Abila v. Funk

• Decision Date: 23 November 2016
• Docket Number: No. CIV 14–1002 JB/SMV,CIV 14–1002 JB/SMV
• Citation: 220 F.Supp.3d 1121
• Parties: George ABILA, Plaintiff, v. Shawn FUNK ; Lezlie Duckett ; Kay Youngman and Todd Bannister, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of New Mexico

220 F.Supp.3d 1121

George ABILA, Plaintiff,

v.Shawn FUNK ; Lezlie Duckett ; Kay Youngman and Todd Bannister, Defendants.

No. CIV 14–1002 JB/SMV

United States District Court, D. New Mexico.

Filed November 23, 2016

Jack Bennett Jacks, Law Office of J.B. Jacks, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Matthew Coyte, Coyte Law, P.C., Albuquerque, New Mexico, Attorneys for the Plaintiff.

Luis E. Robles, Lindsay Drennan, Robles, Rael & Anaya, P.C., Albuquerque, New Mexico, Attorneys for the Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

James O. Browning, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

THIS MATTER comes before the Court on: (i) the Plaintiff's Motion and Memorandum in Support of Summary Judgment for Inhumane Conditions of Confinement, filed September 6, 2016 (Doc. 156)("MSJ"); and (ii) the County Defendants' Amended Motion for Partial Summary Judgment No. 1—Dismissal of Plaintiff's Substantive Due Process Claims, filed September 9, 2016 (Doc. 162) ("Defendants' MSJ"). The Court held a hearing on October 25, 2016. The primary issue is whether, as a matter of law, Defendant Shawn Funk, the warden at Eddy County Detention Center, and Defendant Todd Bannister, the health and services administrator in charge of medical and mental health care at Eddy County Detention Center, violated Plaintiff George Abila's rights to substantive due process protected by the Constitution of the United States of America, when—for more than six months—Funk and Bannister housed Abila in a small padded cell with no furnishings, no clothing, constant lighting, cold blowing air, and only a grated hole in the floor to use as a toilet. The Court concludes that, from January 3, 2012, until June 21, 2012, the time period following Abila's return from the hospital after having attempted suicide, and during which Abila did not make any overt suicide attempts, the squalid conditions of Abila's padded cell, combined with Abila's lack of exercise and reception of only some, undocumented recreation, amounts to shockingly inhumane living conditions. These conditions were not rationally related to a legitimate nonpunitive purpose, and the imposition of these conditions amounted to punishment and violated Abila's clearly established substantive due-process right to be confined in an environment that does not result in degeneration, or otherwise threaten his mental and physical well-being. Accordingly, the Court grants Abila's MSJ, which seeks judgment only as to that timeframe. The Court thus denies the Defendants' MSJ as it relates to that same time frame. In addition, because the Court determines that there are genuine issues of material fact pertaining to Abila's confinement before January 3, 2012, precluding it from entering summary judgment in relation to that time frame, the Court will deny the Defendants' MSJ in its entirety.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Abila, and Funk and Bannister, have filed Motions for Summary Judgment. See MSJ; Defendants' MSJ. Funk and Bannister specifically incorporate the undisputed material facts that they proffer in the Defendants' MSJ as part of their response to Abila's MSJ. See County Defendants' Response to Plaintiff's Motion and Memorandum in Support of Summary Judgment for Conditions of Confinement ¶¶ 1–2, at 2, filed September 26, 2016 (Doc. 172)("Response"). Abila, in his Reply to Defendants' Response to Plaintiff's Motion and Memorandum in Support of Summary Judgment for Inhumane Conditions of Confinement ¶ 3, at 3, filed October 12, 2016 (Doc. 182)("Reply"), does not specifically dispute the proffer of undisputed material facts that Funk and Bannister make in Defendants' MSJ and incorporate into their Response. In this scenario, however, the Court deems it appropriate to credit the arguments Abila makes in the Plaintiff's Response to Defendants' Amended Motion for Partial Summary Judgment No. 1—Dismissal of Plaintiff's Substantive Due Process Claims, filed October 7, 2016 (Doc. 174)("Response to Defendants' MSJ"). Further, because the Response to Defendants' MSJ proffers its own additional facts, to which Funk and Bannister respond in the County Defendants' Reply in Support of Amended Motion for Partial Summary Judgment No. 1—Dismissal of Plaintiff's Substantive Due Process Claims, filed October 21, 2016 (Doc. 186) ("Reply in Support of Defendants' MSJ"), the Court also deems it appropriate to credit the arguments that Funk and Bannister make in the Reply in Support of Defendants' MSJ.¹ As a result, the Court cannot completely consider Abila's MSJ in the abstract of Defendants' MSJ, and thus presents the following undisputed material facts drawn from the arguments made pursuant to both motions.

Abila was booked at Eddy County Detention Center in Carlsbad, New Mexico, on August 8, 2011, and housed in general population. See MSJ ¶¶ 1–2, at 3 (setting forth this fact); Response ¶¶ 1–2, at 2 (not disputing this fact); Defendants' MSJ ¶ 1, at 2 (setting forth this fact); Response to Defendants' MSJ ¶ 1, at 4 (not disputing this fact). About a month later, on September 6, 2011, Abila swallowed a razor blade. See MSJ ¶ 3, at 3 (setting forth this fact); Response ¶ 3, at 2 (not disputing this fact); Defendants' MSJ ¶ 2, at 2 (setting forth this fact); Response to Defendants' MSJ ¶ 2, at 4 (not disputing this fact). He remained in general population until October 24, 2011. See Defendants' MSJ ¶ 1, at 2 (setting forth this fact); Response to Defendants' MSJ ¶ 1, at 4 (not disputing this fact).² On October 24, 2011, Abila cut his arms with a razor blade in a suicide attempt and needed stitches at the hospital. See MSJ ¶ 4, at 3 (setting forth this fact); Response ¶¶ 4, at 2 (not disputing this fact); Defendants' MSJ ¶ 4, at 3 (setting forth this fact); Response to Defendants' MSJ ¶ 4, at 4 (not disputing this fact). Abila was hostile with medical staff at the hospital and continued to threaten suicide. See Defendants' MSJ ¶ 4, at 3 (setting forth this fact); Response to Defendants' MSJ ¶ 4, at 4 (not disputing this fact). Although housed in "segregation" after the incident—and placed on a watch for his own safety, see Defendants' MSJ ¶ 4, at 3 (setting forth this fact); Response to Defendants' MSJ ¶ 4, at 4 (not disputing this fact)—on November 12, 2011, Abila again cut his arms, and needed medical attention and stitches at the Carlsbad Medical Center in Carlsbad, New Mexico.³ "Abila claimed he had managed to find and cut himself with a sharp piece of metal, despite the restrictions on what he could have in the segregation cell." Defendants' MSJ ¶ 8, at 3 (setting forth this fact). See Response to Defendants' MSJ ¶ 8, at 5 (not disputing this fact). After he had cut his arms, "Abila resisted staff's attempts to save him, guarding his arms and refusing to allow them to staunch the bleeding." Defendants' MSJ ¶ 9, at 3 (setting forth this fact). See Response to Defendants' MSJ ¶ 9, at 5 (not disputing this fact).

Upon return to Eddy County Detention from the hospital, Captain Mike Ingram ordered Abila to be housed in a padded cell. See MSJ ¶ 7, at 3 (setting forth this fact); Response ¶ 7, at 2 (not disputing this fact). Padded cell 166, where Abila was housed, "had no furnishings, no sink, no mattress, and only a grated hole in the floor in which he was to defecate and urinate." MSJ ¶ 8, at 3 (setting forth this fact). See Response ¶ 8, at 2 (not disputing this fact). During his transport into padded cell 166, Abila fought with staff and, in the process, blood was sprayed onto an officer's face.⁴ Abila had pulled out his stitches, and thus he was again taken to the hospital. See MSJ ¶ 9, at 3 (setting forth this fact); Response ¶ 9, at 2 (not disputing this fact); Defendants' MSJ ¶ 12, at 4 (setting forth this fact); Response to Defendants' MSJ ¶ 12, at 5 (not disputing this fact).

Upon Abila's return to Eddy County Detention, Bannister ordered that Abila be placed in a restraint chair. See MSJ ¶ 10, at 4 (setting forth this fact); Response ¶ 10, at 2 (not disputing this fact); Defendants' MSJ ¶ 13, at 4 (setting forth this fact); Response to Defendants' MSJ ¶ 13, at 5 (not disputing this fact). Abila pulled off his bandages before he was placed into the restraint chair. See Defendants' MSJ ¶ 13, at 4 (setting forth this fact); Response to Defendants' MSJ ¶ 13, at 5 (not disputing this fact).⁵ Abila's wounds began to bleed again as staff struggled to rebandage him and restrain him in the chair. See Defendants' MSJ ¶ 14, at 4 (setting forth this fact); Response to Defendants' MSJ ¶ 14, at 5 (not disputing this fact). During the struggle Abila threatened to hurt the staff when he got out of his restraints. See Defendants' MSJ ¶ 15, at 4 (setting forth this fact); Response to Defendants' MSJ ¶ 15, at 5 (not disputing this fact). At 2:45 p.m. on November 18, 2011—he had been released from the hospital on November 13, 2011—Ingram and codefendant Kay Youngman, mental health nurse, agreed to downgrade Abila to a fifteen-minute "emotionally upset" watch.⁶ At 5:45 p.m. that day, Abila bit a chunk of flesh out of his own arm and required bandaging. See Defendants' MSJ ¶ 19, at 5 (setting forth this fact); Response to Defendants' MSJ ¶ 19, at 6 (not disputing this fact). In addition, later that day, Abila attempted to choke himself using his dinner and, after staff attended to him and stopped the choking, Bannister ordered that Abila be sedated.⁷

Abila "was put into a restraint chair in padded cell 166, then remained in some kind of restraint continuously in the padded cell for nineteen days." MSJ ¶ 11, at 4 (setting forth this fact).⁸ Abila's wrists developed sores from the restraints, causing Eddy County Detention Sergeant Carrie Patterson to email Funk a plea for help requesting that the restraints be loosened. See MSJ ¶¶ 12–13, at 4 (setting forth this fact); Response ¶¶ 12–13, at 3 (not disputing this fact). Funk denied Patterson's request; "almost everything [Patterson] asked for [Abila] was a no." MSJ ¶ 14, at 4 (setting forth this fact)(first alteration in original)...