Konah v. Dist. of Columbia

• Decision Date: 20 September 2013
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 10–904 (RMC).
• Citation: 971 F.Supp.2d 74
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Columbia
• Parties: Lena T. KONAH, Plaintiff, v. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, et al., Defendants.

971 F.Supp.2d 74

Lena T. KONAH, Plaintiff,

v.DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, et al., Defendants.

Civil Action No. 10–904 (RMC).

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

Sept. 20, 2013.

Veronica G. Awkard, Law Offices of Veronica G. Awkard, Forestville, MD, for Plaintiff.

Shermineh C. Jones, Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, Benjamin Winfield Hahn, Kerry Clinton O'Dell, Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP, Washington, DC, for Defendants.

OPINION

ROSEMARY M. COLLYER, District Judge.

Lena T. Konah worked as a licensed practical nurse at the D.C. Jail until the events that underlie this lawsuit caused her to take a leave of absence and eventually decide not to return. On her last day of work, Ms. Konah was accosted by a group of semi-clothed inmates who made repeated lewd comments and one of whom grabbed her buttocks. Totally unnerved by the experience, Ms. Konah contends that the District of Columbia failed to train its correctional employees to respond adequately to inmates' sexual abuse of staff and thus violated her right to equal protection under the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause. The District moves for summary judgment. For the reasons stated below, the Court will grant the motion.

I. FACTS

This case has previously been addressed by the Court. The facts and procedural history are set forth in detail in Konah v. District of Columbia (Konah I), 815 F.Supp.2d 61 (D.D.C.2011) (granting in part and denying in part motion to dismiss; exercising supplemental jurisdiction over state-law claims) and in Konah v. District of Columbia (Konah II), 915 F.Supp.2d 7 (D.D.C.2013) (granting summary judgment to Unity and Sgt. Robert Jefferson; granting partial judgment on the pleadings to the District). There is now only one count remaining: a claim against the District of Columbia under Monell v. Department of Social Services of the City of New York, 436 U.S. 658, 691–92, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978), alleging sexual harassment by inmates due to inadequate training of correctional officers. See 3d Am. Compl. [Dkt. 64] ¶ ¶ 54–62. This Opinion reviews only the facts relevant to the outstanding claim and states them in the light most favorable to Ms. Konah. No additional discovery was conducted after Konah II was issued, and that opinion was based on an extensive record, which included depositions of many key witnesses, documentary evidence, and video recordings. Therefore, the Court cites to the facts as set forth in Konah II except where additions are necessary or where the parties contend that a material factual dispute remains.

A. Background

From November 2006 through September 2009, Ms. Konah worked as a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) for Unity Health Care, Inc., which provides medical services to inmates at the D.C. Central Detention Facility (CDF, also referred to as the D.C. Jail) under contract with the District's Department of Corrections (DOC). Konah II, 915 F.Supp.2d at 12. One of the duties of LPNs was to distribute medicine to inmates, which nurses typically did in the housing units of the jail. Id. at 13. Correctional officers were required to accompany nurses at all times when they dispensed medication, and if an officer was not immediately available, a nurse could “just come back and wait for one.” Id. (quoting Konah Dep. at 100; other record citations omitted). Waiting for an officer was Ms. Konah's typical practice. Id.

It was not uncommon for inmates to insult or assault staff at CDF by cursing them or using other inappropriate language, masturbating in front of them, or throwing urine, feces, or other liquids at them. Id. at 13, 25. The targets of these attacks were both correctional employees and contractors, including Unity nurses; both men and women were victims. Id.; see also Jefferson Dep., Def. Mot. Summ. J. (Def.–MSJ) [Dkt. 90], Ex. 2 [Dkt. 90–4] at 42–45, 91–92 (“Q.... [I]s the yelling, the cursing, the throwing of fecal matter, the throwing of urine, is that only limited to female officers? A. No.”). As Dr. Benedict Kargbo, a CDF treatment specialist, testified:

Q. Is the act of inmates throwing urine or feces at correctional staff, is that common?

A. Yes. It happen[s] all the time.

Q. And does it happen in other jails that you've worked in?

A. Yes, it does.

Q. And is it directed at females only?

A. No.

Q. Is it directed at nurses only?

A. No.

Kargbo Dep., Def. MSJ, Ex. 5 [Dkt. 90–7] at 46–47, 62–63, 68–69. Sergeant Jefferson acknowledged, however, that inmates did not masturbate “frequently” in front of males, directing that behavior largely at female staffers. Jefferson Dep. at 42–44.

“Assault by Throwing Substances,” including “liquids, blood, waste, chemicals, urine, etc.” was listed as a Class I Major Offense in the Inmate Handbook given to all CDF inmates, and “[w]illfully subjecting an employee of the DOC to offensive bodily contact” was a Class II Serious Offense. See Inmate Handbook, Def. MSJ, Ex. 6 [Dkt. 90–8] at 16, 20. These violations were punishable with administrative penalties ranging from loss of privileges or work assignment to disciplinary detention; for a Class I Major Offense, disciplinary detention could be imposed for the remainder of an inmate's time in custody. Id. at 19–20, 23. Class I Major Offenses could also be prosecuted criminally. Id. at 16.

On April 21, 2009, several nurses, including Ms. Konah, sent a letter to Unity management, complaining about security practices at the jail. Konah II, 915 F.Supp.2d at 13;see also April 21, 2009 Letter (4/21/09 Letter), Pl. Opp. Mot. Summ. J. (Pl. Opp.) [Dkt. 91], Ex. 5 [Dkt. 91–6] at 1. Titled “Deplorable Security Conditions During Medication Administration,” the letter stated, in relevant part:

We are writing this notice because of the deplorable security conditions we are facing during medication pass. On 4/11/09 feces were thrown on nurse Igwulu Francisca. On 4/19/09 some unknown liquid was thrown on nurse Tyler Ashly. Before then, about a week ago, unknown liquid was thrown on nurse Akoto Joyce. A similar incident happened to nurse Harper and nurse Nwaobilor. Nurse Tangunyi was hit with a bar of soap from behind. Unknown liquid was thrown on nurse Tandong.

Curiously notwithstanding all this incidents and all our pleas for the situation to be looked into, nothing has been done.... We keep wondering if a nurse needs to be stabbed or even killed here before this issue will be looked into.

We had previously brought our predicaments to the nursing administrator who promised to get in touch with the DOC administration so that the officers will bring the inmates to the bubble or to the sick call room to be medicated, but till this date we have not hear of the out come....

4/21/09 Letter at 1 (alteration in brackets; all other spelling and formatting as in original). Nurses Tangunyi is male; Nurses Francisca Igwulu and Ashly (or Ashley) Tyler are females; Ms. Konah is female, and the rest of the nurses' genders are not in the record. Konah Dep., Def. MSJ, Ex. 1 [Dkt. 90–3] at 70–72.

“The bubble” referenced in the 4/21/09 Letter is the glass-walled control module staffed by corrections employees that sits at the entrance of each “open population” housing unit in the D.C. Jail. Open-population inmates are often released from their cells to mingle and congregate generally in their cell block. From the bubble, a corrections sergeant controls two gates for each cell block: one gate connects the cell block to a narrow hallway called the “sally port” ¹ while the second gate connects the sally port to the main hallway of the jail. The sally port is the ingress and egress to the cell block for inmates and corrections staff, and inmates are not supposed to be in the sally port without a corrections officer as an escort. Only one gate in the sally port may be open at any given time because otherwise, inmates could run out into the hallway of the jail, which would be a security breach. Also referenced in the 4/21/09 Letter are “sick call rooms,” which are small rooms with Dutch doors adjacent to the sally ports. A nurse can stand inside a sick-call room with the bottom half of the door closed and locked and dispense medication through the open top half of the door. To access a sick-call room, a nurse would sign out the key and return it when s/he was done. Konah II, 915 F.Supp.2d at 12–13 (record citations omitted).

The parties dispute the evolution of the policy on the use of sick-call rooms. It is clear that prior to the 4/21/09 Letter, sick-call rooms were available for use, but the nurses' prevailing practice was to enter the cell blocks and dispense medication to inmates in open population or cell-to-cell. See Konah II, 915 F.Supp.2d at 13. For example, CDF records show that Ms. Konah signed out a key and used a sick-call room in March 2009, id. (citations omitted), but she asserts that “the only policy on dispensing medications that she knew and understood ... [was] that nurses dispensed medications on the units walking around the tiers/units and that there was no specific place to dispense medications,” Pl. Statement of Material Facts in Dispute (Pl. SOF), Dkt. 91–1, ¶ 2.

After receiving the 4/21/09 Letter, Vali Zabiheian, Unity's Health Services Administrator and the senior management representative for Unity at the D.C. Jail, implemented a “sick call room policy” for medication distribution. Konah II, 915 F.Supp.2d at 13. Under the new policy, “medication administration and dispensing by the nursing and pharmacy staff” was to “take place in the sick call rooms on the housing units,” and Unity staff would “no longer walk on the housing units to administer medicine in open population.” Id. (citing Apr. 22, 2009 Zabiheian Memo at 1). Despite the protection of a sick-call room, a corrections officer was required to escort each nurse at all times. Id. This sick-call room policy was posted at CDF where Unity employees clock in, in the nursing station, and in the medication room,...