed as presently mentally ill and as being both a homicidal and suicidal risk. I would, therefore, strongly recommend that Mr. Wright be placed in an appropriate mental health unit in the institution to which he will be sent.

I am also enclosing some documents delivered to me by Mr. Wright at the time of sentencing. I believe that these documents will shed some light on what can be expected from Mr. Wright during incarceration.

Wright entered Stillwater on November 13, 1984. The next day, following Wright's admission interview, the prison psychologist who interviewed him, Joe Sames, filed a report based on the interview and Wright's file. Sames stated that Wright "remarked that he had been involved in a couple of fights in the County Jail because others provoked him...." Sames concluded:

The fact that his life thus far has been so chaotic and that he also got into difficulty in the County Jail does not bode particularly well for his future prison adjustment. He isn't overtly suicidal now but has thought of this in the past. It is recommended that a behavior-modification program be considered, as well as further medical investigation of his physical complaints. Otherwise, he should be assisted in routine prison planning and activities. After due consideration of all of the above, it is anticipated that his prison adjustment likely will be marginal.

On November 14, 1984, Stillwater's consulting psychiatrist, Dr. Osekowsky, also interviewed Wright, who was referred "because of concerns about homicidal or suicidal tendencies or both." Dr. Osekowsky's report stated:

He has shot people in the past but represents it as incidents which occurred out of feeling that he was going to be attacked. There seems to be a number of these incidents in the past, however. At the present time, he denies being significantly depressed and feels no particular threat from the population. He is a very recent arrival to the prison and will be doing 40 months. He tends to get into altercations with people, and this extends to his employment history, as well. I don't think I need to see him again, but he could bear some continuing evaluation by Joe Sames. There may be a paranoid element here that needs attention. He could then be referred back to me.

Dr. Osekowsky interviewed Wright a second time on November 29, 1984. His report of that interview concluded:

Mr. Wright looks considerably more comfortable and in a brighter mood than he has in awhile. He is instituting an appeal. He states that his previous incarcerations have involved minimum custody, and he had a little difficulty getting adjusted to this kind of custody.

I suspect that there is some level of paranoid disorder present in this man, but, for the moment, he seems to [be] functioning well. I am not going to see him again unless I am called upon to do so, but I believe it would be valuable for Psych. staff to look in on Mr. Wright once in awhile.

On December 18, 1984, Wright's caseworker, Mark Thielen, filed an "Initial Case Management Summary" regarding Wright. As an inmate's assigned caseworker, Thielen normally reviewed court documents (including pre-sentence reports) and psychological evaluations relating to newly-admitted inmates, and made recommendations regarding the inmate's incarceration. In his summary, Thielen recommended "routine institution programming with an emphasis on pursuing education in the Insight program [a college-level education program] or completion of course through the Rasmussen School. The only condition that would appear to be feasible under the program conditions, is a behavior modification setting...." Thielen stated in his deposition, however, that he did not know of Wright's earlier diagnosis as mentally ill or as being a homicidal or suicidal risk.

Wright's case was then forwarded to the "Program Review Team" (review team), a committee of Stillwater officials and employees responsible for deciding whether an inmate should be incarcerated in Stillwater or elsewhere, and under what conditions. The appellee Siegel was then the chairman of the review team. The review team reviewed Wright's case file on December 27, 1984, and recommended that he remain at Stillwater under the following program plan:

We strongly recommend that Mr. Wright enter and successfully complete the ATC Program at Lino Lakes [a "therapeutic community program"] at the appropriate time. He was informed that in April 1986, ... he would be expected to have applied for ATC. If he does so he will be allowed to continue in any incentive assignment he may be in. Should he change his mind about ATC, then all incentive assignments would terminate at that time.

. . . . .

We encourage his interest in the Insight Program [a college-level education program], which he should be able to continue in no matter what type of assignment he is in. It is also possible that Insight will have an extension of the program at Lino Lakes.

Wright was placed in the general prison population.

In April 1985, the state Commissioner of Corrections, in replying to a letter from the state trial judge "regarding the mental status" of Wright, stated:

At this time he is getting along very well at the Stillwater facility and is participating in a vocational welding program. He recently completed testing for the Insight program which is a college level educational program. His plans also include eventual participation in the therapeutic community program at our Lino Lakes facility when he becomes eligible for transfer. His caseworker reports that he has adjusted very well and has not demonstrated any mental or psychological problems.

B. In June 1985, the appellant Andrews, an inmate at Stillwater, worked in the bus repair program there. On June 25, 1985, Wright was assigned to and began to work in that program. None of the defendants in this case participated in the decision to assign him to the program.

On August 1, 1985, Andrews and Wright had an argument in the repair shop. Andrews alleged that this confrontation "escalated to the point where other inmates intervened and it was witnessed by other guards...." The next day, while working in the repair shop, Wright was told to sharpen a screwdriver. He then stabbed Andrews with the screwdriver seriously injuring him. These two incidents constituted the only apparent contact between Andrews and Wright.

Andrews pro se filed the present suit in the district court, alleging that state corrections officials and the State of Minnesota failed adequately to protect him against Wright's assault, in violation of the Eighth Amendment, and seeking compensatory and punitive damages under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983.

The defendants moved to dismiss. Discovery was had and both sides filed affidavits. The United States Magistrate, to whom the district court referred the case, treated the motion to dismiss as one for summary judgment because it relied on matters outside the pleadings. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b). The magistrate recommended (1) that the State of Minnesota be dismissed as a defendant because the Eleventh Amendment immunized it from suit, and (2) that the remaining defendants' motion for summary judgment be granted since Andrews "has not shown that defendants deliberately disregarded his eighth amendment right to be free from violent...