Rodriguez v. Secretary for Dept. of Corrections

• Decision Date: 21 November 2007
• Docket Number: No. 05-14842.,No. 05-14600.,05-14600.,05-14842.
• Citation: 508 F.3d 611
• Parties: Miguel V. RODRIGUEZ, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SECRETARY FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, James McDonough, Everglades Correctional Institution, R. Pendleton, Assistant Warden, Nadrian Brinson, Correction Officer a.k.a. Brinston, Edna Figueroa, a.k.a. Figueroa, Correction Officer, et al., Defendants-Appellees. Miguel V. Rodriguez, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Secretary for the Department of Corrections, et al., Defendants, R. Kugler, Assistant Warden, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

508 F.3d 611

Miguel V. RODRIGUEZ, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SECRETARY FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, James McDonough, Everglades Correctional Institution, R. Pendleton, Assistant Warden, Nadrian Brinson, Correction Officer a.k.a. Brinston, Edna Figueroa, a.k.a. Figueroa, Correction Officer, et al., Defendants-Appellees.

Miguel V. Rodriguez, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Secretary for the Department of Corrections, et al., Defendants, R. Kugler, Assistant Warden, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 05-14600.

No. 05-14842.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

November 21, 2007.

Paul A. Avron, Berger Singerman, P.A., Boca Raton, FL, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

David Jay Glantz, Charles Melvin Fahlbusch, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, for Defendants.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Before ANDERSON, MARCUS and COX, Circuit Judges.

ANDERSON, Circuit Judge:

Appellant Miguel V. Rodriguez, a Florida prisoner, filed this § 1983 suit against two prison officials, Appellees Raymond Kugler and Charles Johnson, alleging that they violated his Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.¹ Specifically, Rodriguez says that while he was being held in administrative segregation he informed Kugler and Johnson that members of his former gang had threatened to kill him upon his release into the general prison population. He therefore asked Kugler and Johnson to place him in protective custody or, alternatively, to transfer him from the prison. Rodriguez says that despite being confronted with the information of the death threats and his requests for protection, Kugler and Johnson recommended that he be released into the general population. Mere hours after reentering the general population, Rodriguez was violently assaulted — stabbed in the back and chest with a shank — by Arnold Cleveland, a member of the Latin Kings. Rodriguez says that Kugler's and Johnson's failure to take reasonable steps aimed at preventing the attack, the threat of which each was subjectively aware, violated the Eighth Amendment under Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825, 114 S.Ct. 1970, 128 L.Ed.2d 811 (1994).

Following discovery, the district court granted summary judgment to Kugler, holding that Rodriguez's complaints about the threats to his life did not contain "specific facts" sufficient to show that Kugler had subjective knowledge of the risk. In reaching this determination, the district court relied exclusively on our decision in Carter v. Galloway, 352 F.3d 1346 (11th Cir.2003).

Rodriguez's claim against Johnson went to trial. After Rodriguez presented his case in chief, Johnson moved for judgment as a matter of law. The district court granted Johnson's motion, holding that he did not cause the Eighth Amendment violation because he did not have the final authority to order Rodriguez's release into the general prison population.

Rodriguez appeals both rulings. After oral argument and a thorough review of the record, we vacate the judgment of the district court with respect to both Kugler and Johnson and remand both claims for further proceedings.

With respect to Kugler, we conclude that: (1) there are genuine issues of material fact regarding whether he was subjectively aware that Rodriguez faced a substantial risk of serious harm; (2) this appeal does not require us to address the reasonableness of Kugler's response to the risk of harm facing Rodriguez; and (3) there is evidence in the summary-judgment record from which a reasonable juror could find a causal connection between Kugler's actions and the Eighth Amendment violation.

With respect to Johnson, we conclude that: (1) a reasonable juror could find, based on the evidence presented at trial, that Johnson was subjectively aware that Rodriguez faced a substantial risk of serious harm; (2) this appeal does not require us to address the reasonableness of Johnson's response to the risk of harm facing Rodriguez; and (3) a reasonable juror could find, based on the evidence presented at trial, a causal connection between Johnson's actions and the Eighth Amendment violation.

I. FACTS

These are the facts taken in the light most favorable to Rodriguez, construing all reasonable inferences in his favor.² In 2002, Rodriguez was an inmate at the Everglades Correctional Institution (ECI) in Miami, Florida. Raymond Kugler was the Assistant Warden for Operations at ECI and, in that capacity, shared responsibility for prison security. Charles Johnson was the Colonel of ECI and was, in that capacity, the chief of prison security.

During the winter of 2002, Rodriguez was under "close management," which in ECI parlance means that he was segregated from the general prison population³ for security purposes. Rodriguez had been in close management since January 2001 because of an ongoing investigation of gang activity at ECI and because he had assaulted a fellow inmate while in the compound. On at least one previous occasion, Rodriguez had been placed in close management in response to his request that the prison provide him protection.

While under close management in early 2002, Rodriguez "learned that gang members at ECI wanted to kill [him]." Pl.'s Decl. ¶ 4. Those who wanted to kill him were members of his former gang, the Latin Kings, which had a particularly strong presence at ECI. They wanted to kill Rodriguez as retribution for his having renounced his membership. On at least two occasions while under close management, Rodriguez verbally told Kugler "of the threat made against my life" by members of his former gang and "asked [Kugler] that I be transferred to another correctional institution for my protection." Id. ¶ 5. Rodriguez's transfer request was "in addition to requesting that [I] be placed in protective custody."⁴ Id. Kugler took no action with respect to Rodriguez's allegations or his requests for protection.

Rodriguez also spoke to Johnson on a number of occasions regarding the threats on his life. According to his trial testimony, Rodriguez, beginning in March 2002, told Johnson "[t]hat I was afraid for my life and that I didn't want to go out to the compound and that he should give me protection and give me a transfer" from ECI. Trial Tr. I at 104-05. Rodriguez specifically informed Johnson that his life had been threatened by members of the Latin Kings. Rodriguez explained to Johnson why he was scared of the Latin King members at ECI, stating that "they would shout at me, telling me that they were going to kill me." Id. at 139. One of Rodriguez's fellow inmates, Antania Tyrone Flowers, testified at trial to a conversation that he overheard between Rodriguez and Johnson. In that conversation, Rodriguez asked Johnson for protection from the gang members in the compound and, specifically, that he be transferred to another prison. According to Flowers, Johnson responded that "he was going to look into it and ... get with the classification officer ..., and he'd let [Rodriguez] know what they [were] going to do about that." Trial Tr. II at 201. Johnson, however, did not "look into" anything, did not "get with" anyone, and did not otherwise tell anyone about Rodriguez's safety concerns. Nor did he act on those concerns himself, something he was authorized to do.

In addition to verbally expressing his security concerns to Kugler and Johnson, Rodriguez also filed with ECI a written form, known as an Inmate Request form, dated February 18, 2002, in which he stated: "I have a problem with another inmate in this compound. I want you to tell me my status here where I am. I submitted a request for protection. I want to know ... whether you are going to give me a transfer." The February 18 Inmate Request form, submitted while Rodriguez was still under close management, was addressed to both the "Warden" and the "Asst. Warden."⁵ Id. Rodriguez received a response from someone at ECI, communicated on the bottom of the Inmate Request form itself, before the attack occurred. ECI's response acknowledged an ongoing investigation into gang activity among the prison population.

Submitting an Inmate Request form is not the only way a prisoner at ECI may bring a security concern to the attention of the appropriate officials. Johnson, who (like Kugler) had frequent face-to-face contact with inmates at ECI, testified in his deposition that inmates may also bring their security concerns directly to ECI officials through informal conversation. ECI officials knew what to do when faced with such concerns because ECI had in place an established protocol for dealing with situations in which a prisoner reports that he fears his life is in jeopardy. According to Johnson, the protocol is triggered as follows:

[If an inmate] comes to me and state[s] that he is in fear for his life, I am going to make him stand right there and I'm going to call the shift supervisor and explain to the shift supervisor, "This inmate stated he's in fear for his life, please place him in administrative confinement until we do a protective management review."

Johnson Dep. at 24.

Johnson explained that a "protective management review" entails having a sergeant "go and investigate" the inmate's claims. Such a review requires that the sergeant "get all the statements from everybody" that the inmate says he is having trouble with. Id. Once that process is complete, according to Johnson, if the prisoner's safety concerns are substantiated, the appropriate prison officials "get[] together and we normally recommend he [the complaining inmate] be transferred from the institution." Id. at 25.⁶ No protective management review was ever initiated in response to the safety concerns expressed by Rodriguez.

On April 3, 2002, a Classification Review meeting was held to determine whether Rodriguez was ready to be released from close management back into the general population. Such meetings are convened periodically for inmates under close management, and there is nothing in the record to...