Estate of Sisk v. Manzanares

• Decision Date: 23 June 2003
• Docket Number: No. 00-4088-JPO.,00-4088-JPO.
• Citation: 270 F.Supp.2d 1265
• Parties: The ESTATE OF Scotty Ray SISK, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Joel MANZANARES, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Kansas

270 F.Supp.2d 1265

The ESTATE OF Scotty Ray SISK, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Joel MANZANARES, et al., Defendants.

No. 00-4088-JPO.

United States District Court, D. Kansas.

June 23, 2003.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Lee R. Barnett, Keith E. Renner, Barnett & Renner, PA, Auburn, KS, Kenneth D. Winford, Tenth Judicial District Public Defender, Olathe, KS, for Plaintiffs.

Craig C. Blumreich, William A. Larson, Gehrt & Roberts, Chartered, Timothy A. Shultz, Parker & Hay, LLP, Topeka, KS, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

O'HARA, United States Magistrate Judge.

I. Introduction.

This action arises from the suicide of Scotty Ray Sisk ("Sisk") while he was incarcerated at the Shawnee County Department of Corrections ("the DOC") in Topeka, Kansas. The plaintiffs, Sisk's estate and his survivors, asserted claims pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that various employees of the DOC violated Sisk's Eighth Amendment rights by being deliberately indifferent to his medical needs. Plaintiffs also asserted negligence claims under Kansas law.

The jury trial of this case began on April 14, 2003. On April 22, 2003, the jury returned a verdict in favor of defendants Joel Manzanares, Ryan Redd, and Andrew Johnson on plaintiffs' § 1983 claims, and against Manzanares, Redd, Johnson, and defendant Russell Green on plaintiffs' negligence claims.¹ The jury awarded Sisk's survivors, who are his parents, Dan and Sharon Sisk ("the Sisks"), $2,000 for funeral expenses and $10 million for noneconomic damages.²

The parties, principally the plaintiffs, have filed numerous post-trial motions (docs. 172, 174, 178, 180, 181, 182, 183, and 189). The court, having carefully reviewed those motions, the memoranda in support, the response and reply briefs, and the partial transcripts of the case, now is prepared to rule. As explained below, the court will grant defendants' motion to alter or amend the judgment by reducing the amount of the judgment from $10,002,000 to $252,000, based on the applicable Kansas statutory wrongful death "caps" on damage awards. All other post-trial motions will be denied.

II. Factual Background.

Sisk was incarcerated at the DOC on July 2, 1999, to serve a one-year sentence for violating a restraining order. A few days later, on July 6, 1999, his mother, Sharon Sisk, became concerned that her son was suicidal, believing that he had written a suicide note. Mrs. Sisk immediately called defendant Manzanares, a sergeant with the DOC who was the secondshift supervisor that day and who was also the DOC's suicide prevention training coordinator. Mrs. Sisk advised Manzanares of her concerns. Manzanares assured Mrs. Sisk that the DOC had a "state-of-the-art" facility and that nothing would happen to her son.

Manzanares promptly directed one of the DOC corrections officers under his authority to look for a suicide note in Sisk's cell. Such a note was found. Manzanares then interviewed Sisk and determined that he was, in fact, suicidal.³ Manzanares ordered corrections officers to move Sisk from his general population jail cell to a "hard lockdown" cell in the DOC's medical module and to give him a mattress and a blanket. Manzanares, as part of placing Sisk on suicide watch, put Sisk's name on a list for a psychiatric evaluation at the next available opportunity. Pursuant to the DOC's standard operating procedures then in effect,⁴ Sisk was also dressed in paper clothing specially designed to tear so that it could not be used as an aid to commit suicide.

The DOC's written suicide prevention procedures called for suicidal inmates to be placed in "protrusion-free" rooms. There are two types of rooms in the DOC's medical module that are arguably protrusion free. One type is known as a "rubber room," which has walls, ceilings, and floors that have been treated with rubber coating. The rubber rooms do not contain any fixtures on the walls, such as bathroom equipment or hooks, or any other protrusions that an inmate could use as an anchor a hanging device. The other type of "protrusion free" cell at the DOC is called a "hard lockdown" room. It is similar in its dimensions to a rubber room except that it is constructed of concrete or cinder block walls. Both types of cells have a concrete floor and a square hole in the floor for inmate urination and defecation. On July 6, 1999, the DOC's written procedures did not distinguish between rubber rooms and hard lockdown rooms.

Manzanares testified that he considered both rubber rooms and hard lockdown rooms to be protrusion-free. However, some corrections officers testified they were trained and/or that it was the practice within the DOC to place suicidal inmates in rubber rooms, and in hard lockdown rooms only if rubber rooms were unavailable. Manzanares did not attempt to determine whether a rubber room was available for Sisk on July 6, 1999. It was undisputed, however, that none of the rubber rooms actually were in use that evening.

The hard lockdown cell in which Manzanares ordered Sisk to be placed had a metal plate attached to the wall just to the left of the door.⁵ The plate was shaped like an electrical light-switch-plate cover with a slit in the center, but no switch protruded from the slit. The plate served to cover the cell's thermostat. By comparison, no such switch-plate covers were attached to the walls in the rubber rooms.

The DOC's written procedures also called for a suicidal inmate to be given, whenever possible, a blanket. Regardless of the written policy, however, some corrections officers at the DOC testified that they were trained and/or that it was the practice within the DOC to give suicidal inmates a blanket only if the blanket was a specially manufactured suicide preventative blanket. Such blankets had been available in the corrections industry in general and at the DOC at various times prior to July 6, 1999. But, the DOC did not maintain a consistent supply of these special blankets. One time, the DOC had purchased paper shrouds for suicidal inmates to use as a blanket substitute.⁶

By July 6, 1999, the DOC had been out of the suicide preventative blankets for quite some time. In fact, it had become an issue at the DOC. Corrections officer Mary Ellen Brown testified at trial via deposition that most of the corrections officers wanted clarification regarding the correct procedure with regard to blankets for suicidal inmates. She stated that the corrections officers knew that suicidal inmates needed suicide blankets, but the DOC had been out of the blankets and supervisors had been told that they needed to be ordered. Some supervisors would instruct the corrections officers to just leave suicidal inmates in their cells without a blanket, while others would tell the officers to go ahead and give the suicidal inmates the DOC's standard-issue woolen blankets. These regular prison blankets are very thick and thus difficult to tear, but it is uncontroverted that Sisk succeeded in tearing his blanket. In any event, Manzanares was aware of the fact that the DOC did not have any suicide preventative blankets in stock the evening of July 6, 1999.

The evening of July 6, 1999, soon after Manzanares interviewed Sisk, officer Brown delivered Sisk's personal belongings to the medical module. At that time, she did a quick "health and well-being check" on Sisk. Brown had two significant concerns: (1) Sisk was in a hard lockdown room instead of a rubber room; and (2) Sisk had been given a standard-issue woolen blanket rather than a suicide preventative blanket. Brown pointedly expressed her concerns to Manzanares, who told her "to just leave everything alone. He'd [Sisk] be all right." ⁷

At approximately 10:00 p.m., Manzanares went home as scheduled at the end of the second shift. At that time, defendants Redd and Johnson came on duty as corrections officers responsible for patrolling the medical module during the third shift.

The DOC's written procedures mandated periodic checks on suicidal inmates:

The inmate will be checked on video monitor at least every fifteen (15) minutes. An "Inmate Health and Well Being" checklist will be initialed and signed by the shift supervisor. At least once every thirty (30) minutes a notation will be made as to what the subject is doing. This entry should be dated, timed and initialed by the reporting officer.

As part of the third shift briefing on the evening of July 6, 1999, both Redd and Johnson were advised that Sisk was a suicidal inmate in the medical module. Both testified that they conducted the fifteenminute health and well being checks by visually checking Sisk approximately every fifteen minutes.

Redd made all of the notations on Sisk's health and well-being checklist. This log states that checks were conducted at 10:30 p.m., 10:45 p.m., 11:00 p.m., 11:15 p.m., and 11:30 p.m. Redd's badge number (# 932), but not Johnson's badge number (# 984), is listed next to the 10:30 p.m., 10:45 p.m., and 11:00 p.m. entries. Both badge numbers are listed next to the 11:15 p.m. and the 11:30 p.m. entries. Redd testified that it was possible he may have made the 11:30 p.m. entry and/or corrected a mistake on the 11:15 p.m. entry approximately one hour after he actually made those checks. However, one witness testified that, when she looked at the log sheet laid out at the officers' work station during the evening in question, she observed no entries on Sisk's health and well-being checklist after "Jake" (the second-shift corrections officer) made his last entry at 10:13 p.m.

There was testimony at trial that corrections officers occasionally missed the fifteen-minute health and well being checks of suicidal inmates. When that occurred, it was common practice to leave a blank space so the officer who missed the check could go back and write it in on the checklist. That is, the health and well-being log sheets were occasionally filled in after the fact.

As noted above, the DOC's written procedures required suicidal inmates to be...