Colvin v. Horton, Case No. 2:19-cv-122
| Decision Date | 20 August 2019 |
| Docket Number | Case No. 2:19-cv-122 |
| Parties | KENNETH COLVIN, JR., Plaintiff, v. CONNIE HORTON et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Michigan |
Honorable Gordon J. Quist
This is a civil rights action brought by a state prisoner under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Under the Prison Litigation Reform Act, Pub. L. No. 104-134, 110 Stat. 1321 (1996) (PLRA), 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.
Plaintiff is presently incarcerated with the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) at the Alger Correctional Facility (LMF) in Munising, Alger County, Michigan. The events about which he complains, however, occurred at the Chippewa Correctional Facility (URF) in Kincheloe, Chippewa County, Michigan, and the Muskegon Correctional Facility (MCF) in Muskegon, Muskegon County, Michigan. Plaintiff sues MDOC Special Activities Coordinator Steven Adamson and former Special Activities Coordinator David M. Leach, together with the following current or former URF Officials: Former Warden Jeffrey Woods; Former Deputy Warden Connie Horton; and Chaplain Dave Rink. He also sues MCF Chaplain K. Pelky and MCF Deputy Warden D.M. Steward.
Plaintiff's complaint covers several distinct issues and events.1 Plaintiff first alleges that, on October 4, 2016, he transferred to URF from the Oaks Correctional Facility. Upon arrival, Plaintiff sent letters to Defendants Woods and Rink, asking to be placed on the list for a religious diet and attaching documentation showing that he had been approved to receive kosher meals since 2012. Defendants Woods and Rink, however, took no action in response to his letters. Plaintiff was not placed on the religious-diet list.
On October 22, 2016, Plaintiff filed a Step-I grievance, complaining that he was being denied his religious diet. (Attach. to Compl., ECF No. 1-1, PageID.18.) He indicated in the grievance that he had sent Defendant Rink several kites about the matter, without response. No action was taken on the Step-I grievance. Receiving no response, Plaintiff filed a Step-II grievance on December 1, 2016. Defendant Woods responded to the grievance on December 10, 2016, noting that the Step-I grievance response was untimely and concluding that Plaintiff had been approved for the diet but had not been placed in the callout system upon his transfer. DefendantWoods indicated that Plaintiff would immediately be placed on the list for religious meals as of December 10, 2016. (Id., PageID.19-20.)
Plaintiff alleges that, prior to the Step-II response, he was interviewed by Defendant Rink on December 9, 2016. At that time, Defendant Rink admitted that he had received the Step-I grievance, but he had misplaced it somewhere. Defendant Rink advised Plaintiff that he would be placed on the religious-diet list the next day. Plaintiff began receiving his religious diet, as promised, on December 10, 2016.
Plaintiff complains that the deprivation of his religious diet for two months violated his rights under the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause and under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), 42 U.S.C. § 2000cc-1(a).
Plaintiff next complains about alleged religious violations that occurred in January 2018. Plaintiff alleges that he became aware of a "Jewish Program" at the Macomb Correctional Facility (MRF), which purportedly is sponsored by the Aleph Institute. (Compl., ECF No. 1, PageID.5.) According to Plaintiff, the sponsored program included religious services led by a rabbi and the provision of a kosher diet that was not the vegan diet provided to all prisoners receiving a religious diet at URF. Plaintiff attaches the affidavits of three prisoners who had been at MRF and claimed knowledge of the program. (See Attach. to Compl., ECF No. 1-1, PageID.25-27.)
Plaintiff requested a transfer to MRF, so that he could participate in the Jewish Program, by writing to the unspecified Special Activities Coordinator and Chaplain Rink. Plaintiff was denied a transfer. On January 22, 2018, Plaintiff wrote a Step-I grievance, alleging that he was fully qualified to participate in the program and that his religious needs would be better fulfilled in the program. He contended that, in denying him a transfer, Defendants were violatinghis rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments by preventing him from freely practicing his religion and subjecting him to discrimination. (Attach. to Compl., ECF No. 22, PageID.21.)
On January 31, 2018, Defendant Rink interviewed Plaintiff on the grievance. Plaintiff alleges that Defendant Rink implicitly acknowledged the existence of a Jewish Program at MRF, but informed Plaintiff that unknown staff had told Rink that Plaintiff would not be transferred to MRF. Defendant Rink advised Plaintiff that he supported the decision denying Plaintiff's request to transfer, because "the MDOC [wa]s tired of [Plaintiff] and his continuous litigating . . . ." (Compl., ECF No. 1, PageID.5.) In the grievance response issued that same day, Defendant Rink indicated that transfer was not required by the law, because Plaintiff received religious accommodations at URF that allowed him to practice his faith, including the space and time for a Jewish service, adequate religious library callouts and reading material, and a religious diet. Rink stated that neither the constitution nor prison policy guaranteed Plaintiff a right to transfer to a facility that had a special Jewish program. (Attach. to Compl., ECF No. 1-1, PageID.22.)
Plaintiff appealed the grievance denial to Step II. (Id., PageID.24.) Defendant Horton responded to his grievance on February 16, 2018, finding the Step-I response to be appropriate and supported by policy. Defendant Horton concluded that Defendant Rink had properly found under applicable policy that URF was providing Plaintiff the necessary elements for his Jewish service. (Id., PageID.23.) Horton's response implied that a special Jewish Program existed at MRF.
Plaintiff appealed to Step III. Defendant Leach responded that the religious meal program at MRF was no different than the one provided at URF. (Compl., ECF No. 1, PageID.6.) Plaintiff contends that Defendant Leach's response was inaccurate in representing that the programwas the same. In addition, he contends that, while URF permits him to attend a scheduled religious service, he does not have a consistent opportunity to participate in group religious services, because so few prisoners attend the scheduled time for services.
On December 17, 2018, Plaintiff wrote Defendant Adamson, again asking to be transferred to MRF to participate in the Jewish Program. Adamson did not respond. Plaintiff filed a grievance on January 21, 2019, complaining that Defendants Adamson and Rink had failed to respond to his request to be transferred. Defendant Rink denied the grievance at Step I on May 28, 2019.
In the interim, on February 14, 2019, Plaintiff wrote to Defendant Pelky at MCF, again asking to be transferred to MRF.2 Defendant Pelky denied Plaintiff's response and allegedly included false statements in his response to Plaintiff's grievance. Plaintiff apparently appealed his grievance through Step III. The Step-III grievance was denied on April 23, 2019.
Plaintiff asserts that, by denying his transfer to MRF, Defendants violated his rights to equal protection and to freely exercise his religion, in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments and the RLUIPA. He also contends that that Defendants denied him the right to transfer in retaliation for the exercise of his right to petition government by filing grievances and civil rights complaints.
In his final set of allegations, Plaintiff asserts that, on March 3, 2019, and again on March 5, 2019, he mailed requests to be placed on the list for participation in the Fast of Esther. On March 7, Defendant Chaplain Pelky responded, stating the following:
I received two kites from you requesting that you be added to the list for a meal bag during the Fast of Esther on 3/20/2019. I received both of these kites on 3/7/2019; However, the deadline for submitting your name to central office was 3/5/2019. It is consequently not possible for me to add your name to this list.
(Compl., ECF No. 1, PageID.8.) Plaintiff complains that the kites were submitted in a timely manner, but, because Defendant Pelky did not work Monday through Wednesday, he did not see the kites until after the deadline.
On March 14, 2019, Plaintiff spoke with Defendant Deputy Warden Steward about Defendant Pelky's refusal to place him on the list for participation in the fast. Plaintiff argued that Defendant Pelky had failed to post the deadline for participating in the fast. Defendant Steward responded that the prison had no intention of posting anything and that Plaintiff should be aware of his own upcoming religious holy days. Plaintiff also insisted that there was no valid reason for the deadline, as the food items involved—bread, fruit, peanut butter and jelly, cold cereal, and milk—were always in the kitchen. When Plaintiff told Steward that he was writing a grievance, Steward allegedly became angry and threatened to have Plaintiff transferred.
Plaintiff contends that the failure to provide him a meal bag on the Fast of Esther violated his religious rights under the First Amendment and RLUIPA. He also argues that Defendan...
To continue reading
Request your trial