Ayotte v. Barnhart

• Decision Date: 24 September 2013
• Docket Number: No. 1:11–cv–00331–JAW.,1:11–cv–00331–JAW.
• Citation: 973 F.Supp.2d 70
• Parties: Keith AYOTTE, Plaintiff, v. Patricia BARNHART, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Maine

973 F.Supp.2d 70

Keith AYOTTE, Plaintiff,

v.Patricia BARNHART, et al., Defendants.

No. 1:11–cv–00331–JAW.

United States District Court, D. Maine.

Sept. 24, 2013.

Verne E. Paradie, Jr., Paradie, Sherman & Worden P.A., Lewiston, ME, for Plaintiff.

James E. Fortin, Office of the Attorney General, Augusta, ME, Martin Ridge, Beagle & Ridge, LLC, Portland, ME, for Defendants.

ORDER AFFIRMING THE RECOMMENDED DECISION OF THE MAGISTRATE JUDGE

JOHN A. WOODCOCK, JR., District Judge.

Keith Ayotte, an inmate at the Maine State Prison (Prison) in Warren, filed a lawsuit against Patricia Barnhart, Dwight Fowles, Martin Magnusson, David Cutler, and Curtis Doyle in their individual capacities as prison officials for the Maine State Prison system. Mr. Ayotte claims the Defendants failed to protect him from a substantial risk of harm—an assault with a padlock—in the Prison and that two of the Defendants retaliated against him for filing complaints about Prison conditions. He alleges violations of the First and Eighth Amendments of the United States Constitution pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (§ 1983), the federal Civil Rights Act, and pursuant to 5 M.R.S. § 4682, the Maine Civil Rights Act (MCRA). The Defendants moved for summary judgment on all counts. On March 11, 2013, the Magistrate Judge recommended that the Court grant the motion on Mr. Ayotte's padlock policy claim but deny summary judgment on his retaliation claim against David Cutler and Curtis Doyle. After conducting a de novo review, the Court affirms the Magistrate Judge's recommendations, granting in part and denying in part the Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment.

I. BACKGROUNDA. Factual Overview

The Court adopts the Magistrate Judge's recitation of the facts and includes a brief factual summary here to give immediate context.¹See Recommended Decision at 2–6 (ECF No. 67) ( Rec. Dec.). On October 28, 2010, Mr. Ayotte was assaulted by fellow inmate, Mark Harris, at the Prison. Id. at 2. Mr. Harris struck Mr. Ayotte in the head and face from behind, knocking him unconscious and causing him head and facial injuries. Id. The assault occurred in a Prison living unit where inmates had dangerous criminal backgrounds. Id.

The Defendants dispute whether Mr. Harris used a padlock during the assault but recognize that inmates sometimes use padlocks as weapons. Id. at 3. The officer who witnessed the assault did not have a direct view of the attack at first, but once she could see the two inmates, she stated she only saw Mr. Harris punching Mr. Ayotte with his fists. Id. Mr. Ayotte asserts that Mr. Harris struck him with a padlock and cites a certified medical record, which states that the assailant “apparently took a padlock in a sock and swung it at [Ayotte's] head.” Id.

In two related padlock cases brought by inmates at the Prison, David Lakin alleges that he was assaulted with a padlock by an inmate on September 10, 2010 and Gerard Landry alleges he was assaulted with a padlock on September 6, 2011. ²Id. at 4–5. Including numbers from Mr. Lakin's and Mr. Landry's padlock cases, the Magistrate Judge concluded that from January 2004 until June 2012, there were 370 reported inmate-on-inmate assaults at the Prison of which 17 assaults involved padlocks. Id. at 5–6. With respect to total reported inmate-on-inmate assault incidents at the Prison per year, there were at least 25 in 2007, 28 in 2008, 50 in 2009, 48 in 2010, 51 in 2011, and 86 in the first nine months of 2012. Id. at 6. In 2009, an inmate died from one incident of inmate-on-inmate violence, which does not appear to have involved a padlock. Id. at 7.

In the months preceding Mr. Ayotte's assault, there had been an increase in the number of padlock assaults at the Prison. Id. at 6. Prison records indicate that there were no padlock assaults in 2007, two in 2008, two in 2009, six in 2010 (including the assault on Mr. Ayotte), one in 2011, and one in 2012. See id. Mr. Ayotte's assault was the fourth padlock assault in 2010 out of a total of six. Id.

The Prison has a practice of issuing padlocks to all inmates, except those in segregation, as a means of securing their personal belongings. Id. at 7. Prison authorities are required under Maine law to provide inmates with some means to secure their belongings. Id. Mr. Ayotte disputes that padlocks are necessary in his housing pod because the inmates live in individual cells with doors that lock. Id. Warden Barnhart testified that inmates who assaulted other inmates did not have their padlocks confiscated because “they would still need to secure their property” and because “they're in prison where if they want to find a weapon, they will find a weapon.” Id. at 8. The Prison has a number of policies designed to deter inmate-on-inmate violence, including classification procedures, specific housing placement, segregation, individual management plans, identification of high risk inmates, write-ups and other disciplinary measures; however, Mr. Ayotte questions their effectiveness. Id.

After the assault, Mr. Ayotte wrote Prison officials complaining about their treatment of him, including being kept in administrative segregation for a long period, and he requested a transfer to a prison in New Hampshire. Id. On March 15, 2011, Curtis Doyle and David Cutler, correction officers at the Prison, entered Mr. Ayotte's cell, threw him against the wall, and cuffed him. Id. Officers Doyle and Cutler took Mr. Ayotte to the unit manager's office where they yelled at him, verbally abused him, threatened him, and made him strip twice. Id. During their encounter, the Officers referred to the letters that Mr. Ayotte had written to advocates, and they told him to shut his mouth about what went on in the Prison, saying they would “bury” him. Id. at 8–9. Mr. Ayotte was upset and frightened by this incident but not physically injured. Id. at 9. After the incident, Mr. Ayotte continued to write to Prison and Department officials complaining about the conditions of his confinement and to request transfers. Id.

B. Procedural History

Mr. Ayotte filed a complaint on August 30, 2011, alleging that Patricia Barnhart, the Prison Warden, Dwight Fowles, the Prison Unit Manager, Martin Magnusson, the Commissioner for the Maine Department of Corrections, and David Cutler, Joshua Cutler, Anthony Cartlidge, Curtis Doyle, and Nova Hirsch—all officers or guards at the Warren Prison—violated his Eighth Amendment rights under § 1983 and the MCRA by deliberately disregarding a known risk of padlock assaults in the Prison.³Compl. (ECF No. 1). Mr. Ayotte also claims that the Prison officers retaliated against him on March 15, 2012 and violated his First Amendment rights. Id. at ¶¶ 22–25, 29.

1. Motion for Summary Judgment

The Defendants moved for summary judgment on November 2, 2012, asserting qualified immunity and arguing that they did not act with deliberate indifference to a known, serious risk of harm because padlock assaults at the Prison were infrequent and the Prison had reasonable policies in place to control inmate-on-inmate violence. Defs.' Mot. for Summ. J. at 8–11 (ECF No. 50) ( Defs.' Mot.). The Defendants also argued that Mr. Ayotte's claims and compensatory damages request arising out of the retaliation claim are barred by the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) because he did not sustain a physical injury. Id. at 2, 12–15. On November 2, 2012, the Defendants filed a statement of facts in support of their motion. Defs.' Statement of Material Facts (ECF No. 51).

On November 23, 2012, Mr. Ayotte filed a response in opposition to the Defendants' motion. Pl.'s Resp. to Defs.' Mot. for Summ. J. (ECF No. 53) ( Pl.'s Opp'n ). In his response, Mr. Ayotte argued that the record raised genuine disputes of material fact concerning whether the Defendants deliberately ignored the safety risk that padlocks presented to inmates and insisted that the Defendants are not eligible for qualified immunity because they violated clearly established law by refusing to address the increase in padlock assaults in 2010. Id. at 4–17. He also asserted that he does not need to show he was physically injured to sustain his retaliation claim since the Defendants admit they retaliated against him. Id. at 17–18. On November 23, 2012, Mr. Ayotte filed a response to the Defendants' statement of facts and his own statement of material facts. Pl.'s Opposing and Additional Statement of Material Facts (ECF No. 54) (PRDSMF).

On December 5, 2012, the Defendants filed a reply to Mr. Ayotte's opposition, which included a numerical chart tracking the number of padlock attacks from 2004 to 2012 to show that “over [a] seven year period the number of assaults with padlocks has continued to be only a small fraction of overall assaults.” Reply to Resp. to Defs.' Mot. for Summ. J. at 3–4 (ECF No. 60) ( Defs.' Reply ). The Defendants also disputed that Mr. Ayotte was assaulted with a padlock and argued that “merely negligent conduct on the part of the defendants cannot form the basis of § 1983 liability for failure to protect an inmate from an assault.” Id. at 5–7. Further, they point out that Officers Doyle and Cutler never actually admitted that they retaliated against Mr. Ayotte. Id. at 7–8. The Defendants also replied to Mr. Ayotte's statement of material facts and filed additional statements of fact on December 5, 2012. Reply to Additional Statement of Fact; And Defs.' Additional Statement of Material Facts (ECF No. 62).

2. The Magistrate Judge's Recommended Decision

The Magistrate Judge recommended that the Court grant the Defendants' motion for summary judgment on Mr. Ayotte's padlock claim on one of two grounds: (1) the record fails to generate a genuine dispute of material fact regarding whether the prison's padlock policy created a substantial or pervasive risk of harm to inmates; or (2) the Defendants are entitled to qualified immunity. Rec. Dec. at 12–15. The Magistrate Judge also recommended, however, that the Court deny ...