Palmer v. Marion County

• Decision Date: 01 May 2003
• Docket Number: No. 02-2267.,02-2267.
• Citation: 327 F.3d 588
• Parties: Ronald PALMER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. MARION COUNTY, City of Indianapolis, and Sheriff Jack Cottey, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 588

327 F.3d 588

Ronald PALMER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. MARION COUNTY, City of Indianapolis, and Sheriff Jack Cottey, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 02-2267.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued December 11, 2002.

Decided May 1, 2003.

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Patrick Stern (Argued), Beech Grove, IN, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Jeffrey S. McQuary (Argued), Office of Corporation Counsel, City of Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN, for Defendants-Appellees.

Before COFFEY, EASTERBROOK, and DIANE P. WOOD, Circuit Judges.

COFFEY, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff Ronald Palmer ("Palmer") appeals the district court's grant of summary judgment disposing of his lawsuit against the City of Indianapolis, Marion County (Indiana), and Sheriff Jack Cottey. Palmer brought this claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging injuries resulting from violations of his constitutional rights. In addition, Palmer claims that the defendants negligently trained, hired, and supervised correctional officers under Indiana law. The court's granting of the defendants'-appellees' motion for summary judgment was proper, for there is no genuine issue of fact dealing with the question of whether the defendants adopted a pattern, custom, or policy of an unconstitutional nature. We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

Because this is an appeal from summary judgment, this Court views the facts in the light most favorable to Palmer. Lewis v. Richards, 107 F.3d 549, 551 (7th Cir.1997). In 1996 Palmer, a 23-year-old African American, was arrested and charged with bank robbery and held as a probation violator for a previous crime. The arrest constituted a violation of his current probation status for a prior auto theft conviction in Marion County. In November 1996, Palmer was transferred from the Boone County Jail to the Marion County Jail to await a hearing on the probation violation. On August 11, 1997, a fight ensued and Palmer was attacked by a group of inmates belonging to a gang known as the Gangster Disciples. During the altercation, Palmer was hit on the back of his head with a door handle and struck several times with fists, but admittedly suffered no injuries warranting treatment. When queried by correctional officers as to the identity of his assailants, Palmer initially refused to reveal their names out of fear of being labeled a "snitch." After being assured by jail guards that he would be moved to another part of the jail for his safety, Palmer identified his assailants by their nicknames.¹

Shortly after identifying his assailants Palmer was placed in the reclassification cell, and the next day he was relocated to Cell Block 2T, located adjacent to Cell Block 2W. Upon discovering that he had been reassigned to Cell Block 2T, Palmer told the correctional officers escorting him that he could not be placed in 2T because he had been involved in a gang-related incident and Palmer was in fear that other members of the Gangster Disciples were presently confined in 2T. Furthermore, Palmer knew from experience that the inmates in Cell Blocks 2T and 2W were in contact with one another. Accordingly, Palmer was afraid that members of the Gangster Disciples in 2T would retaliate against him for having identified his attackers in the Cell Block 2W incident the previous day. One officer acknowledged remembering the incident to which Palmer referred and another officer offered Palmer the choice of confinement in 2T or solitary confinement ("deadlock"). Initially Palmer requested to be taken to deadlock, but after the officer insisted that the gang members had been relocated away from Cell Block 2T and promised that if anything happened the prison officers would promptly respond, Palmer agreed to transfer to 2T.

While approaching 2T, Palmer recognized familiar faces. After again expressing his concern, Palmer hesitantly entered the cell block with the intention of staying only a couple of minutes before reporting a problem necessitating his transfer. Palmer entered an empty room in the cell block and was looking through his personal belongings when another inmate entered the room and asked him if his name was Ron and also had he just come from 2W. Palmer denied that his name was Ron and stated that he had neither been incarcerated in 2W nor had he been involved in an altercation with the Gangster Disciples. The inmate accused Palmer of lying and left the room. Palmer attempted to hurriedly organize his possessions and was about to dart out the door to call for intervention, when he was pushed back in the room and surrounded by roughly ten inmates. The other inmates closed the cell door behind them and accused Palmer of being a snitch. Palmer's pleas to be released were ignored and, after threatening Palmer for a short period of time, the other inmates attacked him, brutally beating and punching him as well as stabbing him with the sharp end of a broken broom handle. Palmer was backed up against a wall and eventually knocked to the floor, at which point the other inmates stomped on him until he lost consciousness.

When he awoke there was blood everywhere, the door to the room was locked shut, and cardboard had been placed over the door's window to keep correctional officers from seeing what was inside. When Palmer kicked at the door for help, another inmate entered the room and told Palmer that if he kicked the door again, the inmate would kill him. When that inmate left, others returned with towels and ordered Palmer to clean the blood up. Palmer was so weak he was unable to stand. The other inmates kicked him a few more times then left the room and Palmer again passed out. Palmer was discovered the next day by an inmate not involved in the assault. When correctional officers entered Cell Block 2T to remove Palmer, they discovered another beaten detainee in a different room of the cell block who had been held hostage at least a day longer than Palmer. One of the jail's medical personnel examined Palmer and concluded that Palmer needed immediate hospitalization. Palmer was hospitalized for about four days and thereafter returned to the Marion County Jail and assigned to the medical block before being transferred to another correctional facility. The inmates who were allegedly involved in the beating were later prosecuted.

In June 1999, Palmer filed suit in the Marion County Superior Court, alleging that the City of Indianapolis, Marion County, and Sheriff Jack Cottey — in both his individual and official capacity — violated Palmer's constitutional rights because they were deliberately indifferent to Palmer's safety by adopting a widespread practice of segregating inmates by race as well as by failing to safeguard the health and well-being of the inmates from attacks thrust upon them by other detainees. Palmer also alleged federal civil rights and Indiana state law claims against the defendants for negligently hiring and failing to properly train and supervise correctional officers. Palmer did not name as defendants the individual correctional officers who were allegedly involved in exposing him to a serious risk of harm but did allege that these unnamed defendants violated his constitutional rights by failing to take the necessary precautionary steps to protect him after being advised of the dangers. The defendants removed the suit to federal court and after a hearing the court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants on all of Palmer's claims ruling that Palmer had failed to demonstrate that either an unconstitutional policy of the defendants existed or that it was because of such a policy that he was attacked and suffered serious injury.

II. DISCUSSION

"[T]his court reviews a grant of summary judgment de novo, viewing all of the facts and drawing all reasonable inferences therefrom in favor of the nonmoving party." Cent. States, Southeast & Southwest Areas Pension Fund v. White, 258 F.3d 636, 639 (7th Cir.2001). "Summary judgment is proper where `the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.'" Cengr v. Fusibond Piping Sys., Inc., 135 F.3d 445, 450 (7th Cir.1998) (quoting Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c)). "`Only disputes over facts that might affect the outcome of the suit under the governing law will properly preclude the entry of summary judgment. Factual disputes that are irrelevant or unnecessary will not be counted.'" Abrams v. Walker, 307 F.3d 650, 653 (7th Cir.2002) (quoting Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986)).

Palmer claims that defendants are liable under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 because they deprived Palmer of rights secured by the United States Constitution. In particular, Palmer claims the defendants violated his rights under the Eighth Amendment's Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause as incorporated into the Fourteenth Amendment. The defendants argued and the court concluded that Palmer's claims arose under the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause because he was a pretrial detainee as opposed to a convicted prisoner. See Butera v. Cottey, 285 F.3d 601, 605 (7th Cir.2002) ("Because [plaintiff] was a pretrial detainee and had not yet been convicted of a crime, his section 1983 claim is analyzed under the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause rather than under the Eighth Amendment's Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause."). The confusion about the constitutional predicate for Palmer's claims arises from the uncertainty as to whether a detainee awaiting a hearing on a probation violation can be "punished" under the Eighth Amendment. Brown v. Harris, 240 F.3d 383, 388 (4th Cir.2001) (noting the "uncertainty about whether [a detainee awaiting a hearing on a probation violation] was a pretrial detainee or a convicted prisoner"). "[T]he state does not acquire the power to punish with which the ...