Duffey v. Bryant

• Decision Date: 06 January 1997
• Docket Number: No. 7:95-cv-87 (WDO).,7:95-cv-87 (WDO).
• Citation: 950 F.Supp. 1168
• Parties: Alvin DUFFEY, Plaintiff, v. Charlie BRYANT, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Georgia

950 F.Supp. 1168

Alvin DUFFEY, Plaintiff, v. Charlie BRYANT, et al., Defendants.

No. 7:95-cv-87 (WDO).

United States District Court, M.D. Georgia, Valdosta Division.

January 6, 1997.

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James C. West, III, Decatur, GA, for Alvin Duffey.

William C. Sanders, Thomasville, GA, for Roy C. Sumner, Cook County Board of Commissioners, Cook County Sheriff's Department, Charlie Bryant, Melissa Duke, Roy Wheeler, Paul Hopson, Willie Bachelor.

Randall S. Acree, Adel, GA, for Memorial Hospital of Adel, Inc.

ORDER

OWENS, District Judge.

On July 14, 1993, Rudolph Duffey died naked in a cell in Cook County Jail of chronic malnutrition and dehydration (Answer, ¶ 17). His brother Alvin, acting as administrator of his estate and as representative for his two children, filed this § 1983 action against the county and police officers involved in the arrest and detention. On cross motions for summary judgment, the foremost issue for the court is whether the doctrine of qualified immunity will shield the police officers from liability. Because federal case law in existence at the time compelled the conclusion that their actions constituted deliberate indifference to Rudolph Duffey's psychological and medical needs, the court finds that the police officers who were responsible for watching over and caring for the jail's inmates during his detention are not entitled to qualified immunity.

FACTS¹

I. Background and Arrest

Rudolph Duffey, a restaurant manager in his early thirties, was diagnosed with manic depression in August 1992 and was prescribed medication to treat the disorder. Duffey behaved normally as long as he was taking his medicine, but would begin to show symptoms of his manic depression when he stopped taking it.

Around July 4, 1993, Duffey began to show signs of not having taken his medicine. His brother, Alvin Duffey, tried to get him to take the medicine, but Duffey refused. Later that night or early the next morning, Duffey left his father's house in McDonough, Georgia, in his car. On July 7, 1993, at around 8:30 a.m., Alvin Duffey filed a missing persons report with the Henry County Police Department in which he explained that his brother was a manic depressive in need of his medication.²

On the evening of July 6, Officer Roy Wheeler of the Cook County Sheriff's Department was patrolling Interstate 75 south of Adel, Georgia, when he pulled Duffey over for driving approximately 50 miles per hour in the southbound emergency lane.³ Wheeler asked Duffey for his license, and Duffey told him that his license had been suspended. Wheeler then called in Duffey's name and birthdate to Paul Hopson, the Cook County dispatcher, and asked that the information be processed on GCIC, the statewide network of criminal information.

Hopson reported back that Duffey's license was indeed suspended. Duffey told Wheeler that the car was his brother's and that he had borrowed it to get something to eat in McDonough (well over one hundred miles away), causing Wheeler to conclude that Duffey was lost. At that time, Wheeler also noticed that Duffey's pants were on inside out and wet across the front (Wheeler, at 79).

Officer Wheeler placed Duffey in the back of the patrol car and took him to the Cook County Jail. In the car, Wheeler spoke with Duffey and says that Duffey acted and responded to questions rationally (Wheeler, at 13). Once they arrived at the jail, Hopson and Wheeler tried to contact Duffey's family. Although the number and exact outcome of calls made is in dispute,⁴ it is clear that the police were not able to reach Duffey's family that night or at any time during his incarceration. When they asked him if he had ever been hospitalized in the past three years, Duffey told the officers that he had been treated for a salt deficiency a few months earlier but did not mention his prior psychiatric history (Hopson, at 35).

At some point, Wheeler and Hopson had a discussion wherein they concluded that, judging from the fact that he was lost and his pants were inside out and wet, Duffey was probably suffering from a mental disorder of some kind (Coroner's Inquest, at 45; Wheeler, at 21). Hopson reported their observations about Duffey to their supervisor, Melissa Duke, who said that she would "check on it" the next day (Hopson, at 35). Officer Wheeler left before Duffey was processed into the jail, and had no further contact with Duffey (Wheeler, at 20).

Hopson testified that while Wheeler was processing Duffey, Magistrate Judge Ronnie Fender happened by the jail to attend to an unrelated matter. Once the officers determined that Duffey's license had been suspended several times, they requested that a warrant be issued charging him with being a habitual violator. Hopson says that Judge Fender talked with Duffey in another room, and then wrote out the warrant (Hopson, at 66-71). This was the only time Duffey was brought before a judicial officer during the eight days of his incarceration.

II. Supervision of Jail and Aberrant Behavior

Primary responsibility for overseeing the jail rested with Chief Jailer Melissa Duke and with the dispatcher on duty at the time. However, much of the evidence strongly suggests that the daily operations of the jail were performed in large part by its prisoner trusties. For instance, it was the trusties who gave the inmates their two meals a day and who regularly reported any problems or changes that might need attention to the officers on duty (Hopson, at 37-40, 59). Although both Chief Jailer Duke and Dispatcher Hopson testified that their duties included regular walk-throughs of the jail, neither officer remembers seeing any signs that Duffey's health was deteriorating. Both officers also testified that Sheriff Bryant had in place a policy that inmates were given medical and/or psychiatric care only upon his approval (Duke, at 22, 26-27; Hopson, at 29). The record contains no evidence indicating that Sheriff Bryant entered the jail at all during the eight day period Duffey was incarcerated.

At the time of Duffey's arrest, the Cook County Jail had no air conditioning for either prisoners or employees (Hopson, at 58). Duffey was first placed in the drunk tank by himself, then in the "bullpen" with approximately eleven other prisoners. Sometime later, he was moved to his own cell after he began chasing the other prisoners around the bullpen (Coroner's Inquest, at 8-11). At some point after he was placed in this private cell, Duffey took off all his clothes and threw them, along with his bed linens, out the flap in the door of his cell and into the hall (Coroner's Inquest, at 18, 20).⁵

Duffey also began preaching loudly and barking like a dog. This barking and preaching was heard by the other prisoners and by employees in other parts of the courthouse. On more than one occasion, the courthouse employees complained about the yelling to Sheriff Charles Bryant. Bryant responded by calling the jail to find out who was yelling. Melissa Duke, the Chief Jailer, told him it was Duffey. Duke testified that she cannot recall anything being done as a result of the complaints (Duke, at 57-58).

The trusties who distributed meals to the inmates at the time, Robert Johnson and Larry Inman, told Melissa Duke or Paul Hopson on three different occasions that Duffey had refused to eat. The jail log for July 7 reports that Duffey refused his meal. The log reports that on July 9 at 6:34 a.m., "Larry Inman advised, Rudolph Duffey has not eaten since he has been here." The log again shows that Duffey refused his meal (Exhs. 4-7, Pl. Motion for Summary Judgment). The log shows no other entries concerning Duffey until he died on the 14th.⁶ Robert Johnson testified at the coroner's in quest that Duffey ate a little while he was being held in the drunk tank, but that after he was placed in the private cell on the third floor, he would hardly eat anything (Coroner's Inquest, at 10-11).

After being informed by the trusties that Duffey was refusing to eat, Paul Hopson testified that he did not check on Duffey himself because he "couldn't leave [his] post," and "[his] duties simply wouldn't allow it" (Hopson, at 41-42).⁷ He says he told his supervisor, Melissa Duke, at least once that Duffey was not eating (Hopson, at 40-41). Duke says she told Sheriff Bryant about Duffey's strange behavior more than once (Duke, at 57-58). Duke also says she informed Sheriff Bryant that Duffey was sometimes not eating, but did not recall what Sheriff Bryant's response was (Duke, at 89-90).

Sheriff Bryant does not recall ever having observed Duffey. He says he cannot recall whether he was ever told about Duffey's preaching, barking, not eating, or being naked in the cell (Bryant, at 79-82). Bryant also says that Duffey's behavior would not cause him to think Duffey had a mental disorder, because this behavior was "not unusual" in the jail and, in fact, "could be normal" (Bryant, at 82-83). Sheriff Bryant also maintains that he is satisfied with his staff's treatment of Duffey (Bryant, at 70).

Chief Jailer Duke admits that she has responsibility for prisoners' care while they are detained, and that one of her duties was to walk through the jail daily to observe the inmates and to "check on them and make sure everything is going okay in that cell" (Duke, at 85, 63-64). However, she recalls observing Duffey only two times during the entire eight days he was incarcerated (Duke at 62). The first time, Duffey was wearing pants but no shirt, was looking out the window, and did not turn around or respond to her questions. The second time she observed him he was dead (Duke, at 62). Duke says she never observed that Duffey needed care or attention (Duke, at 113).

Duffey died on July 14, having spent a total of eight days in jail. His driver's license lists his weight at 173. His weight when he died was 137. The autopsy lists his height as 72", or 6'1". The cause of death is listed as...