Estate of Olivas v. City and County of Denver, Civil Action No. 94-K-1884.

• Decision Date: 22 May 1996
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 94-K-1884.
• Citation: 929 F. Supp. 1329
• Parties: The ESTATE OF Ricky OLIVAS, By and Through its personal representative, Gloria MIRANDA, Plaintiff, v. The CITY AND COUNTY OF DENVER, a municipality, Former Chief of Police James Collier, in his individual and official capacities, Police Officer William Mitchell, in his individual and official capacities, and Denver Police Officer Michele Guzman, in her individual and official capacities, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Colorado

929 F. Supp. 1329

The ESTATE OF Ricky OLIVAS, By and Through its personal representative, Gloria MIRANDA, Plaintiff, v. The CITY AND COUNTY OF DENVER, a municipality, Former Chief of Police James Collier, in his individual and official capacities, Police Officer William Mitchell, in his individual and official capacities, and Denver Police Officer Michele Guzman, in her individual and official capacities, Defendants.

Civil Action No. 94-K-1884.

United States District Court, D. Colorado.

May 22, 1996.

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Kathleen Franco Domenico, David A. Lane, Paula D. Greisen, Denver, CO, for Plaintiff.

Theodore S. Halaby, Robert M. Liechty, Halaby Cross Liechty & Schluter, Louis B. Bruno, Bruno, Bruno & Colin, P.C., Denver, CO, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

KANE, Senior District Judge.

Plaintiff is the Estate of Ricky Olivas, deceased, by and through his mother Gloria Miranda. Olivas committed suicide by hanging himself while in custody at Denver's District One Police Station.

Miranda asserts three claims for relief pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983: (1) that a former Chief of Police and two of his officers violated her rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution when they maliciously and wantonly ignored the suicide threats of her son and failed to remove leg shackles from his holding cell¹ (First Claim for Relief); and (2) that the City and County of Denver (the "City") failed adequately to train and supervise its police officers in their handling of suicidal prisoners (Second and Third Claims for Relief).² On behalf of her son's estate, Miranda seeks compensatory and punitive damages in an amount to be proven at trial, together with costs and expenses, including attorney fees, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1988.

Defendants move for summary judgment on all claims. I grant the motions of Chief Collier, Officer Guzman and the City, and deny the motion of Officer Mitchell.

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On September 1, 1992, the Denver Police Department received a domestic violence call from Ricky Olivas's girlfriend, Lynae Gallegos. Defendant Mitchell was one of the responding officers and took Gallegos's statement, attached as Exhibit E to the City's Motion for Summary Judgment. Gallegos told Mitchell Olivas was drunk, had a knife, had threatened to kill her and her kids, and had run to the bathroom to get a razor blade to cut his wrists. Police arrested Olivas. Olivas had not cut his wrists, but one of the officers told Mitchell Olivas had cuts on his fingers. Mitchell investigated, but found only "little drops of blood" in the sink. Mitchell Dep. (Defs.' Br.Supp.Mot.Summ. J., Ex. C) at 23:2-15.

Mitchell did not believe Olivas presented a serious risk of harm to himself, and did not inform the other officers on the scene, including the officer who transported Olivas to the station, of Gallegos's statements regarding Olivas's threat to commit suicide. See id. at pp. 23-27; see Gavito Affid. (Defs.' Br. Supp.Mot.Summ. J., Ex. B) (transporting officer).

Upon arrival at the substation, Olivas's belt was taken from him and he was placed in a holding cell.³ A set of leg shackles⁴ was chained to the bars of the cell. It is undisputed that the leg shackles should have been removed from Olivas's cell. See Defs.' Reply at 2.⁵ Defendant Officer Guzman was in charge of maintaining the handcuffs and leg shackles at the substation on the date in question.

Miranda filed her initial complaint in state court on or about February 28, 1994, asserting a claim for negligence against the City and three individual police officers. She amended her complaint on July 7, 1994, changing her claim to one pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and naming the City, former Police Chief Collier and three John Does as defendants. Defendants removed the action to federal court on August 12, 1994. The case was given Civil Action No. 94-C-1884 and assigned to Judge Carrigan.

Miranda was permitted to file an amended complaint substituting Officer Mitchell for Officer John Doe A and naming only one other John Doe defendant on April 5, 1995. The City, Collier and Mitchell answered and filed the instant motions for summary judgment. Briefing on the motions was complete in June 1995. The case was transferred to me in October. Since then, Magistrate Judge Abram permitted Miranda to amend her complaint a third time to substitute the estate of Ricky Olivas for her as Plaintiff⁶ and to substitute Officer Guzman for the remaining Officer John Doe. See Order, No. 94-K-1884 (March 25, 1996) (accepting Plaintiff's Third Amended Civil Rights Complaint for filing). Together with the other Defendants, Officer Guzman filed her answer to the third amended complaint on April 4, 1996.

II. MERITS

To establish a claim under § 1983, a plaintiff must allege that a defendant acted under color of state law to deprive him of a right, privilege or immunity secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States. 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Custodial officials' "deliberate indifference" to a prisoner's "serious medical needs" has been deemed by the Supreme Court to deprive the prisoner of his rights under the Constitution's Eighth Amendment. Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 104, 97 S.Ct. 285, 291, 50 L.Ed.2d 251 (1976). While the Eighth Amendment does not apply to pretrial detainees such as Olivas, see Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 535, 99 S.Ct. 1861, 1871-72, 60 L.Ed.2d 447 (1979), the protections afforded convicted prisoners have been extended to them by operation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. E.g., Hocker v. Walsh, 22 F.3d 995, 998 (10th Cir.1994) (citing Frohmader v. Wayne, 958 F.2d 1024, 1028 (10th Cir.1992)).

Under appropriate circumstances, a pretrial detainee's suicide can give rise to a § 1983 violation as an infringement of the Due Process Clause. Hocker, 22 F.3d at 1000; see, e.g., Partridge v. Two Unknown Police Officers, 751 F.2d 1448 (5th Cir.1985); Colburn v. Upper Darby Township, 838 F.2d 663, 668 (3d Cir.1988), cert. denied, 489 U.S. 1065, 109 S.Ct. 1338, 103 L.Ed.2d 808 (1989), applied in Litz v. City of Allentown, 896 F.Supp. 1401, 1408 (E.D.Pa.1995). To establish deliberate indifference to a detainee's safety in a prisoner suicide case in this circuit, plaintiff must show

(1) `actual knowledge of the specific risk of harm to the detainee ... or that the risk was so substantial or pervasive that knowledge can be inferred;' (2) `failure to take reasonable measures to avert the harm;' and (3) that `failure to take such measures in light of the knowledge, actual or inferred, justifies liability for the attendant consequences of the conduct, even though unintended.'

Hocker, 22 F.3d at 1000 (quoting Berry v. City of Muskogee, 900 F.2d 1489, 1498 (10th Cir.1990) and citing Bowen v. City of Manchester, 966 F.2d 13, 17 (1st Cir.1992), Barber v. City of Salem, 953 F.2d 232, 239-40 (6th Cir.1992), Bell v. Stigers, 937 F.2d 1340, 1343-44 (8th Cir.1991), and Popham v. City of Talladega, 908 F.2d 1561, 1563-64 (11th Cir.1990)).

Defendants' initial argument is that the "deliberate indifference" standard in Hocker does not apply where, as here, plaintiff seeks to impose an affirmative duty on law enforcement officials to recognize a potential suicide risk and provide care to a prisoner where he would otherwise neither have sought nor received such care himself. According to Defendants, the issues raised more closely resemble those in DeShaney v. Winnebago County Dep't of Social Serv., 489 U.S. 189, 199-200, 109 S.Ct. 998, 1005-06, 103 L.Ed.2d 249 (1989), where the United States Supreme Court ruled there was no constitutional duty for the state affirmatively to protect a child from physical abuse by his father. Defendants argue that "because there was no indication that Olivas, or anyone acting on his behalf, was seeking or would have sought treatment for his alleged condition," Defendants "deprived him of nothing." Defs.' Br.Supp.Mot.Summ. J. at 9, 10.⁷

I find the argument circuitous, hinging on Defendants' assertion that neither Gallegos's statements nor Olivas's behavior gave Mitchell an "indication" that Olivas was suicidal. The question of whether Mitchell had "actual knowledge" that Olivas was suicidal, or was deliberately indifferent in deciding he was not, is one of fact and a fundamental and integral element of a § 1983 claim under Hocker. Because a reasonable juror could infer from the evidence presented that Mitchell had such knowledge, I find it is Hocker, and not DeShaney, that provides the appropriate analogy to this case.

Alternatively, Defendants seek summary judgment under the "deliberate indifference" standard on the following grounds: (1) there was no "strong sign of suicidal tendency" in this case such that defendants could be deemed deliberately indifferent to a "known, specific risk"; (2) Officer Mitchell's conduct in dismissing Olivas' threat of suicide did not "rise to the level of subjective, criminal recklessness" required for liability for cruel and unusual punishment under Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825, ___, 114 S.Ct. 1970, 1980, 128 L.Ed.2d 811 (1994); (3) there are no facts demonstrating deliberate indifference on the part of the City because there was no "widespread problem" of suicide that needed to be corrected; and (4) the individual defendants have qualified immunity from suit. The first ground falls with Defendants' DeShaney defense; Gallegos's statements, the blood in the sink and the fact Olivas had cuts on his fingers creates a triable issue on the question of whether there was a "strong sign of suicidal tendency" in this case. I consider Defendants' remaining grounds for relief seriatim.

A. The Individual Defendants

To support the claims of deliberate indifference against the individual Defendants, Miranda alleges Defendants did not take Olivas's threat seriously and failed to report it to other officers with whom...