Latson v. Clarke

Citation249 F.Supp.3d 838
Decision Date20 April 2017
Docket NumberCase No. 1:16CV00039.
Parties Reginald Cornelius LATSON, Plaintiff, v. Harold W. CLARKE, et al., Defendants.
CourtU.S. District Court — Western District of Virginia

249 F.Supp.3d 838

Reginald Cornelius LATSON, Plaintiff,
v.
Harold W. CLARKE, et al., Defendants.

Case No. 1:16CV00039.

United States District Court, W.D. Virginia, ABINGDON DIVISION.

April 20, 2017


249 F.Supp.3d 844

Caitlin Marie Kasmar and Katherine Katz, BuckleySandler LLP, Washington, D.C., and Deborah Golden and Elliot M. Mincberg, Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, Washington, D.C., for Plaintiff;

Nancy Hull Davidson, Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General, Richmond, Virginia, for Defendants.

OPINION AND ORDER

James P. Jones, United States District Judge

In this civil rights case, the plaintiff, a Virginia inmate, asserts claims against prison officials and state entities based on the First, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, as well as the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act. The defendants have moved to dismiss the Amended Complaint on numerous grounds. For the reasons that follow, I will grant in part and deny in part the Motion to Dismiss.

I.

The Amended Complaint alleges the following facts, which I must accept as true for the purpose of deciding the pending motion.

The plaintiff, Reginald Cornelius Latson, is a twenty-four year old man who has

249 F.Supp.3d 845

been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder ("ASD") and intellectual disability ("ID"). These conditions limit his major life activities of learning, concentrating, thinking, communicating, interacting with others, caring for himself, and working. He has a record of such impairments and is regarded by the defendants as having such impairments.

Marion Correctional Treatment Center ("MCTC") is a medium security state prison located in Marion, Virginia. Mr. Latson was confined at MCTC from June 5, 2004 until February 2, 2015. The Commonwealth of Virginia, through the Virginia Department of Corrections ("VDOC"), operates MCTC. MCTC and VDOC receive federal financial assistance.

Defendant Dara Robichaux served as Assistant Warden of MCTC while Latson was incarcerated. Robichaux supervised MCTC employees and had authority to establish and implement policies and procedures. Defendant Larry Jarvis was the Warden of MCTC during part of the time that Latson was incarcerated. He also supervised MCTC employees and had authority to establish and implement policies and procedures. Defendant Harold W. Clarke is the Director of VDOC. Clarke oversees VDOC employees and has authority to establish, alter, and implement VDOC policies and procedures. Latson has also sued certain "Doe Defendants," who are employees of the defendants whose identities are presently unknown to Latson.

Latson was diagnosed as disabled and began receiving special education services in kindergarten. He repeated kindergarten due to his impairments. At the age of seven, Latson was assigned a full-scale IQ score of sixty-one and was noted as having delays in receptive grammar and reduced eye contact. He was diagnosed with ASD at age fourteen. He exhibited symptoms such as rocking, obsessive focusing, and atypical behaviors and was placed in special education throughout his adolescence. His ASD caused him to have difficulty with communication, social interaction, and maintaining attention.

It is not uncommon for people with ASD to have unusual sensitivities and difficulty regulating their responses. People with ASD have trouble understanding the actions and motivations of others, lack the ability to read social cues, struggle with complex language, do not easily understand rules of social behavior, and often respond to unexpected situations with anxiety and agitation.

On April 21, 2014, Latson was transferred from the Northwestern Regional Adult Detention Center to the Rappahannock Regional Jail ("Rappahannock").1 When he arrived at Rappahannock, he was placed in solitary confinement. He was not permitted to make telephone calls; a window between his cell and the hallway was covered so he could not see into the hallway; and he was given no material for entertainment except a dictionary. Rappahannock officials did not initially attempt to address Latson's mental health needs.

Three days after his arrival at Rappahannock, Latson, who was psychologically distressed, was evaluated by a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist concluded that Latson was suicidal, prescribed antipsychotic medication, and ordered Latson moved to a crisis cell for suicide watch. On April 24, 2014, a corrections officer who was placing

249 F.Supp.3d 846

Latson in the crisis cell ordered Latson to put his hands on the wall and then physically pushed him against the wall. Latson, in the midst of a diagnosed mental health crisis, reacted to this physical force with a fight-or-flight response that is symptomatic of ASD and lashed out, striking the officer.

Three correctional officers then surrounded Latson, and First Sergeant William Diehl tasered Latson for the full five-second Taser cycle, causing neuromuscular incapacitation. Latson collapsed to the floor. At the direction of First Sergeant Diehl, Latson was placed in handcuffs and leg irons and was seen by a nurse, who removed the Taser probes. After the incident, Latson was placed in a Pro–Straint chair in the crisis cell, and at the direction of First Sergeant Diehl, four correctional officers strapped Latson to the chair. A Pro–Straint chair has a straight back and straps that are used to fully restrain an inmate's legs, arms, waist, and chest.

Officers checked on Latson every fifteen minutes while he was in the Pro–Straint chair, and for all checks performed within the first hour and a half, he was noted to be either quiet or responsive. For the next four and a half hours, he was noted to be quiet. The officers left him in the Pro–Straint chair, unable to move, eat, or use the restroom, for more than nine hours. When he was released from the Pro–Straint chair, he received a snack bag and milk but was given no dinner.

Following this incident, Latson was placed in a crisis cell on modified suicide watch for one week. The cell contained a safety mattress but had no toilet, toiletries, or other furnishings. He was then removed from the crisis cell and placed in administrative segregation. While Latson was in segregation, Rappahannock mental health staff only conducted suicide watch checks to ensure he was not in immediate physical danger. Rappahannock staff prevented Latson from receiving mental health testing or treatment. Latson remained in segregation for more than one month, until he was transferred to MCTC on June 5, 2014.

Within a day of his arrival at Rappahannock, Latson was placed into the legal custody of the VDOC, despite continuing to be housed at a regional jail. Clarke had discretion to determine the priority for receiving prisoners in VDOC custody from local facilities into state-operated facilities and to order transfers of prisoners. Within a week of Latson's arrival at Rappahannock, VDOC representatives were notified of Latson's conditions and treatment at Rappahannock. Clarke, however, did not immediately transfer Latson to a different facility.

On April 30, 2014, while Latson was restrained in the Pro–Straint chair, clinical psychologist Susan Williams emailed mental health clinician Richard Feldman, copying Keith Dawkins and Eric Madsen, all of whom were VDOC employees, requesting that Feldman meet with Latson to consider whether he should be transferred to a VDOC facility sooner than planned. Williams wrote that VDOC needed a report of Latson's mental status and how he was being managed at Rappahannock.

On May 8, 2014, Feldman met with Latson and reported that Latson was manageable with close monitoring and regular contact with treatment staff. Feldman conveyed his belief that Latson was being singled out by correctional officers for ridicule and mistreatment because the original offense that led to his incarceration was an assault of a police officer. Feldman observed that Latson was not delusional and did not show evidence of perceptual disturbances. Feldman noted that Latson had previously done very well at Northwestern Regional Adult Detention Center, where

249 F.Supp.3d 847

he had been in a sheltered housing situation.

On May 7, 2014, Latson's attorney communicated with VDOC about the possibility of transferring Latson to AdvoServ, a non-VDOC facility, before he had finished serving his active sentence. On May 20, 2014, counsel working on Latson's behalf sent a letter to the Governor of Virginia regarding Latson's conditions and treatment at Rappahannock and the effects on Latson's mental health. Latson's advocates continued to contact VDOC and other Commonwealth agencies throughout Latson's time at Rappahannock, alerting them to Latson's conditions and treatment and his diagnosed disabilities, and requesting that he be transferred to another facility. The Governor directed VDOC to transfer Latson to a VDOC facility as soon as possible, and Latson was transferred to MCTC on June 4, 2015.

Research has shown that the impacts of solitary confinement can be similar to those of torture and can include a variety of negative...

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