Gonzales v. Martinez

• Decision Date: 14 April 2005
• Docket Number: No. 03-1348.,03-1348.
• Parties: Tereza GONZALES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Robert MARTINEZ; Dominick Gonzales; John Salazar, as the Sheriff of Huerfano County, Colorado; Huerfano County, Colorado, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

403 F.3d 1179

Tereza GONZALES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Robert MARTINEZ; Dominick Gonzales; John Salazar, as the Sheriff of Huerfano County, Colorado; Huerfano County, Colorado, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 03-1348.

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

April 14, 2005.

Raphael M. Solot, (Darol C. Biddle, Pueblo, Colorado with him on the briefs), Denver, CO, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

David R. Brougham, Hall & Evans, Denver, CO, for Defendants-Appellees.

Before SEYMOUR, PORFILIO, and HARTZ, Circuit Judges.

PORFILIO, Senior Circuit Judge.

In Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825, 847, 114 S.Ct. 1970, 128 L.Ed.2d 811 (1994), the Court decided "a prison official may be held liable under the Eighth Amendment for denying humane conditions of confinement only if he knows that inmates face a substantial risk of serious harm and disregards that risk by failing to take reasonable measures to abate it." In this case, the district court concluded plaintiff failed to meet her burden of establishing a constitutional violation by presenting evidence jail officials knew of the substantial risk of physical harm to prisoners in their facility and failed to take reasonable measures to prevent its recurrence. Concluding the record indicates the contrary, we reverse.

I. Background

On the afternoon of October 13, 1998, Robert Martinez (Major Bob), the administrator of the Huerfano County Jail in Walsenburg, Colorado,¹ escorted inmate Tereza Gonzales² to the Jail commissary after she requested a comb. Inside the small room, Major Bob used his knife to open a package of combs and then, with the knife in his hand, blade open, told Ms. Gonzales, "Once you're in this room, you belong to me." Major Bob sexually assaulted her. On the same afternoon, Amanda Guel,³ another inmate, was summoned to the control room by Dominick Gonzales,⁴ the senior detention officer, who sexually assaulted her.

That evening, both women handed written statements describing the assaults to two detention officers who called Huerfano County Sheriff John Salazar. Sheriff Salazar then went to the jail and instructed the officers on duty to tell Ms. Guel and Ms. Gonzales he had been notified and would speak to them the next morning.

Instead, Sheriff Salazar transported Ms. Gonzales to another of her court appearances and learned she had written a second report on the sexual assault, which she did not give him. Sheriff Salazar told her to give the statement to her public defender.

Shortly after her return to the women's pod at the Jail, however, Major Bob, speaking over the intercom, summoned Ms. Gonzales to the control room.⁵ There, Major Bob grabbed her arm and stated, "Let's start off where we left off yesterday." Ms. Gonzales told Major Bob "it was bad," but he "pressed his body" against hers and tried to kiss her, before she "pushed [him] away and went back to the pod." During the encounter, she stated he did not "have anything unzipped."

Although he did not speak with Ms. Gonzales until after the second encounter with Major Bob and another of her court appearances on October 14th, Sheriff Salazar did interview Ms. Guel around 1:00 p.m. that day. Later, he met with Ms. Gonzales and her public defender, who, along with a Deputy District Attorney, instructed her to remain silent.

Soon after, the District Attorney called Sheriff Salazar and told him to release Ms. Guel and Ms. Gonzales immediately. That same afternoon, one of the District Attorney's investigators arrived at the Jail. Following her investigation, Major Bob and Dominick were suspended and later charged with and convicted of the assaults.

Ms. Gonzales filed this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging "there were other incidents of sexual assault at the Huerfano County Jail involving Martinez, Gonzales and/or others of which Salazar and Martinez were aware, and that Salazar and Martinez failed to take those steps necessary to assure the safety of the plaintiff." As defendants, she named Sheriff Salazar,⁶ Huerfano County,⁷ Martinez, and Dominick Gonzales. Ms. Gonzales alleged defendants knew of the danger Major Bob and Dominick posed and failed to protect her in violation of her Eighth Amendment rights.⁸ Ms. Gonzales also alleged Huerfano County owed a duty to employ competent law enforcement officers and to supervise their conduct to prevent violations of prisoners' civil rights.

Sheriff Salazar and Huerfano County moved for summary judgment alleging the undisputed facts sustained no constitutional violation and the doctrine of qualified immunity barred any such claim against Sheriff Salazar. The Magistrate Judge recommended granting the motion.

In an oral order from the bench, the district court embraced the Magistrate Judge's order in its entirety, holding that while the sexual assaults were undisputed, Sheriff Salazar's failure to prevent harm to Ms. Gonzales did not amount to deliberate indifference. In response to prior incidents of sexual misconduct and violence at the Jail, the court summarily concluded without citing any specific evidence, "Sheriff Salazar took appropriate remedial measures at the time" but observed, Sheriff Salazar "was unable to do anything" after the October 13th sexual assaults because Ms. Gonzales "refused to discuss the matter with him on one occasion ... on two occasions." Ms. Gonzales seeks de novo review of that judgment.

II. Prior Incidents Establishing Notice

To meet the Farmer test that Sheriff Salazar knew of and disregarded "an excessive risk to inmate health and safety," 511 U.S. at 837, 114 S.Ct. 1970, Ms. Gonzales presented a series of incidents both preceding and following her assault to establish a genuine issue of material fact that the sheriff was both "aware of facts from which the inference could be drawn that a substantial risk of serious harm exists, and [] must also draw the inference." Id. Under this test, "an Eighth Amendment claimant need not show that a prison official acted or failed to act believing that harm actually would befall an inmate; it is enough that the official acted or failed to act despite his knowledge of a substantial risk of serious harm." Id. at 842, 114 S.Ct. 1970 (emphasis added). "Whether a prison official had the requisite knowledge of a substantial risk is a question of fact subject to demonstration in the usual ways, including inference from circumstantial evidence." Id. (emphasis added). To meet this test, Ms. Gonzales presented a series of incidents at the Jail, which, she contends, cumulatively establishes Sheriff Salazar failed to protect her "despite his knowledge of a substantial risk of harm." Id.

First, Ms. Gonzales presented evidence, including Sheriff Salazar's testimony, he had not conducted any employee performance evaluations since 1994, only occasionally visited the jail, and left the investigation of all problems at the jail to his designee, Sergeant Paul Zudar. Second, given this supervisory style, Ms. Gonzales set out a series of specific incidents which occurred from August 1997 to October 1997.

Explaining his response to those events, Sheriff Salazar stated although Major Bob, the Jail Administrator, "was concerned about the allegations, [ ] he didn't want to take the step forward to investigate, so I assigned a Sergeant Mike⁹ Zudar." In one incident on August 7, 1997, inmate Brent Maldonado alleged he was beaten up in C-pod by fellow inmates who were drinking vodka; Dominick was in the control room and failed to respond to his screams.¹⁰ On August 10, 1997, Detention Officer Ruiz filed an incident report stating he saw inmates from C-pod sitting in the control room. He noted some inmates had bloodshot eyes and appeared to know how to run the controls and "bragged about knowing how to run the controls." The inmates remained in the control room for several hours before returning to their pod. He stated, "I overlooked the situation because I was new to the job and did not know what to do."

On October 14, 1997, Sergeant Montoya, a female deputy, received a report that Dominick entered the women's pod and exposed himself to inmates. Documenting their complaints about the event, inmates Rebecca Flecksteiner¹¹ and Josette Montez separately wrote statements describing a setting of lax security in which Dominick would call female inmates to the meds room and taunt them over the intercom operated in the control room to "show us your tits." Under his control, Ms. Flecksteiner complained Dominick rewarded female inmates for participating or punished them for objecting.¹² Asked about these reports, Sheriff Salazar stated he did not believe them: "[t]he majority of the inmates that we have in our facility would conjure up and work with other inmates to disbelieve — or discredit one officer, because they are strict on rules." When the matter was referred for investigation, Sergeant Zudar testified he directly questioned Dominick about the report and credited his direct eye contact and calm over the inmates' reports. No discipline followed.

Sometime in 1997, Stella Noga,¹³ who had served time at the Jail, met with Huerfano County Commissioner Charles Montoya at his office and complained of sexual and drug-related activities at the Jail, as well as her inability to get her prescription drugs. Commissioner Montoya testified he met with Sheriff Salazar who "thought maybe it was a personal vendetta, or to that effect. Because Stella was kind of — I don't know how you would describe her, but I think kind of an arrogant little girl. And she did occasionally cause problems, or whatever." Commissioner Montoya explained Ms. Noga's brother, Miguel Duran,¹⁴ is married to his daughter, and he stated, "I know she was a troublemaker."

On October 16, 1997, police officers in Pueblo, Colorado, arrested Dominick, who was hostile and combative after being removed from a local bar for harassing female dancers. Finally restrained with pepper spray, Dominick told officers he was a "cop in Walsenburg" and...