Barber v. Overton

• Decision Date: 02 August 2007
• Docket Number: No. 05-2014.,05-2014.
• Citation: 496 F.3d 449
• Parties: Melissa Ann BARBER; Steven Barber; David Hall; Paul Jensen; Jennifer Kula-Hauk; Steven Pettit; Troy Huizing, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. William OVERTON, Director of the Michigan Department of Corrections, in his official capacity; Fritz Jackson; Lorenzo Lowery; Bruce Siebert, in their individual and official capacities, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

496 F.3d 449

Melissa Ann BARBER; Steven Barber; David Hall; Paul Jensen; Jennifer Kula-Hauk; Steven Pettit; Troy Huizing, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. William OVERTON, Director of the Michigan Department of Corrections, in his official capacity; Fritz Jackson; Lorenzo Lowery; Bruce Siebert, in their individual and official capacities, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 05-2014.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued: December 1, 2006.

Decided and Filed: August 2, 2007.

ARGUED:

H. Rhett Pinsky, Pinsky, Smith, Fayette & Kennedy, Grand Rapids, Michigan, for Appellants. A. Peter Govorchin, Office of the Attorney General, Lansing, Michigan, for Appellees.

ON BRIEF:

H. Rhett Pinsky, Pinsky, Smith, Fayette & Kennedy, Grand Rapids, Michigan, for Appellants. A. Peter Govorchin, Office of the Attorney General, Lansing, Michigan, for Appellees.

Before: KENNEDY, COLE, and COOK, Circuit Judges.

KENNEDY, J., delivered the opinion of the court. COOK, J. (pp. 458-61), delivered a separate concurring opinion. COLE, J. (pp. 461-66), delivered a separate opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part.

OPINION

KENNEDY, Circuit Judge.

This case involves the Michigan Department of Corrections' (MDOC) release of several corrections officers' social security numbers and birth dates to prisoners held at the Ionia Maximum Security Correctional Facility (IMAX), which houses male prisoners who pose an extreme escape risk or who have a clearly demonstrated history of violent acts toward other prisoners and staff. The disclosure occurred in the context of the prison's investigation into prisoners' allegations of abuse by corrections officers and the resulting disciplinary hearings. The plaintiffs, IMAX corrections officers, filed a number of claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and Michigan law, and now appeal the district court's dismissal of several of their § 1983 claims against Overton¹ and Jackson and its grant of summary judgment to defendants Bruce Sibert and Lorenzo Lowery.

I. Background

In 2002, two prisoners accused several corrections officers of sexually assaulting them. Defendant Bruce Sibert investigated the matter on behalf of the prison's Internal Affairs section. He detailed the results of the investigation and summarized interviews of corrections officers in a report. In accordance with MDOC Internal Affairs² Investigative Manual, p. 18 (March 2002), these summaries contained the officers' names, social security numbers, and dates of birth.

Sibert concluded from his investigation that the allegations were baseless. In light of his findings, MDOC charged the accusing prisoners with "interference with administrative rules," a major misconduct charge that entitled the prisoners to a hearing. Prior to the hearing, defendant Lorenzo Lowery gathered information, including Sibert's Internal Affairs report.

Defendant Fritz Jackson, the hearing officer, reviewed the documents Lowery had collected and found the prisoners guilty of major misconduct. Jackson testified in his deposition that Lowery had marked sections of the report for possible redaction on pages 5 and 20 (and in the appendix). These sections related to two prisoner informant witnesses. Jackson ordered these items redacted; he was the only person with authority to order redactions.

Following the hearing, the prisoners appealed the charges and requested the information on which Jackson's ruling relied. Lowery then physically redacted the informant's identifying information in the Internal Affairs report in accordance with Jackson's rulings, stamping each page with a statement identifying that it was being delivered to the prisoner. Because it was not marked for possible redaction, and thus was not ruled on by Jackson, Lowery did not redact the officers' personal information. The name, birth date, and social security number of each officer appeared in a caption identifying each officer's statement, rather than in Sibert's summary of the that officer's statement. If noticed, this information would be exempt from release and would not have been given to prisoners under internal prison policy and the department's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) policy. Lowery stated in an affidavit that if he had noticed the social security numbers he would have removed them. Nonetheless, Lowery delivered the report, including the officers' personal information, to the prisoners via institutional mail as part of the hearing packet.

With this personal information in hand, IMAX prisoners began to torment the officers. As the plaintiffs' complaint explains, prisoners have threatened and taunted the officers, often incorporating the plaintiffs' social security numbers (which they have committed to memory) into the taunts. Some prisoners wrote the social security numbers of some of the plaintiffs on slips of paper that they threw out of their cells. Others incorporated one officer's number into a death threat they wrote on a prison wall. More importantly, using the social security numbers the prisoners obtained other confidential information, including the plaintiffs' home addresses and discovered the names of their family members, including their children. Prisoners have even accurately described plaintiffs' children to them. In addition, prisoners discovered plaintiff Melissa Barber's social security number — apparently using the number of her husband, Steven Barber. Prison officials intercepted in prison mail photos of Melissa Barber's house and car, apparently taken by a prisoner's accomplice outside the prison.

Plaintiffs Melissa Barber, Steven Barber, David Hall, Paul Jensen, Jennifer Kula-Hauk, Steven Pettit, and Troy Huizing filed suit in the Western District of Michigan, naming as defendants William Overton, Director of the Michigan Department of Corrections, in his official capacity, and Fritz Jackson, Lorenzo Lowery, and Bruce Sibert in their individual and official capacities. The district court dismissed the plaintiffs' claims against Fritz Jackson because it found he was entitled to absolute judicial immunity. Subsequently, the court granted summary judgment to defendants Sibert and Lowery on the plaintiffs' 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claims, holding that they are entitled to qualified immunity. Further, it dismissed Melissa Barber's § 1983 claims, finding she lacked standing. Because it concluded defendants did not violate the plaintiffs' constitutional rights, the court also denied the plaintiffs' request for injunctive relief under § 1983. The plaintiffs then filed this appeal.³

II. Defendant Jackson

The district court dismissed the plaintiffs' claim against Hearing Officer Jackson pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) because it concluded Jackson is entitled to absolute judicial immunity. We review a dismissal under Rule 12(b)(6) de novo. Sistrunk v. City of Strongsville, 99 F.3d 194, 197 (6th Cir.1996).

In granting Jackson absolute immunity, the district court relied on Shelly v. Johnson, 849 F.2d 228 (6th Cir.1988), which held that a Michigan hearing officer was entitled to absolute judicial immunity for actions taken in his hearing-officer capacity, and on Mich. Comp. Laws § 791.252(h), which grants a Michigan hearing officer the authority to deny access to evidence that may be dangerous to a witness or disruptive to normal prison operations. The plaintiffs contend that this ruling ignores the role that Jackson played in this case, one they cast as a FOIA Coordinator, rather than a hearing officer.⁴ The plaintiffs claim that the "functional approach" to judicial immunity discussed by this court in Achterhof v. Selvaggio, 886 F.2d 826 (6th Cir.1989), counsels against absolute immunity for Jackson. Achterhof recognizes that this circuit's approach to absolute immunity distinguishes "between prosecutorial and judicial duties and duties which are administrative or investigatory." 886 F.2d at 829. The plaintiffs' attempts to cast Jackson's role as administrative are not persuasive, however.

The plaintiffs argue that Jackson was "functionally performing the actions of any administrator responding to an information request." Pointing to Michigan Policy Directive 01.06.110, section III.L, the plaintiffs contend that Jackson's role was that of an administrative processor of prisoner requests. They contend that the following language from that directive supports this view: "Upon request, prisoners shall be provided with a copy of their hearing investigation for any formal hearing, except those documents which have been determined by the hearing officer to be confidential." This instruction, however, does not transform Jackson's role. As Jackson's and Lowery's depositions confirm, Lowery as Hearing Investigator was responsible for processing requests for information, not Jackson. Jackson, as Hearing Officer, makes final decisions about what information should be released, but he does not act as an administrator facilitating the process. In fact, Jackson's role is completely separate from the request process, as he never sees the prisoners' requests, nor does he play any role in delivering the documents. Though Jackson's role has him concerned with the department's FOIA policy, it is better viewed as an exercise of his hearing-officer authority. He performs a judicial function when he reviews the prison administration's request (prepared by Lowery) to redact portions of the state's basis for charging the prisoners with major misconduct. Determining what materials prisoners are entitled to receive as part of their due process hearing is a judicial function. We hold the district court did not err in construing Jackson's action as judicial, rather than administrative, and in granting Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal.

III. Defendants Lowery and Sibert

Plaintiffs also challenge the district court's finding that Lowery and Sibert are entitled to qualified immunity. We review such a determination de novo. Holloway v. Brush, 220 F.3d 767, 772 (6th Cir.2000).

a. Legal Framework

Qualified...