Moon v. Reviere, CV 119-217
| Decision Date | 19 August 2021 |
| Docket Number | CV 119-217 |
| Parties | EARNEST MOON, as Administrator of the Estate of David Moon, Plaintiff, v. SHERIFF PAUL REVIERE, et al., Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of Georgia |
Before the Court is Defendants Robert Williams, M.D. and Nerisha Terry's (the "Medical Defendants") motion for summary judgment (Doc. 84) and Defendants Sheriff Paul Reviere, Captain Leighton Taylor, Lieutenant Jessica Cobb Sergeant David Davis, Officer Chris Durden, Officer Latoya Dye, Officer Steve McRee, Officer Antonio Norman, Officer Cassandra Smith, Officer Aries Hunter, Officer Harriett Brehm, Officer Keonna Lewis, Officer Anastasia Knotts, and Sergeant Lisa Gartrell's (the "Sheriff Defendants") motion for summary judgment (Doc. 88) . For the following reasons, the summary judgment motions are GRANTED.
Plaintiff filed the underlying suit against Defendants on December 18, 2019 (Doc. 1) and then filed an Amended Complaint (Am. Compl., Doc. 38) on February 26, 2020. In the Amended Complaint, Earnest Moon, serving as the administrator of the Estate of David Eugene Moon ("David Moon"), seeks redress for David Moon's treatment while an inmate at the Lincoln County jail ("the jail"). (Am. Compl., at 1.) Specifically, Plaintiff asserts constitutional claims of deliberate indifference and alleges personal participation in the violation of David Moon's Eighth Amendment rights against all Defendants; supervisory liability claims against Defendants Reviere, Taylor, Cobb, and Williams; a policymaker liability claim against Defendant Reviere; and Georgia medical malpractice claims against the Medical Defendants. (Id. at 13, 16, 18, 20.) Plaintiff seeks compensatory damages for the violations of David Moon's civil rights, punitive damages against each Defendant to punish and deter, reasonable attorney's fees and expenses, judgment for the full value of David Moon's life, compensatory damages for David Moon's conscious pain and suffering, funeral expenses, and any further relief the Court deems just and proper. (Id. at 23.)
An overview of the underlying facts is as follows. On May 5, 2019, David Moon entered the jail after he was arrested pursuant to a warrant for arrest of a probationer.[1] (Id. ¶ 24.) Upon entry, he was subject to a medical screening. (Id. ¶ 25.) He denied having alcohol use that could lead to withdrawal issues and the jailers reported they did not believe he was under the influence of alcohol.[2] (Id.) Based on the jailers' observations and the booking report, David Moon was put in the general population block.[3] (Id. ¶ 26.)
Between May 7 and May 9, 2019, David Moon began to display symptoms of severe alcohol withdrawal, or delirium tremens.[4] (Id. ¶ 27.) He was not sleeping, was disturbing other inmates, and acting irrationally. (Id. ¶ 29.) At no point did any Defendant call for medical transport to a hospital or other medical facility, but after two days without sleep and continuing to disturb "cell block D," David Moon was moved to "cell block C" on May 9, 2019 at 7:03 AM. (Id. ¶ 30.)
After moving, David Moon continued to experience hallucinations, delusional behavior, and other outward signs of alcohol withdrawal and refused to sleep. (Id. ¶ 31.) On May 10, 2019 at 1:03 AM, he was moved to an isolation cell for "medical observation" because he had been awake for several days, continued to hallucinate, and was disrupting the other inmates. (Id. ¶ 33.) David Moon continuously kicked the wall in his cell, resulting in bleeding toes that had to be re-bandaged on numerous occasions. (Id. ¶¶ 34, 37, 44-45.)
On May 10, 2019, after Defendant Terry observed him, Defendant Williams prescribed hydroxyzine[5] for David Moon to take three times a day. (Id. ¶ 38.) Despite the prescription, he continued to refuse food, kick the cell door, and experience delirium tremens. (Id. ¶ 41.) On May 11, 2019, David Moon continued to show symptoms, despite his hydroxyzine prescription, and still would not eat. (Id. ¶ 49.) Video surveillance of his cell shows him pacing, staggering, crawling, and stumbling around all morning. (Id. ¶ 52.) Just before 11:25 AM, David Moon crawled under his cot and loss consciousness. (Id. ¶ 53.) Around 4:45 PM, jailers and trustees entered his cell to check on him and moved him onto his cot while he remained unconscious. (Id.) The rest of that day and evening, jailers monitored David Moon in his unconscious state and ensured he was still breathing. (Id. ¶ 54.) At 11:25 PM, David Moon was found unresponsive and cool to the touch and jailers contacted EMTs. (Id. ¶ 55.) A subsequent autopsy by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation ("GBI") revealed David Moon's cause of death was an intracerebral hemorrhage in an area of the brain commonly associated with high blood pressure. (Id.)
Defendant Williams was the inmate doctor at the jail when David Moon died. (Id. ¶ 16; Williams Dep., Doc. 90-5, at 22-23.) He, along with his medical assistant Defendant Terry, evaluated inmates as needed. (Am. Compl., ¶ 17; Williams Dep., at 31-33.) Defendant Terry is a certified nursing assistant.[6] (Am. Compl., ¶ 17; Terry Dep., Doc. 90-6, at 54.) Defendant Williams visited the jail about every two weeks, or as requested, but Defendant Terry visited Monday through Friday, twice a day. (Williams Dep., at 31-33.) Defendant Terry passed out medications, listened to inmates' complaints, and reported her findings to Defendant Williams. (Terry Dep., at 14.) Defendant Williams provided treatment instructions but also had a protocol book at the jail for the Medical Defendants to reference when addressing inmates' issues. (Id. at 54; Williams Dep., at 39.)
Defendant Williams first saw David Moon during this incarceration on Wednesday, May 8, 2019 because he had complained to Defendant Terry that something was hurting when he walked. (Terry Dep., at 34; Williams Dep., at 58-59.) Defendant Williams evaluated David Moon, discovered it was a hernia, put the hernia back in place, and told him they would keep an eye on it. (Williams Dep., at 59.) This was the last time Defendant Williams saw David Moon, and he did not hear any further information about him until two days later, on Friday, May 10th. (Id. at 60-62.)
Defendant Terry was present for the hernia examination, but also saw David Moon multiple times that week during her daily jail visits. On Friday morning, May 10, 2019, Defendant Terry was told David Moon was moved to isolation because he was keeping the other inmates up, so she informed Defendant Williams and he instructed her to observe David Moon and report back. (Terry Dep., at 3941.) After observing him, Defendant Terry believed David Moon to be calm but reported that he told her he was "pulling a truck" while standing inside his cell. (Id. at 41.) Upon hearing this report, Defendant Williams suggested a Vistaril prescription, but told Defendant Terry to give David Moon Benadryl until the prescription could get delivered to the jail. (Id. at 41-42.)
That evening, David Moon was brought to Defendant Terry because "he had been kicking the wall and kicked his toenail off,' so she cleaned and bandaged his foot. (Id. at 46.) She again reported to Defendant Williams and he told her to give David Moon Tylenol PM to try and help him rest in lieu of the Vistaril prescription.[7] (Id. at 47; Williams Dep., at 74-75.) Defendant Terry reported David Moon "wasn't talking out of his head" and "he wasn't acting up or anything," but the jailers had told her that he had not gotten any sleep. (Terry Dep., at 49.) This was the last time Defendant Terry saw David Moon.
The individual Sheriff Defendants' involvement and encounters with David Moon are outlined in greater detail in the analysis section below.
Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56, motions for summary judgment are granted "if the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." FED. R. CIV. P. 56(a). "An issue of fact is 'material' if ... it might affect the outcome of the case . . . [and it] is 'genuine' if the record taken as a whole could lead a rational trier of fact to find for the nonmoving party." Hickson Corp, v. N. Crossarm Co., 357 F.3d 1256, 1259-60 (11th Cir. 2004) (citing Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248 (1986); Tipton v. Bergrohr GMBH-Siegen, 965 F.2d 994, 998 (11th Cir. 1992)) . The Court must view factual disputes in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587 (1986), and must draw "all justifiable inferences in [the non-moving party's] favor." United States v. Four Parcels of Real Prop., 941 F.2d 1428, 1437 (11th Cir. 1991) (en banc) (internal punctuation and citations omitted). The Court should not weigh the evidence or determine credibility. Anderson, 477 U.S. at 255.
The Defendants here do not bear the burden of proof at trial, and therefore may "satisfy [their] initial burden on summary judgment in either of two ways." McQueen v. Wells Fargo Home Mortg., 955 F.Supp.2d 1256, 1262 (N.D. Ala. 2013) (citing Fitzpatrick v. City of Atlanta, 2 F.3d 1112, 1115-16 (11th Cir. 1993)) . First, the Defendants "may simply show that there is an absence of evidence to support the [Plaintiff's] case on the particular issue at hand." Id. (citation omitted). If this occurs Plaintiff "must rebut by either (1) showing that the record in fact contains supporting evidence sufficient to withstand a directed verdict motion, or (2) proffering evidence sufficient to withstand a directed verdict motion at trial based on the alleged evidentiary...
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