Butts v. Martin

• Decision Date: 08 December 2017
• Docket Number: No. 15-41640,15-41640
• Citation: 877 F.3d 571
• Parties: Paul Richard BUTTS, Plaintiff–Appellant, v. Marcus MARTIN, also known as FNU Martin; Derric Wilson, also known as FNU Wilson; Cheryl Cranmer-Sutton, also known as FNU Cranmer; Ricardo Martinez, also known as FNU Martinez; Christopher Banks, also known as FNU Banks; Michael Harris, also known as FNU Harris; Garod Garrison, also known as FNU Garrison; Theodosia Debricassart, also known as FNU DeBricassart; Harrell Watts, also known as FNU Watts; Geraldo Maldonado, also known as FNU Maldonado, Defendants–Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

877 F.3d 571

Paul Richard BUTTS, Plaintiff–Appellant,

v.Marcus MARTIN, also known as FNU Martin; Derric Wilson, also known as FNU Wilson; Cheryl Cranmer-Sutton, also known as FNU Cranmer; Ricardo Martinez, also known as FNU Martinez; Christopher Banks, also known as FNU Banks; Michael Harris, also known as FNU Harris; Garod Garrison, also known as FNU Garrison; Theodosia Debricassart, also known as FNU DeBricassart; Harrell Watts, also known as FNU Watts; Geraldo Maldonado, also known as FNU Maldonado, Defendants–Appellees.

No. 15-41640

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

Filed December 8, 2017

Paul Richard Butts, Pro Se

Andrea Lynn Hedrick Parker, Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney's Office Eastern District of Texas, Beaumont, TX, for Defendants-Appellees

Before DAVIS, CLEMENT, and PRADO, Circuit Judges.

EDWARD C. PRADO, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiff–Appellant Paul Richard Butts, a Hasidic Jewish federal prisoner at the Federal Corrections Complex in Beaumont, Texas ("FCC Beaumont"), filed a Bivens¹ suit against numerous Bureau of Prisons ("BOP") employees, all of whom worked at FCC Beaumont. All his claims arise from an incident when Butts was allegedly forced to choose between eating a meal and wearing his yarmulke and the subsequent disciplinary proceedings against him. The district court granted summary judgment and dismissed Butts’s claims. For the reasons set forth below, we AFFIRM in part, and REVERSE and REMAND in part.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual Allegations

In his complaint, Butts alleged the following facts. On the evening of December 19, 2010, he went to the "chow-hall" for dinner wearing a gray knitted cap, which could be purchased from the commissary. Butts had his black yarmulke,² which he has worn since his arrival at FCC Beaumont, in his pocket. Once inside the chow-hall, Butts removed the gray cap, placed it in his pocket, and put on his yarmulke. One of the customs of Hasidic Judaism, the faith to which Butts adheres, requires men to keep their heads covered. Defendant Martinez, a BOP lieutenant, pointed to the yarmulke and asked: "What’s that?" When Butts explained that it was his yarmulke, Martinez told him that it was not "BOP issued." Butts tried to explain that prisoners "have to supply their own" and the BOP does not supply them, but Martinez "cut [Butts] off [by] asking other rhetorical questions." According to Butts, it was "clear" that Martinez intended only to harass him. Martinez took Butts’s ID and said he would check with the FCC Beaumont chaplain "to see if they were issued." Martinez told Butts that, if Butts were lying, he would spend the night in the special housing unit ("SHU"). Martinez said that Butts would have to remove the yarmulke or leave the hall. Butts chose to leave. This was the only time Butts was questioned about his yarmulke or denied a meal because of his religious beliefs.

At lunch the next day, Butts spoke with Defendant Cheryl Cranmer–Sutton, a BOP officer who at that time was "the acting Captain." After Butts told her about the events from the night before, Cranmer–Sutton said that she would "check on [Butts’s] ID." But Butts "was wanting a little more than that, at least an [apology ]." Cranmer–Sutton explained that she was only concerned with getting Butts’s ID back and with his ability to eat and wear his yarmulke going forward. Butts, dissatisfied with her response, mentioned that he planned on filing an administrative grievance.

At 2:30 that afternoon, a BOP officer named "Q. Jones" came to Butts’s cell and asked him about a gray yarmulke, which Butts denied possessing. Jones searched the cell but found only black and white yarmulkes, which were approved under BOP regulations. Altogether, Butts’s cell and property were searched three different times, and he was strip searched twice. No gray yarmulke was ever found.

Jones took Butts to Cranmer–Sutton’s office where she and Martinez were waiting. Martinez asked Butts about the location of his gray yarmulke from the night before. Butts denied owning a gray yarmulke or having worn one. After the chaplain arrived, Martinez again asked Butts about the gray yarmulke’s location, and Butts again denied owning a gray yarmulke. Butts’s complaint asserted that it was "clear that Defendant Martinez was setting [Butts] up to be a liar." After Martinez left, Butts asked the chaplain whether he had ever seen Butts wearing a gray yarmulke, and the chaplain stated that he had only seen Butts wearing a black one.

Martinez wrote an incident report and placed Butts in the SHU for "lying to staff" regarding the gray yarmulke. While Butts was in the SHU, the opened commissary items in his cell were discarded and Butts was denied access to his personal address book, stamps, and religious items—despite the fact that BOP regulations permitted these items in the SHU. He was also denied the "Holiday Package" handed out to prisoners because he was in the SHU.

The next day, Defendant Christopher Banks, a BOP officer, delivered to Butts a copy of Martinez’s incident report and asked Butts whether he wanted to make a statement or request any witnesses. Butts gave a statement and requested three witnesses. Banks later told Butts, however, that Martinez had "refused to enter the information."

Defendants Garod Garrison and Theodosia Debricassart, members of the Unit Disciplinary Committee ("UDC"), subsequently held a hearing in Butts’s cell in the SHU. When Butts asked about his witnesses, Garrison stated that Butts had not requested any, and the UDC refused to investigate whether Butts had requested witnesses through Banks. On December 22, 2010, the UDC found that Butts had committed the charged violation of lying to a staff member and sanctioned him, depriving him of commissary privileges for 30 days. Butts remained in the SHU for an additional week even though the UDC did not sentence him to additional SHU time.

B. Administrative Remedies

Butts attempted an informal resolution (BP-8).³ In the BP-8, Butts listed as his "Specific Complaint and Requested Relief" the desire to appeal based upon an alleged violation of his due process rights because the UDC’s decision was not based on sufficient evidence. Butts noted that Martinez did not confiscate any yarmulke and that no gray yarmulke had ever been found, even though Jones had searched his cell and property. The correctional counselor instructed Butts to "start with a BP-9 on a UDC appeal."

Butts filed a request for administrative remedy (BP-9) on January 10, 2011, appealing the UDC’s decision. In support of his request, Butts alleged that the UDC "did not look into any part of the [incident] report" but instead blindly accepted Martinez’s word over Butts’s. Butts again alleged that his due process rights were violated because there was no evidence that a gray yarmulke ever existed. And the disciplinary proceeding "has only been harassment [sic] by Lt. Martinez of [his] religious beliefs and retaliation." He explained that he was attaching a three-page summary "[d]ue to the detail needed."

In the attached summary, Butts detailed the incidents from his perspective. Although he mentioned other individuals (including Defendant Cranmer–Sutton) over the course of the narrative, he only levied with specificity claims of wrongdoing against Martinez, including that Martinez (1) harassed Butts and violated his religious rights by forcing him to "choose between eating or setting aside his religious beliefs by removing his yarmulka [sic]," and (2) made up the gray yarmulke and used it as an "excuse" to put Butts in the SHU in retaliation for Butts’s threat to "write [Martinez] up." Butts also asserted once more that his due process rights were violated because the UDC decision was not supported by sufficient evidence. Defendant Marcus Martin, the Warden at FCC Beaumont, denied the BP-9 on January 26, 2011, concluding that Butts had been afforded due process.

Butts filed a regional administrative remedy appeal (BP-10) in February 2011. In the appeal, Butts complained that Martinez had harassed him, violated his religious rights, and then "covered" those improper actions by claiming that Butts was wearing a gray yarmulke. Butts alleged that Martinez had purposely written him up for lying, rather than for possession of unauthorized headwear, because such an issue "would only be seen as [Martinez’s] word vs. [Butts’s] word." Butts again maintained that Martinez had denied him dinner because of his religious beliefs and then placed him in the SHU as "punishment and retaliation because [Butts] was going to write him up."

The Regional Director, Defendant Geraldo Maldonado, ordered a rehearing on the procedural ground that Butts had not received a copy of the incident report until two days after the events in the chow-hall, and the incident report gave no reason for the delay. According to Butts, however, the UDC "decided not to have the rehearing as ‘ordered,’ but ‘squashed it.’ "

Butts was "dissatisfied with this decision" by the UDC and appealed back to Maldonado. No copy of the appeal appears in the record, but Defendant Banks alleges that Butts filed it on April 26, 2011. On May 8, 2011, Butts sent Maldonado an "[a]ttachment to [his] formal complaint against Lt. Martinez." In the attachment, Butts alleged that, on May 6, 2011, Banks had informed him that Martinez had been responsible for excluding Butts’s statement and witness list from the incident report.

On May 18, 2011, citing Maldonado’s failure to respond, Butts submitted to the BOP Central Office a handwritten appeal, which he characterized as a "BP-11." In this appeal, Butts complained exclusively about Martinez’s actions, claiming that Martinez had violated his First Amendment and due process rights, retaliated against and defamed him falsely imprisoned him, and denied him a meal because of his religious beliefs. Butts concluded by requesting that "Martinez be fully investigated and that actions or sanctions be taken against him" under BOP...