Inesti v. Hicks
| Decision Date | 22 June 2012 |
| Docket Number | 11 Civ. 2596 (PAC) (AJP) |
| Parties | MARK INESTI, Plaintiff, v. JAMES HICKS, Acting Clinical Dir; MICHAEL HOGAN, Ph D; STEVEN RABINOWITZ, Dir. of Kirby and (MPC); MICHAEL KUNZ, of Clinical Services; TOM TUZEL, M.D.; LUCY BORGES-SMITH, Acting Counsler (MPC); DUNBAR, Capt. at GRVC; PRESSELEY, Capt. at GRVC & GAREEN HAMILIAN, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York |
REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION
Pro se plaintiff Mark Inesti (a/k/a Hector Ortiz) brings this § 1983 action alleging violations of his federal constitutional rights by New York City and New York State officials. Inesti raises claims against two correction Captains, Sherma Dunbar and Anna Pressley ("City defendants"), arising out of alleged conditions of his confinement and failure to treat his mental illness while he was held in the George R. Vierno Center ("GRVC"), a facility operated by the New York City Department of Correction ("DOC") on Rikers Island. (Dkt. No. 38: 2d Am. Compl. ¶¶ 5-6, 16-40, 79-84, 86, 90-92, 94-96, 104-05, 138, 143-44.)1 Inesti also raises claims against defendants James Hicks, Michael Hogan, Steven Rabinowitz, Michael Kunz, Tom Tuzel, LucyBorges-Smith and Gareen Hamilian ("State defendants"), arising from his treatment in the Manhattan Psychiatric Center ("MPC") and the Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center ("Kirby"), facilities operated by the New York State Office of Mental Health on Wards Island. (2d Am. Compl. ¶¶ 3-4, 7-11, 41-74, 81, 85-89, 106-37, 139-40, 142-44.) Presently before the Court are defendants' motions to dismiss. (Dkt. Nos. 40, 42.) For the reasons stated below, defendants' motions to dismiss should be GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART.
Inesti's allegations begin with him being examined, diagnosed with "schizoaffective one disorder" and prescribed medication while detained at Rikers Island on an unspecified date. (Dkt. No. 38: Compl. ¶¶ 12, 37.)2 Inesti alleges that because of and despite his mental illness, he was given a misbehavior report, a disciplinary hearing was conducted and he was sentenced to ninety-days in the GRVC's special housing unit ("SHU"). (Compl. ¶¶ 13-19, 30-31.) Inesti alleges that during that period, he was locked in his cell for twenty-four hours a day, was not allowed to shower, and while Captains Sherma Dunbar and Anna Pressley were on duty, was denied meals by correction staff. (Compl. ¶¶ 15-16.) Inesti alleges that he complained about these conditions, but his requests for meals, out-of-cell recreation time and a shower were denied. (Compl. ¶ 17.) Inesti alleges that while Captains Dunbar and Pressley were on duty, there was constant flooding of toilets and "banging" where he was held. (Compl. ¶¶ 21, 34.) Inesti alleges that he began "hearing voices"and would bang on his cell door "to dispel[] demonic activity" while asking for mental health treatment and to be taken out of his cell. (Compl. ¶ 22.) Although Inesti's legs and ankles swelled as a result of his banging on his cell door, he received no medical treatment or medication for the associated pain. (Compl. ¶ 25.) Inesti alleges that Captain Pressley came to his cell and told him, "'I run this shit,'" and "'You['re] never going to eat.'" (Compl. ¶ 23.) Captain Dunbar ordered correction officers to perform strip searches on Inesti daily without justification, but no contraband was found. (Compl. ¶ 24.) Inesti was held in a "strip cell" without sheets, towels, hygiene products, writing materials or other personal property. (Compl. ¶ 26.) Inesti appears to allege that Captains Dunbar and Pressley ordered correction staff to shut off the water supply in the SHU to deter SHU prisoners from causing toilets to flood or punish them for banging on their cell doors. (Compl. ¶ 36.) At the end of Inesti's ninety-day SHU sentence, he was transferred to the MPC and Kirby. (Compl. ¶ 40.)
Insesti was brought to the MPC by a court order. (Dkt. No. 38: Compl. ¶ 41.) At the MPC, Inesti was diagnosed with "schizoaffective one disorder," a diagnosis that he was given previously while held in Kirby; he does not indicate when and under what circumstances he had been brought to Kirby. (Compl. ¶ 43). While at the MPC, Inesti was prescribed the medications Risperdol and Colozapean. (Compl. ¶ 42.) Inesti was placed in a "Stair Residential" in-patient program for twenty-four months, but he verbally objected to this treatment to Steven Rabinowitz, the director of the MPC and Kirby. (Compl. ¶¶ 3, 45-46.) Inesti requested a transfer to a "transitional unit," but instead he was transferred to a housing area within the MPC for "violent assaultive" patients who received electroshock therapy or injections due to their behavior. (Compl. ¶¶ 47-49.) Inesti received injections due to his confrontations with MPC staff. (Compl. ¶ 50.) After being injected with a sedative, Inesti lost control of his torso and legs, was left in a room without a bed and had to sleep on the floor. (Compl. ¶¶ 51-52.) Because Inesti could not control his torso or legs, he urinated on himself. (Compl. ¶ 53.) Inesti alleges that MPC and Kirby staff give such injections as a means to discipline disruptive patients. (Compl. ¶ 54.) Throughout Inesti's time at the MPC, he made written complaints to Rabinowitz about his treatment by staff. (Compl. ¶¶ 44, 55.)
Inesti was transferred to a "transitional service unit" within the MPC, but while there, he refused to take his medication and became delusional, believing that the staff were giving him "poison pills." (Compl. ¶¶ 55-59.) As a result of Inesti's delusions, he struck a nurse. (Compl. ¶ 60.) Lucy Borges-Smith, the MPC's acting counselor, called for an ambulance that took Inesti from the MPC to the Bellevue Hospital Center. (Compl. ¶¶ 11, 61-62.) Inesti alleges that Borges-Smith failed to inform the EMTs of Inesti's mental health status and medications or provide them with appropriate medical records. (Compl. ¶¶ 63-64.) Inesti was released from Bellevue without any mental health treatment or medications and was allowed to wander the streets of New York City in a delusional state until he returned to the MPC. (Compl. ¶¶ 66-68.)
When Inesti arrived at the MPC, Borges-Smith had him arrested on assault charges and he was brought to a Rikers Island facility. (Compl. ¶ 69.) At that facility, Inesti received mental health treatment and medication, but after a court hearing he was released from DOC custody without further treatment or medication. (Compl. ¶¶ 71-72.) Inesti again wandered the streets of New York City until he returned to the MPC. (Compl. ¶ 73.) Inesti alleges a "revolving door" cycle between 2006 and 2008 in which he was arrested and brought to a Rikers Island facility where he was either treated or not treated, then released until he returned to the MPC, where he was either treated or not treated, then arrested and taken back to a Rikers Island facility. (Compl.¶¶ 75-98.)
On August 8, 2008, while released, Inesti suffered a delusion in which he believed that people were trying to kill him and steal real property that he had inherited. (Compl. ¶ 100.) Inesti was arrested as a result of acts committed while delusional and was ordered by a court to be examined at Bellevue. (Compl. ¶¶ 101-02.) At Bellevue, Inesti struck an officer and was injected with medication. (Compl. ¶ 103.) From August 8, 2008 to November 21, 2008, Inesti was housed in a GRVC mental health SHU housing area, and Captains Dunbar and Pressley denied him food, clothing, recreation time, showers and mental health treatment. (Compl. ¶ 104-05.) Inesti was found not fit to proceed in a criminal trial and, on November 21, 2008, was transferred to Kirby. (Compl. ¶ 106.)
Kirby physician Dr. Tom Tuzel prescribed the medication Risperodol for Inesti. (Compl. ¶¶ 9, 107.) Dr. Gareen Hamilian, acting clinical director James Hicks, and director of clinical services Michael Kunz all interviewed Inesti and diagnosed him as suffering from "schitzoeffective one disorder." (Compl. ¶¶ 7-8, 10, 108.) Inesti struck a Kirby staff member while suffering a delusion, believing that the staff member "was part of a team to[] kill him and steal his home." (Compl. ¶ 112.) Dr. Tuzel ordered Inesti injected with a sedative to stabilize him. (Compl. ¶ 113.) Dr. Tuzel also ordered Inesti injected with "psycotropic medication [sic]" on multiple occasions. (Compl. ¶ 122.) Inesti states that he never consented to any injections he received at Kirby, and that Kirby staff would restrain him when he was given "psychtropic medication." (Compl. ¶¶ 120, 123-26.) Inesti further alleges that he was strip searched by unknown Kirby employees. (Compl. ¶¶ 127-28.)
On January 5, 2009, Kunz and Hamilian "filed a 'Model Report in Support of Competency Restoration' made pursuant to" C.P.L.§ 730.60(2). (Compl. ¶ 109.) Inesti claims that the report indicates that he was diagnosed previously as suffering from "obsessive compulsive disorder, schitzoeffective disorder and has been hospitalized on several occasions for impulsive violent behavior." (Compl. ¶ 110.) Inesti also claims that the report describes him as displaying "erratic and unp[re]dictable out-burst, and [he] has been unable to consist[e]ntly engage with examiners." (Compl. ¶ 111.)
On January 8, 2009, Kunz "filed a Change of Status Ap[p]lication . . . claiming [Inesti] was fit to proceed with criminal charges," and Hicks also found Inesti fit to proceed to trial. (Compl. ¶¶ 115-16.) Inesti claims that Dr. Tuzel gave him "a false diagnosis and [he was] found fit to proceed with trial[,]" and that Rabinowitz "did not want to treat" him. (Compl. ¶¶ 117, 136.) Inesti further claims that due to this "false diagnosis," Dr. Tuzel and Kunz caused him to be sentenced to a twenty year-to-life term of imprisonment "for a crime that was propelled by [his] mental illness . . . ."...
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