Gaston v. Coughlin

• Decision Date: 01 August 2000
• Docket Number: Docket No. 98-2943,DEFENDANTS-APPELLEES,PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT
• Citation: 249 F.3d 156
• Parties: (2nd Cir. 2001) KENNETH GASTON,, v. THOMAS A. COUGHLIN, III; DONALD SELSKY; LT. GRANT; LEBARON, LT.; HANS WALKER; FRANK IRVIN; EDWARD DANN; JOHN DOE, CONFIDENTIAL INFORMANT,
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

Page 156

249 F.3d 156 (2nd Cir. 2001)

KENNETH GASTON, PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT, v. THOMAS A. COUGHLIN, III; DONALD SELSKY; LT. GRANT; LEBARON, LT.; HANS WALKER; FRANK IRVIN; EDWARD DANN; JOHN DOE, CONFIDENTIAL INFORMANT, DEFENDANTS-APPELLEES.

Docket No. 98-2943

August Term, 2000

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT

Argued December 4, 2000

May 7, 2001

Appeal from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Western District of New York, David G. Larimer, Chief Judge, dismissing claims of due process violations during disciplinary hearings and Eighth Amendment violations in prison conditions.

Affirmed in part, vacated and remanded in part.

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Tim O'Neal Lorah, New York, New York (Daniel J. Kramer, Schulte Roth & Zabel, New York, New York, on the brief) for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Marcus J. Mastracco, Assistant Solicitor General, Albany, New York (Eliot Spitzer, Attorney General of the State of New York, Nancy A. Spiegel, Assistant Solicitor General, Peter H. Schiff, Senior Counsel, on the brief) for Defendants- Appellees.

Before: Kearse, Winter, and McLAUGHLIN, Circuit Judges.

Kearse, Circuit Judge

Plaintiff Kenneth L. Gaston, a New York State ("State") prisoner, appeals from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Western District of New York, David G. Larimer, Chief Judge, dismissing his complaint brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (1994), alleging principally (1) that various officials and employees of the State's Department of Correctional Services ("DOCS") violated his due process rights by sentencing him to a two-year (later reduced to one-year) period of confinement in punitive segregation on the basis of an unreliable hearsay statement of an undisclosed informant, and (2) that the conditions in which he was confined were frigid and unsanitary, in violation of his Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. The district court granted summary judgment dismissing the complaint on the principal grounds (1) that the evidence presented at Gaston's ultimate disciplinary hearing was not so insubstantial as to make his conviction a violation of due process, and (2) that the conditions of his confinement were not so severe as to constitute cruel and unusual punishment. The court also found the due process claims dismissable on the ground of qualified immunity and found the Eighth Amendment claims flawed for lack of any allegation of personal involvement of the named defendants in that alleged violation. Gaston challenges these rulings on appeal. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the dismissal of the due process claims, but we vacate and remand with respect to the Eighth Amendment claims as to two defendants.

I. BACKGROUND

In May 1990, Gaston was a prisoner at the State's Auburn Correctional Facility ("Auburn"), and was vice president of the Inmate Liaison Committee ("ILC"). Defendant Hans Walker was Superintendent of Auburn; defendant Frank Irvin was Auburn's First Deputy Superintendent; defendant Edward Dann was its Deputy Superintendent for Security. For purposes of this appeal, the facts are not substantially in dispute.

On May 19, a group of prisoners at Auburn staged a food strike, refusing to eat lunch and dinner in two of the mess halls. Irvin and Dann promptly met with ILC members, including Gaston, all of whom denied any involvement in the incidents. Gaston stated that he had been in his cell during the food strike, had not been involved, and had no personal knowledge as to its organization or execution. Irvin asked the ILC members attending the meeting to help determine the reasons for the boycott by canvassing the inmate population.

Shortly after the meeting, a confidential informant reported to Irvin that the ILC, and specifically Gaston, had in fact organized the boycott. Based on that information, Dann prepared a misbehavior report dated May 21, 1991 (the "Report"), charging Gaston with violation of DOCS Rule 104.12, which states that "[i]nmates shall not lead, organize, participate, or urge other inmates to participate, in work-stoppages, sit-ins, lock-ins, or other actions which may be detrimental to the order of the facility." 7 N.Y.C.R.R. § 270.2. On May 21 Gaston was transferred to the Attica Correctional Facility ("Attica"), where he was placed in segregated confinement in the Special Housing Unit ("SHU"). He was served with the Report on May 23.

Based on the Report, a disciplinary hearing was held on May 25 and 31, 1990, presided over by defendant Donald LeBaron, a DOCS lieutenant at Attica. Gaston requested, inter alia, a copy of the confidential information on which the Report was based; his requests were denied. At the close of the hearing, at which only Gaston testified, LeBaron found Gaston guilty, stating that the evidence relied on was "[t]he written report by Deputy Superintendent of Security Dann and the confidential information that I have been given that directly involves you and states that you were the organizer of the demonstration that took place in the messhall [sic] on 5/19/90." (Hearing Transcript, May 31, 1990, at 13.) LeBaron sentenced Gaston to 730 days of confinement in SHU, retroactive to May 21.

Gaston filed an administrative appeal. On August 8, 1990, defendant Donald Selsky, DOC's Director of Special Housing/Inmate Disciplinary Programs, reversed on the ground that LeBaron had failed to conduct an independent assessment of the reliability of the confidential informant.

On August 20, 1990, Gaston was again served with the Report and was scheduled for a second hearing, this one to be presided over by defendant Leroy Grant, a DOCS lieutenant at Attica. Gaston requested that Irvin, Dann, and three prisoners be called as witnesses, and he asked for copies of the confidential information, the videotape of the mess hall incidents, any incident report filed with respect to the strike, and the mess hall attendance sheets. Grant called Irvin and Dann as witnesses, along with two of the prisoners Gaston requested, declining to call the third prisoner on the ground that his testimony would be irrelevant. Grant denied Gaston's request for documents and the mess hall videotape; but Grant himself eventually viewed the tape and made the finding that it did not clearly show Gaston personally participating in the strike.

The second disciplinary hearing was held on August 24 and 31, 1990. Part of it was conducted in the presence of Gaston, with some of the witnesses testifying by telephone; some of the testimony on August 24 was given outside of Gaston's presence and was sealed. (Except to the extent described or quoted herein, that transcript remains sealed.) With Gaston in attendance, Irvin testified that about a half-hour after the May 19 meeting at which information on the strike was sought from ILC members, the confidential informant told Irvin that the strike had been organized by several ILC members including Gaston. Irvin stated that the reliability of this confidential informant had been proven through "various administrative sources." (Open Hearing Transcript, August 31, 1990 ("August 31 Open Tr."), at 13.) Dann testified that his Report had been based on the information given by the confidential informant to Irvin and relayed by Irvin to Dann.

In the confidential part of the hearing, to which Gaston was not privy, Grant received testimony from Irvin and Walker. Irvin identified the confidential informant by name (hereafter "CI") and testified to the details of their conversation:

[CI] told me that [] there was a conspiracy [] involving [] some of the members of the ILC . . . to [] start this [] demonstration. . . . [T]hey had prepared [] directions on a written [] piece of paper and passed it out to most of the inmate population [] slowdown in the messhall [sic]. [H]e identified inmate [] Gaston [along with one other inmate named by Irvin and another unnamed by Irvin, as] the ring leaders. [] I asked him why he [] decided to come forth and give me that information and he says . . . it was ridiculous, that [sic] for them to sit up and lie . . . . and say they didn't know anything about it.

(Confidential Transcript dated August 24, 1990 ("Conf. Tr."), at 1-2 ("[]" = "uh" in original).) Irvin also testified that the informant said he was not seeking any special treatment from prison officials in return for his information. Irvin stated that he had proceeded to check on the informant's reliability. He testified that

[CI] further indicated that in the past he had given information to Superintendent Walker . . . and that [] occasionally he did come forth with information to the administration when it appeared that it would disrupt activities in the facility. I confirmed this with Superintendent Walker and he [] he did say that [CI] had given him information when he was Security Dep. at Attica, that turned out to be accurate. . . .

Grant: [] [H]e in other words he said that the information that [CI] had gave [sic] was almost always reliable or was always reliable?

Irving [sic]: He indicated that the information that [CI] had given him at Attica on occasion had been accurate and reliable.

(Conf. Tr. at 2 ("[]" = "uh" in original).)

Walker likewise testified that he had been contacted by Irvin on May 19 with respect to the informant's reliability. Walker confirmed that he had previously received from the informant information that had proven reliable:

[Irvin] indicated that . . . an inmate by the name of [CI] gave him some information on who was supposedly behind the demonstration that we had here at Auburn. [] [T]he inmate that gave him the information was an inmate by the name of [CI] who I was familiar with from [] mostly from Attica when I used to work there and [] that . . . inmate [CI] indicated to [Irvin] . . . that he had given me information before in the past when he was at Attica and I was aware of him and I indicated to Mr. Irving [sic] yes he had given...