Jones v. Horne

• Decision Date: 25 March 2011
• Docket Number: No. 09–5128.,09–5128.
• Citation: 634 F.3d 588
• Parties: Antoine JONES, Appellantv.Norma HORNE, Detective–MPD, et al., Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

634 F.3d 588

394 U.S.App.D.C. 261

Antoine JONES, Appellant

v.Norma HORNE, Detective–MPD, et al., Appellees.

No. 09–5128.

United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued Oct. 14, 2010.Decided Feb. 11, 2011.Rehearing En Banc Denied March 25, 2011.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (No. 1:07–cv–01027).Michael N. Khalil, appointed by the court, argued the cause as amicus curiae in support of appellant. With him on the briefs was Anthony F. Shelley, appointed by the court.Antoine Jones, appearing pro se, filed a brief.Alan Burch, Assistant U.S. Attorney, argued the cause for appellee Rachel C. Lieber. With him on the brief were Ronald C. Machen Jr., U.S. Attorney, and R. Craig Lawrence, Assistant U.S. Attorney. Kenneth A. Adebonojo, Assistant U.S. Attorney, entered an appearance.Mary L. Wilson, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, argued the cause for appellees Dennis Harrison and Norma Horne. With her on the brief were Peter J. Nickles, Attorney General, Todd S. Kim, Solicitor General, and Donna M. Murasky, Deputy Solicitor General.Before: SENTELLE, Chief Judge, HENDERSON and ROGERS, Circuit Judges.Opinion for the Court by Circuit Judge ROGERS.

ROGERS, Circuit Judge:

Upon his arrest for federal drug offenses, Antoine Jones was confined pending trial at the Central Detention Facility (hereinafter “D.C. Jail”). When the U.S. Attorney's Office discovered that Jones might be a threat to various individuals, it sought to have him placed in protective custody. When the prosecutor assigned to Jones' criminal case learned that Jones was continuing to make telephone calls, she instructed jail officials to place Jones “in lockdown until further notice.” Jones remained in “lockdown” from December 2, 2005, without mail or telephone or visitor privileges until April 26, 2006, when the district court ordered Jones returned to the general population at the D.C. Jail subject to certain restrictions on his mail, telephone, and visitor privileges.

Jones, acting pro se, sued the prosecutor, the acting warden of the D.C. Jail, and the detective from the Metropolitan Police Department who prepared an affidavit in support of a search warrant for his cell. He alleged that they had violated his rights under the First, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. The district court dismissed the complaint pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted against the prosecutor and the acting warden; it dismissed the complaint against the detective as conceded when Jones did not respond to the detective's motion to dismiss. Jones appeals. For the following reasons, we affirm.

I.

The investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) and the events leading to Jones' arrest on October 24, 2005 and his indictment for drug conspiracy and related offenses are described in the case bearing the name of his codefendant, United States v. Lawrence Maynard, 615 F.3d 544 (D.C.Cir.), rehearing en banc denied, 625 F.3d 766 (2010). Following his commitment by a federal magistrate judge to the custody of the U.S. Attorney General pending trial, Jones was housed in the general population at the D.C. Jail following a screening by D.C. Corrections Department officials. On November 23, 2005 a search warrant for his cell was executed and various papers were seized, including lists of names and a letter identifying the location of an unindicted co-conspirator at the D.C. Jail. The detective's affidavit supporting the search warrant stated that Jones was apparently seeking to maintain a role in his drug-trafficking enterprise, based on the pre-arrest investigation and Jones' recorded telephone calls from the D.C. Jail seeking to contact Lawrence Maynard and get letters to him.

According to the complaint, the prosecutor assigned to Jones' criminal case (hereinafter “the prosecutor”) “telephoned the DC[ ] Jail and verbally told the Administration to remove me from general population and place me in segregation under Total Separation (T.S.) Status ... [and] not be allowed social visits, telephone calls and that my mail be withheld from me.” Compl. at 1. Attached to the complaint were various documents, including a December 22, 2005 memorandum from the prosecutor to the acting warden.¹ It recounted that the prosecutor, after learning that Jones was continuing to make telephone calls and was apparently still in the general population, sent a memorandum to the D.C. Jail on December 2, 2005 stating: “Antoine Jones, DCDC 24912 should [be] placed immediately in lockdown at the D.C. Jail. Please ensure that Mr. Jones is [in] lockdown until further notice.” In the December 2, 2005 memorandum the prosecutor also advised the acting warden that she was renewing this request “to ensure the safety of various individuals, and the integrity of the investigation.” Jones was removed from the general jail population on or about December 2, 2005 and placed in “Total Separation” status, with restricted telephone and mail privileges. In the December 22 memorandum, the prosecutor advised the acting warden that call logs showed Jones had continued to make telephone calls after he had in fact been placed in Total Separation status, which “undermine[d] the purpose of his being in that placement.” Additionally, the prosecutor wrote: “Please consider this memorandum a formal request for an immediate investigation into this situation, to include an examination of how these clear violations occurred, and more importantly, an immediate correction of the problem.” Jones was thereafter denied any social visits, telephone and incoming mail privileges.

On February 26, 2006, defense counsel in Jones' criminal case filed a motion for modification of the conditions of Jones' pretrial detention. Jones' Housing Board hearing on December 15, 2005, and administrative housing grievances filed on January 20, 2006 and February 10, 2006, had provided no relief as he was informed by memorandum from the acting warden that the restrictions were imposed at the request of the U.S. Attorney's Office. In the motion, defense counsel argued that there had been improper interference with the attorney-client relationship and that the restrictions were punitive. The list seized from Jones' cell, according to defense counsel, had been prepared at defense counsel's request for a list of persons who may have information regarding Jones' criminal case; since the seizure defense counsel had told Jones not to write anything down. Defense counsel also argued that the restrictions were unnecessary to ensure the internal security at the D.C. Jail or to effect Jones' presence at trial, and further that the conditions of Jones' confinement did not appear to be reasonably related to a legitimate governmental objective, but “appear to be solely punitive in nature and thus violate [Jones'] due process rights.” Motion for Modification of Detention Conditions at 2–3, United States v. Jones, No. 05–386 (D.D.C. Feb. 26, 2006), ECF No. 76.

The U.S. Attorney's Office opposed the motion, pointing, in part, to a telephone call in which Jones revealed to a girlfriend that he was attempting to locate a “coconspirator who had been incarcerated in early October on other charges but not yet indicted in [Jones'] case,” and to a letter written from the girlfriend divulging the location of the co-conspirator in the D.C. Jail and reporting that another individual was “on the street.” Government's Response to Defendant Jones' Motion for Modification of Conditions of Detention at 2, United States v. Jones, No. 05–386 (D.D.C. Mar. 16, 2006), ECF No. 85. The U.S. Attorney's Office also pointed to a list of names recovered from Jones' cell that “appears to be a list of individuals Jones suspects are government witnesses.” Id. at 1–2. In a subsequent filing, the U.S. Attorney's Office noted that Jones attempted to use his wife and a second girlfriend to contact Maynard who was at large. Additionally, the U.S. Attorney's Office mentioned housing Jones outside of the District of Columbia in Orange or Northern Neck, Virginia. Id. at 3. Defense counsel objected that moving Jones to such a distance would place an undue burden on defense counsel as well as Jones' friends and family, and would not alleviate the U.S. Attorney's Office's concern stemming from Jones' communications with persons in the community.

On April 24, 2006, the district court in the criminal case granted the motion to modify Jones' pretrial detention conditions “insofar as [Jones] should no longer be in total lockdown.” To address the concern of the U.S. Attorneys' Office, the district court also ordered that Jones' telephone calls be recorded and his mail monitored (except for telephone calls and mail from his defense counsel and criminal investigator), and social visits be limited to his wife, defense counsel, and the criminal investigator. Order, United States v. Jones, No. 05–386 (D.D.C. Apr. 24, 2006), ECF No. 111.

On June 8, 2007, Jones, acting pro se, filed a complaint pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging the violation of his constitutional rights under the First, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments. ² The complaint alleged: (1) The denial of his right properly to prepare his defense to the criminal charges, including being denied by a D.C. Jail case manager the right to telephone defense counsel and to have access to legal and writing materials. (2) The denial of his right to the free exercise of his religion while being held in Total Separation status. (3) The denial of due process by the prosecutor and the D.C. Corrections Department officials who “conspired and stripped” him of his pretrial detainee due process social visits, and telephone and mail privileges. Jones claimed emotional suffering as a...