Combs v. Wilkinson
| Decision Date | 27 November 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. 00-4270.,00-4270. |
| Citation | 315 F.3d 548 |
| Parties | Ronald COMBS, Jason Robb, and George Skatzes, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Reginald WILKINSON, Director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Staughton Lynd (argued and briefed), Northeast Ohio Legal Services, Youngstown, OH, John B. Juhasz (briefed), Youngstown, OH, Douglas B. Taylor (briefed), New Middletown, OH, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.
Todd R. Marti (argued and briefed), Office of the Attorney General, Corrections Litigation Section, Columbus, OH, for Defendant-Appellee.
Before SILER and GILMAN, Circuit Judges; HEYBURN, Chief District Judge.*
SILER, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which HEYBURN, D.J., joined. GILMAN, J. (p. 560), delivered a separate opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part.
Plaintiffs Ronald Combs, Jason Robb, and George Skatzes, Ohio death row inmates, brought this civil rights action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against several Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction ("ODRC") supervisors and officers, alleging that corrections officers used excessive force in quelling a disturbance at Mansfield Correctional Institution ("ManCI"). In appealing the dismissal of their excessive force claims,1 plaintiffs assert that the district court erred in (1) striking the ODRC's Use of Force Committee Report, (2) dismissing the excessive force claims of Robb and Skatzes for failure to exhaust their administrative remedies as required by 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a), and (3) granting summary judgment in favor of defendants on Combs's excessive force claims. In response, defendants concede that the district court's dismissal of Robb's and Skatzes's excessive force claims for failure to exhaust their administrative remedies was erroneous but maintain that the dismissal of those claims should be sustained because the record required summary judgment on the merits. As set forth below, we REVERSE the exclusion of the Use of Force Committee Report, AFFIRM IN PART and REVERSE IN PART the dismissal of plaintiffs' excessive force claims, and REMAND for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
In 1997, a disturbance began in death row unit DR-4 at ManCI. At the time, thirty-seven inmates sentenced to execution were assigned to DR-4 and three corrections officers worked the unit. After one of the officers failed to secure an inmate prior to unlocking an outside recreation cage, the inmates overpowered the three officers and gained control of their keys. The inmates then took over the unit and allowed the three officers to leave.
Lieutenant Thomas Moroney, Northeast Regional Commander of the Special Tactics and Response Team for the ODRC, was called to ManCI. The Special Response Teams ("SRT") from several institutions in the region were also summoned to ManCI to assist in quelling the disturbance and regaining control of DR-4.
The inmates barricaded the doors to DR-4 and painted the windows to obscure the view from the hallway. The inmates were in possession of all the security keys to the entire unit. The SRT received information that the inmates had weapons such as broom and mop handles. According to plaintiffs, there was prisoner-on-prisoner violence as well as considerable destruction of property.
Lieutenant Moroney developed the tactical plan to regain control of DR-4, which was reviewed and approved by the incident commander, Warden Ralph Coyle. Moroney decided to use chemical agents prior to the SRT's entry to quell the disturbance and to ensure the safety and security of the staff and inmates as the inmates were escorted out of the unit. He assigned two teams to break windows and deploy chemical agents. One person on each team used a sledgehammer to break the cell windows around the unit's perimeter, while the other person on the team dispersed the chemical agents.
Once the chemical agents had been deployed, about five hours after the disturbance began, the SRT entered DR-4 through the front door. The inmates had chained the door and barricaded the entrance. After the SRT members breached the entry, they moved to the housing area, where they found the inmates in their cells. The inmates were not in their assigned cells, and at least one cell contained three inmates. Once all cell doors and food slots were secured, SRT members went to each cell and handcuffed the inmates. The SRT members escorted inmates from their cells out of DR-4 and into the Ohio Penal Industries ("OPI") warehouse area, where the inmates received medical treatment.
Plaintiff Combs is a death row inmate serving two death sentences for aggravated murder convictions and six years for firearms specifications. See State v. Combs, 62 Ohio St.3d 278, 581 N.E.2d 1071 (1991). At the time the disturbance began, Combs, a porter, was serving the evening meal to other inmates. When he became aware of the disturbance, he returned to his cell and broke a pencil in the lock to prevent other prisoners from entering. While Combs waited in his cell to be rescued, the window was broken with a sledgehammer and two cans of tear gas were dispensed into his cell. Combs, who had trouble breathing, went to the broken window for air. Corrections Officer Chris Krupa, who was at the window, sprayed Combs in the eyes and face with liquid mace and told Combs "to get the fuck away from the window." Combs also heard men saying, A few moments later, more tear gas was shot through the broken window, engulfing Combs's cell. His skin began to burn.
SRT members arrived at Combs's cell more than an hour later. The officers ordered him to turn around, face the wall, and get down on his knees. Combs looked at the window and asked, "In all that glass?" The officers responded, "Get the fuck on your knees now." His cell door was then unlocked, and six to eight officers rushed into his cell and drove him head-first to the floor. According to Combs, the officers stood on his neck and shoulders and hit him in the face and on the back of his head. He blacked out after officers kicked him in the genitals, and he awoke when officers were dragging him out the sally port doors. Combs asserts that officers kicked him as he was escorted to the medical treatment area. Officers then handcuffed him to a bench inside a holding cell and two other officers sprayed him with mace. Other than stating that the officers wore black fatigues, masks, and helmets, Combs does not identify any of these officers.
Plaintiff Robb is a death row inmate serving death sentences for two counts of aggravated murder and consecutive prison terms for two counts of kidnaping arising out of the deadly prison riot at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio, in 1993. See State v. Robb, 88 Ohio St.3d 59, 723 N.E.2d 1019 (2000). When the disturbance began, he left his cell to check on the safety of other prisoners in the unit. He then returned to his cell with inmates Robert VanHook and Kenneth Richey.
Robb's cell window was broken and gas was dispersed through the window and the air vent. According to Robb, the gas caused their muscles to tighten and made them lose control of their urine and feces. Robb broke the glass out of a window, and the three inmates went to the window for air. Officers sprayed the inmates with mace to make them move away from the window. When Robb said that they were locked in their cell, the officers told Robb to shut up and to get away from the window. Officer Gilbert then swung a sledgehammer at Robb. The sledgehammer glanced Robb's face and hit his left shoulder. Robb claims that he could barely stand or breathe after an hour of exposure to the gas.
As the SRT members entered DR-4, Robb heard them calling out, "Where's Robb?" The officers arrived at his cell and directed the three inmates to remove everything from the floor area and to place it on the top bunk. When the officers entered the cell, Robb heard someone say, "You take the little mother fucker in the middle," referring to Robb. An officer hit Robb in the back of his head and then someone placed him in a choke hold and pulled him to the floor. The officers stomped on his back and kicked him in the genitals, face, and side. Robb heard the officers say, "This is what this mother fucker deserves." Robb was knocked unconscious while lying on the floor.
Captain Buck stood outside Robb's cell while other SRT members entered the cell. Robb was handcuffed inside the cell and handed off to Buck. As Buck escorted Robb, they both fell in the hallway. Robb's weight pulled Buck down with him. Another officer (or officers) helped Buck pick Robb up and assisted Buck in escorting Robb out of DR-4.
Robb woke up when he was on the floor outside his cell. Someone jerked on his hands, trying to pull him off the ground. After they pulled him up, the officers tried to run Robb into the stairway on the side of the recreation area. Robb turned his head to avoid the stairway, but it caught his shoulder. The officers picked him up and ran him into a wall. Robb blacked out again and hit the floor.
Buck was at Robb's left side the entire distance from DR-4 to OPI. At one point, the officer at Robb's right side handed him off to Officer Shasky. Shasky escorted Robb from the officers' desk area to OPI. When Robb woke again, Shasky rammed his knee and leg into Robb's face while Robb was kneeling. After a few more punches and kicks, Robb blacked out again.
As Buck and Shasky escorted him, Robb appeared dazed and was bleeding from his head, face, and hand. According to Shasky, Robb was not cooperating in the escort. Robb received medical treatment at OPI and then was transported to the hospital. He suffered a skull fracture and received more than thirty stitches.
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