Bell v. Johnson
| Decision Date | 17 October 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. 01-1286.,01-1286. |
| Parties | Earnest BELL, Jr., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Robert JOHNSON, et al., Defendants, Mark Stimpson; Allen Blatter, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Paul D. Reingold (argued and briefed), University of Michigan Clinical Law Program, Ann Arbor, MI, for Appellant.
John L. Thurber (argued and briefed), Office of the Attorney General, Lansing, MI, for Appellees.
Before KEITH, MOORE, and GILMAN, Circuit Judges.
The Appellant Earnest Bell, Jr., a former inmate at the State Prison for Southern Michigan in Jackson ("Jackson"), appeals the district court's grant of judgment as a matter of law to Defendants-Appellees, Alan Blatter and Mark Stimpson, following the presentation of plaintiff's case-in-chief in a jury trial. Bell's § 1983 claim alleged that Blatter and Stimpson, who are both prison guards at Jackson, shook down his cell and confiscated his legal papers and medical diet snacks in retaliation for a civil rights lawsuit filed by Bell while he was an inmate at Jackson. The district court determined that Bell's evidence was insufficient as a matter of law to show that a person of ordinary firmness would be deterred by the alleged retaliatory acts. Alternatively, the district court found that the standard for First Amendment claims was not clearly established at the time of the events in question. The district court concluded that the established standard at the time of the alleged retaliatory acts required an inmate to show that the defendants' conduct "shocked the conscience." Finding that Bell could not meet this burden, the court determined that the defendants were entitled to qualified immunity. For the reasons that follow, we REVERSE the district court's decision and REMAND for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Bell is a former prisoner at the State Prison for Southern Michigan in Jackson. In 1993-94, Bell was serving a sentence for armed robbery. He was assigned to administrative segregation during his stay at Jackson because he was diagnosed with AIDS and had engaged in consensual sex with another inmate. Bell was paroled in 1994. Bell returned to Jackson later that year after he violated his parole by failing a drug test. When he returned to prison, Bell was once again assigned to administrative segregation based upon his prior sexual misconduct.
In administrative segregation, prisoners are housed alone in cells with steel doors. Prisoners in segregation are locked in their cells for twenty-three hours each day, but are allowed to spend one hour in the prison yard, where the inmates are placed in cages to isolate them. Because prisoners in segregation are not allowed to congregate, the prisoners communicate with each other by yelling through cracks under the cell doors, passing notes through guards, or sliding notes between cells using paper and string.
In April 1994, Bell sought legal assistance in pursuing a variety of civil rights claims from a jailhouse lawyer named Thaddeus-X who was housed in a nearby cell. On April 20, 1994, Bell and Thaddeus-X signed a legal assistance agreement, which was approved by a deputy warden. With Thaddeus-X's assistance, Bell filed a lawsuit against seventeen prison guards and administrators, including Sgt. Alan Blatter and Officer Mark Stimpson. Bell's suit alleged a number of claims, including a challenge to his placement in administrative segregation. Before the lawsuit was filed, prison guards assisted Bell by providing him with writing materials and by passing papers and legal materials between Bell and Thaddeus-X.
Bell claims that the guards began treating him differently after the lawsuit was filed. The guards began refusing to provide Bell with writing supplies or to pass legal materials between Bell and Thaddeus-X. According to Bell, and fellow inmate Eric Waddell, Bell's lawsuit was common knowledge among the guards because Thaddeus-X frequently boasted about the suit, and because the prisoners on the floor had discussed the suit by shouting from cell to cell. In response to what he perceived to be undue harassment by several of the prison guards, Bell sent a "Notice of Litigation" to the seventeen named defendants in his lawsuit on June 3, 1994. The notice explained that Bell had filed a federal lawsuit against the named defendants and warned that "[a]ny further harassment or retaliation will be reported immediately to [the district judge] by plaintiff." Joint Appendix ("J.A.") at 332.
On June 6, 1994, Sgt. Blatter conducted a search of Bell's cell while Bell was in the prison yard for his daily hour of "yard time." When Bell returned to his cell, he found the cell in disarray, and he noticed that some of his legal papers and his medical diet snacks had been taken. Waddell, whose cell was directly across the hall from Bell's, saw Blatter enter the cell and leave with papers and Bell's snacks. Bell testified that he was allowed to keep the medical snacks in his cell because he had AIDS and he needed extra food to slow his weight loss. At trial, Blatter admitted to conducting the cell search and to removing Bell's medical snacks, although he denied taking any legal papers. Blatter also acknowledged that the food was given to Bell for medical reasons.
Bell filed two grievances concerning the June 6 search of his cell. On June 7, 1994, Bell spoke with Sgt. Blatter and asked him about the legal materials. According to Bell, Blatter responded by telling Bell that "if [he] knew what was good for him, that [he] better write the courts [and] have the litigation dismissed." J.A. at 371 (Pl. Exh.20). On June 8, the prison staff moved Thaddeus-X from the second floor to the base level of administrative segregation, making it very difficult for Bell to communicate with him about the lawsuit.1 That day, Bell filed an amended complaint describing the retaliatory cell search on June 6.
On June 15, 1994, notice of Bell's lawsuit was officially received by the prison litigation coordinator on behalf of defendants Blatter and Stimpson. On June 20, 1994, Officer Stimpson allegedly came to Bell's cell and told Bell that he "was going to pay" for filing the lawsuit. J.A. at 373 (Supp.Compl.). While Bell was in the prison yard on June 20, Sgt. Blatter and Officer Stimpson again searched Bell's cell. Bell returned to find that more of his legal materials were missing. Waddell observed this search from his cell and saw Blatter and Stimpson confiscate Bell's food and legal papers. Bell filed another grievance four days later seeking the return of his property.
Michigan Department of Corrections ("MDOC") policy regulates shakedowns of prisoners' cells. MDOC Policy Directive 04.04.110 provides that "no search shall be conducted for the purpose of harassing or humiliating a prisoner." J.A. at 347 (Exh. 12). The policy further instructs prison staff to "use reasonable care in conducting the search to protect and safeguard the prisoner's property and ... attempt to leave searched areas in a similar condition to what they were prior to the search." J.A. at 347. Prison staff are also directed to enter the cell search into the cell-search log and to complete a contraband-removal record and a notice of intent to conduct an administrative hearing whenever non-dangerous contraband is removed from a prisoner's cell. No entry was made in the cell-search log, nor was any notice of intent filed, in connection with either the June 6 or the June 20 search of Bell's cell.
Bell stated that his legal materials were never returned to him. He eventually was able to obtain copies from his sister, who had kept duplicates of some of his filings. Bell testified that he became angry and afraid as a result of the actions of prison officials regarding his lawsuit. He explained: J.A. at 217 (Bell Tr. at 126).
Plaintiff filed his initial pro se complaint on May 27, 1994. Bell's original complaint named seventeen defendants, including Stimpson and Blatter, and alleged a number of claims including racial discrimination, retaliatory harassment, privacy violations, violations of due process, and allegations that certain conditions of his confinement were cruel and unusual. On July 5, 1994, Bell filed a supplemental complaint adding a claim of First Amendment retaliation based upon the cell searches by Stimpson and Blatter. On August 15, 1995, a federal magistrate judge issued a report recommending dismissal of all of plaintiff's claims except for his retaliation claims relating to the searches of his cell on June 6 and June 20, 1994. In analyzing the First Amendment retaliation claim, the magistrate judge rejected defendants' argument that Bell was required to show that the alleged retaliatory actions "shocked the conscience." The magistrate judge noted that the Sixth Circuit had previously ruled that claims based upon explicit constitutional guarantees should be analyzed according to the relevant standards applicable to the particular right at issue, rather than the "shocks the conscience" standard applicable to substantive due process claims. J.A. at 60 (citing Braley v. City of Pontiac, 906 F.2d 220, 226 (6th Cir.1990)). The magistrate judge then concluded that the plaintiff's allegation stated a valid First Amendment retaliation claim in light of cases from this court and other circuits permitting First Amendment claims to go forward on similar facts. The district court entered an order on October 4, 1995, adopting the magistrate judge's report and recommendation. Plaintiff subsequently secured counsel, and filed a second amended complaint...
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