Geisler v. La. State
| Decision Date | 08 September 2020 |
| Docket Number | CIVIL ACTION NO. 19-13658 SECTION "M"(2) |
| Parties | DRAKE JOSEPH GEISLER v. LOUISIANA STATE ET AL. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Louisiana |
This is a civil action brought by Drake Joseph Geisler ("Geisler") under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the State of Louisiana, the Terrebonne Parish Criminal Justice Complex, Sheriff Jerry Larpenter ("Larpenter"), Major Stephen Bergeron ("Bergeron"), Terrebonne Parish President Gordon Dove ("Dove") and Lieutenant T. Schwaush ("Schwaush").1 Geisler is currently incarcerated in the Claiborne Parish Detention Center in Homer, Louisiana. He filed his complaint pro se and in forma pauperis pursuant to § 1983 asserting claims arising solely from his period of incarceration in the Terrebonne Parish Criminal Justice Complex ("the Terrebonne jail") in Houma, Louisiana from August through December 2019.
In a partial dismissal order issued on April 21, 2020, U.S. District Judge Barry Ashe dismissed with prejudice the claims against defendants Dove, Terrebonne Parish Criminal Justice Complex and State of Louisiana. ECF No. 27. United States Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Wilkinson conducted a telephone conference in this matter on May 13, 2020. ECF No. 28.2 Participating in that conference were Geisler, pro se, and William Dodd, counsel for defendant Larpenter. Plaintiff was sworn and testified for all purposes permitted by Spears v. McCotter, 766 F.2d 179 (5th Cir. 1985), overruled on other grounds by Neitzke v. Williams, 490 U.S. 319 (1989), and its progeny. Following the Spears hearing, Judge Wilkinson ordered that the remainingdefendants file motions for summary judgment by July 7, 2020 and that Plaintiff file any response to such motions by August 6, 2020. ECF Nos. 30, 33. Defendants Larpenter, Bergeron and Schwausch filed a motion for summary judgment on June 30, 2020. ECF No. 34. Plaintiff has not filed any response to the motion for summary judgment.
Geisler alleges generally that, during his time in the Terrebonne jail, defendants "imposed a substantial burden" on his right to exercise his Messianic Jewish religion when they failed to provide him with a kosher diet. ECF No. 1, ¶ IV, at 5. In his statement of facts, Geisler states that he was "forced to defil[e] his conscience" daily in the Terrebonne jail by eating unclean and non-kosher food in the jail. ECF No. 14, at 3. He alleges that after he filed multiple written grievances with jail officials, he was informed that he would receive a kosher diet, but prison officials subsequently told him that "a kosher diet cannot be provided" at the facility. ECF No. 14, at 4. Geisler further complains that he was slandered on Facebook and in a local newspaper for filing the present lawsuit. Id. Geisler seeks monetary relief, a proper kosher diet and religious and mental health counseling. ECF No. 1, ¶ V, at 5.
During his Spears hearing, Geisler testified that he is 26 years old, quit school in the tenth grade, and earned his GED in prison. He was incarcerated in August 2019 after he violated his parole from a prior offense and was convicted of aggravated second-degree battery in December 2019. He was sentenced to two years in prison followed by 4.5 years of parole, and his release date is May 30, 2021. He was incarcerated at the Terrebonne Parish jail from approximately August 2019 through December 2019. His claims arise from his incarceration at that facility.
Geisler testified that he was denied his constitutional right to practice his Messianic Jewish religion when Terrebonne jail officials did not provide him with a kosher diet. Geisler testified that he was "born into" the Messianic Jewish faith on his father's side of the family. According to Geisler, Messianic Jews believe in God, believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, follow the Bible, engage solitary or group prayer, and attend synagogue and church services. He stated that unlike Christians, Messianic Jews have kosher dietary restrictions and focus more on the Bible's Old Testament teachings than those of the New Testament.
Geisler testified that between 2009 and 2016, he lived in Morgan City, Louisiana, and attended a synagogue in Lafayette, Louisiana. A rabbi presided over the services he attended at the Lafayette synagogue. Geisler testified that the Lafayette synagogue ultimately was shut down. He said that he could not remember the name of the synagogue or why it was shut down and that he would need to "look it up" or ask his mother to look up this information. Geisler testified that at one point, he went to the Lafayette synagogue every week, but later reduced his visits to once a month. When he was released from prison for a prior offense in 2018, he initially was religiously observant. He testified that when he was not incarcerated, he would go to synagogue on Wednesdays, church on Sundays, and would attend "prayer circles" on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He testified that between January and July 2019, he was not religiously observant because of his drug use.
Geisler testified that the Terrebonne jail offered no formal religious services. He stated that the only way for him to practice his Messianic Jewish faith at the Terrebonne jail was to read his Bible, pray by himself, or pray with other people in a prayer circle. He stated that he bought a Bible from the prison commissary for $25.
Geisler testified that, under the Messianic Jewish kosher diet, his food is supposed to be brought to him by a priest or a rabbi. He stated that it was acceptable for a priest to bring him food in prison because certain facilities do not have rabbis. Geisler stated that rabbis and priests are similar because "rabbi" means "teacher" and a priest is "a teacher of the Bible." Geisler described kosher food generally as "real food" that is clean, unprocessed, and cooked without pesticides. He stated that under his kosher diet he can eat fresh fruits and vegetables, beans and rice, bread made without yeast, beef, turkey, and fish, but cannot eat processed foods, shellfish, pork or food treated with additives, preservatives or pesticides. He stated a person can obtain "a packet-long list" of kosher foods from a doctor. In describing how kosher Jews define "processed" foods, plaintiff testified by way of example that he can eat "chicken on a bone" but not boneless chicken meat that has been processed through a machine and/or made into a patty.
Geisler testified that during his five-month incarceration at the Terrebonne jail, he ate "the same thing everybody else ate," including beans and rice, processed patties, foods treated with pesticides and pudding made with additives and preservatives. He stated that he was able to eat the beans and rice provided to him by the Terrebonne jail under his kosher diet. He said that the Terrebonne jail did not provide him with fresh fruit and vegetables and instead gave him steamed broccoli, carrots, and peas that he could not eat because they were cooked with pesticides. Geisler testified that he knew the steamed vegetables were cooked with pesticides because he worked in the kitchen as a trustee and saw that the vegetables "came out of a bag." He stated that other than the beans and rice, he could not eat any of the food provided by the Terrebonne jail under his kosher diet. He stated that he nonetheless ate the non-kosher food because "he had to eat" and "couldn't starve."
Geisler testified that he asked for a kosher diet from several jail employees, including the warden, deputies, kitchen workers, and nurse. He stated that he utilized the administrative grievance procedure at the Terrebonne jail to request a kosher diet. He said that he made his first formal request for a kosher diet with a prison lieutenant, who advised plaintiff that such a diet would be provided. Plaintiff stated that he was subsequently given a diabetic food tray, consisting of wheat bread, a "regular orange," the same pudding with additives and preservatives from his previous tray, and something that looked like the patty from his previous tray but was slightly different in substance and lacked gravy. He stated that he could eat the orange provided on the diabetic tray under his kosher diet. Geisler testified that he informed prison officials that a diabetic diet was not synonymous with a kosher diet and made a second formal request for a kosher diet to a prison lieutenant. He testified that the lieutenant denied his request, stating that such a diet could not be provided by the Terrebonne jail. He testified that he appealed the denial to the warden. According to Geisler, the warden denied his appeal, and his appeal ended there.
Geisler testified that he bought several non-kosher items from the commissary at the Terrebonne jail, including sausage, hot and spicy chili, chicken ramen noodles, peanut butter, cocoa mix, pork skins, honey buns, French pastries, chicken tortilla soup, blueberry tarts and jolly ranchers. Geisler testified that the only non-kosher items he consumed from his commissary purchases were a soup or two a day and maybe some noodles and that the remaining non-kosher items he purchased from the commissary were used to "pay" for his unauthorized tattoos at the Terrebonne jail. He said that the commissary soups were "more kosher than the food they fed [him]" from the prison kitchen. He testified that the food from the commissary was in packages and conceded these items were processed food. He stated that he "had to eat something" and that the Terrebonne jail "didn't have much kosher on commissary." Geisler testified that he sufferedno physical injuries as a result of not receiving a kosher diet but did suffer injuries to his "conscience" and "beliefs" based on the violation of his constitutional right to practice his Messianic Jewish religion.
Geisler testified that an attorney for defendants slandered him in the newspaper after he filed the present...
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