Barhite v. Brown
| Decision Date | 26 June 2014 |
| Docket Number | Case No. 1:14-cv-218 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Michigan |
| Parties | MELVIN BARHITE, Jr., Plaintiff, v. C.C. BROWN et al., Defendants. |
Honorable Paul L. Maloney
This is a civil rights action brought by a state prisoner pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. § 12131 et seq., and the Rehabilitation Act (RA), 29 U.S.C. § 791 et seq. The Court has granted Plaintiff leave to proceed in forma pauperis. Under the Prison Litigation Reform Act, PUB. L. NO. 104-134, 110 STAT. 1321 (1996), the Court is required to dismiss any prisoner action brought under federal law if the complaint is frivolous, malicious, fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, or seeks monetary relief from a defendant immune from such relief. 28 U.S.C. §§ 1915(e)(2), 1915A; 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(c). The Court must read Plaintiff's pro se complaint indulgently, see Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 520 (1972), and accept Plaintiff's allegations as true, unless they are clearly irrational or wholly incredible. Denton v. Hernandez, 504 U.S. 25, 33 (1992). Applying these standards, the Court will dismiss Plaintiff's complaint for failure to state a claim against Defendants Brostoski, Mackie, Marran, Horton, Norton, O'Brien, Schram, Smith, Theut, Trierweiler, theunknown hearing investigator at Chippewa, and the unknown librarian at Chippewa. The Court will allow service of the complaint, in part, on the remaining Defendants, as set forth herein.
Plaintiff Melvin Barhite, Jr. is a state prisoner incarcerated by the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC). At the time of filing the complaint, he was housed at E.C. Brooks Correctional Facility (Brooks), though the events at issue in the complaint occurred while he was housed at Parnall Correctional Facility (Parnall), Carson City Correctional Facility (Carson City), Chippewa Correctional Facility (Chippewa), and Alger Correctional Facility (Alger). In this action, Plaintiff sues the following MDOC employees, in their official and individual capacities: (1) from Parnall, Deputy Warden C.C. Brown, Medical Unit Manager C. Ives, and an unidentified first shift sergeant on March 29, 2012 ("Unknown Party #1"); (2) from Carson City, Deputy Warden Laura Krick and Nurse Practitioner Victoria Marran; (3) from Chippewa, Warden J. Woods, Deputy Wardens (Unknown) Horton and (Unknown) Mackie, Hearing Officers (Unknown) Theut and (Unknown) O'Brien, Resident Unit Manager (Unknown) Norton, Property Room Officer (Unknown) Smith, an unidentified hearing investigator ("Unknown Party #2"), and an unidentified librarian ("Unknown Party #3"); and (4) from Alger, Grievance Coordinator W. Trierweiler and Assistant Resident Unit Supervisor (Unknown) Schram. Plaintiff also sues the following current/former employees of Corizon: Nurse Practitioner Lynette O'Connor, who worked at Parnall, and Dr. (Unknown) Brostoski, who worked at Chippewa.
Plaintiff's allegations in this action primarily concern two issues: (1) inadequate prison conditions and accommodations for his physical/medical needs; and (2) the deprivation of hispersonal property. Plaintiff also makes a variety of allegations about other issues, including: the rejection of prison grievances and outgoing mail, the denial of requests for paper, the deprivation of supplies/equipment for his leg braces, and inaccuracies in his prison record.
Plaintiff asserts that he suffers from a number of chronic health conditions, including: diarrhea, diabetes, abnormal urination, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. Also, he is impaired in the use of his hands and legs due to a "late effect" of acute poliomyelitis. (Compl., docket #1-1, Page ID#11.) Because of his health conditions, Plaintiff uses a wheelchair, walks with leg braces and forearm canes, wears an undergarment, eats from a special menu, and sometimes needs a typewriter for written communication. Prior to the events at issue in the complaint, Plaintiff was evaluated at the MDOC's healthcare facility ("DWHC") in Jackson, Michigan, to determine which special accommodations were necessary for him. (Id.) Plaintiff asserts that he would have been placed in the "ongoing medical unit" at DWHC, also known as "C-Unit," but that unit has very few "barrier free, wheelchair accessible" cells. (Id.) Instead, Plaintiff was placed at Parnall, where he could be housed in a cell containing both a sink and a toilet, and remain close to the healthcare facilities in Jackson, Michigan.
In October 2011,1 while he was incarcerated at Parnall, he was sexually assaulted by a MDOC employee who is not a defendant in this action, Dave Sumner. Plaintiff allegedly filed grievances about the assault,2 and two months later, MDOC personnel started to "whitewash" hisfile, which means that they started removing from his prison record some of the special medical accommodations that had been ordered for him.3 (Id. at Page ID#12.) On February 22, 2012, Nurse O'Connor allegedly changed his file to remove his accommodations for a special diet, a handicap table, frequent laundry, forearm canes, "Grabber and Shoe Horn," catheters, and "Brace Boots." (Id. at Page ID#13.)
On March 13, 2012, Plaintiff asked Deputy Warden Brown to "fix the problem with Dave Sumner or move Plaintiff [from Parnall] to another facility, like C-Unit, w[h]ere Plaintiff could have Barrier Free Wheelchair Accessible housing" as required by the special accommodations in his file. (Id.) Within an hour, "barrier free" was removed from his list of special accommodations. (Id.) Plaintiff claims that Defendant Brown worked with Nurse O'Connor and Medical Unit Manager Ives to change his medical accommodations. According to Plaintiff, removing special accommodations from a prisoner's file makes it possible to transfer the prisoner to a facility that cannot provide those accommodations. Plaintiff claims that Defendants wanted to move him to another facility in retaliation for "seeking justice" about the assault by Sumner. (Id. at Page ID#14.)
On March 29, 2012, Plaintiff was sent to the transfer center at Parnall to await transfer to another facility. Transport staff arrived with a bus and informed officials at Parnall that Plaintiff could not be transported because the bus did not have a wheelchair lift. The sergeant on duty,Unknown Party#1, disagreed. He wheeled Plaintiff to the door of the bus and ordered Plaintiff to climb aboard. To comply, Plaintiff had to pull himself backwards up the bus stairs, one step at a time. He then pulled himself across the floor and up into a seat. Plaintiff was then taken to St. Louis Correctional Facility, where he was helped out of the bus and into his wheelchair, and then forced to pull himself up into the seat of a mini-van. MDOC officers then took him to the medical center at Carson City.
After he arrived at Carson City, medical staff informed Plaintiff that they could not provide him a special diet because Carson City did not have a diet line. In addition, Plaintiff learned that he would be housed in an 8-man cell that is not barrier-free or wheelchair accessible, and that lacks a "wheelchair shower" and "wheelchair toilet." (Id. at Page ID#16.) After learning this information, Plaintiff refused to go to his cell. Plaintiff received a misconduct ticket for his refusal and he was placed in segregation.
On April 3, 2012, Plaintiff received a hearing on the misconduct charge. By this time, he had been deprived of a "medical menu" for four days and he had "run out" of pills for his diarrhea. (Id. at Page ID#17.) Plaintiff explained to the hearing officer that Carson City could not house him because the special accommodations that he needed were not available at that facility. The hearing was adjourned to investigate that issue. On April 10, 2012, the hearing officer determined that housing Plaintiff at Carson City "would cause Plaintiff harm and . . . would endanger his physical condition." (Id.) Plaintiff was found not guilty of the misconduct.
A deputy warden at Carson City told Plaintiff that staff would try to move him to another facility. A nurse practitioner at Carson City, Defendant Marran, revised Plaintiff's list of special accommodations, ostensibly in order to make the move possible. Specifically, she noted thathe is wheelchair "permanent" instead of wheelchair "distance only." (Id. at Page ID#18.) Also, Deputy Warden Krick increased Plaintiff's security level from Level I to Level II,4 because the MDOC did not have barrier-free, wheelchair-accessible housing with an in-cell sink and toilet at Level I. The Assistant Resident Unit Supervisor (ARUS) at Carson City reviewed Plaintiff's security classification and determined that Level I was appropriate, but Krick increased it to Level II, stating that he needed access to "medical/mental health treatment." (Id. at Page ID#19.)
On April 17, 2012, Plaintiff was transferred from Carson City to Chippewa.5 By that time, Plaintiff had been in segregation at Carson City for 17 days without "needed medical care and equipment," and he had lost control of his bowels, soiling his undergarments. (Id. at Page ID#20.) Upon arrival at Chippewa, he was searched and then taken to the medical center. He asked for a clean undergarment, but his request was refused. He was told that he would see a doctor the next day. An inmate took Plaintiff to the Level II housing unit (called "Marquette Unit"), and Plaintiff went to his cell and then to the showers. Along the way, Plaintiff noted a number of aspects about the facility that did not comply with the ADA 2010 Standards for accessible facilities, including: raised walking surfaces, improper distances between doors, improper door hardware, a single elevator for a unit containing eighteen wheelchair cells, an overly-steep wheelchair ramp, insufficient maneuvering clearance at the...
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