Sanders v. Greene
| Decision Date | 14 March 2018 |
| Docket Number | Case No. 3:14-cv-1493-J-34PDB |
| Parties | CHRISTOPHER SANDERS, Plaintiff, v. JOHN C. GREENE, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Middle District of Florida |
Plaintiff Christopher Sanders, an inmate of the Florida penal system, initiated this action on December 15, 2014, by filing a Civil Rights Complaint (Doc. 1) pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. He filed an Amended Complaint (Doc. 28) on August 26, 2016, and a Second Amended Complaint (SAC; Doc. 97) on August 9, 2017. In the SAC, Sanders names the following individuals as Defendants: (1) John C. Greene; (2) Charles P. Richter; (3) John A. Coates; (4) Brandon Stratton; (5) Hope Gartman; (6) Christopher Landrum; (7) Philip E. Davis;1 (8) Nancy Crawford; (9) Thomas Wainwright; (10) Thomas North; (11) Jeffrey Beasley; (12) Michael Crews; (13) Brad A. Howard; (14) Cindy Meeks; (15) Chase Markham; (16) Chad Robertson; (17) Markus Jackson; (18) Arthur Riegel III; (19) WalterMock; (20) Daniel Russell; (21) D.P. Capen; (22) C. Lim; (23) J.O. Perry; (24) Angela Bridges; (25) Bryan Williamson; (26) Robert Lamberson; (27) Jeremy Powe; (28) C. Murphy; and (29) V. Randle. Sanders asserts that the Defendants violated his First, Fourth, and Eighth Amendment rights when they retaliated against him for filing grievances and reporting the injustices to his mother, maliciously searched his cell, used excessive force against him, and denied him proper medical treatment. As relief, Sanders requests compensatory and punitive damages and declaratory and injunctive relief.
This matter is before the Court on Defendants Beasley, Howard, North, Crawford, Greene, Markham, Mock, Richter, Riegel, Robertson, Russell, Wainwright, Powe, Lamberson, Jackson, Gartman, Crews, Landrum, Capen, Coates, Stratton and Williamson's Motion for Summary Judgment (Motion; Doc. 129) and Defendants Lim, Perry, Bridges, Meeks, Randle and Murphy's Motion for Summary Judgment (Motion II; Doc. 128). They submitted exhibits in support of their requests for summary judgment. See Def. Exs. A-QQ; Doc. 127-1.2 The Court advised Sanders of the provisions of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56, notified him that the granting of a motion to dismiss or a motion for summary judgment would represent a final adjudication of this case which may foreclose subsequent litigationon the matter, and gave him an opportunity to respond to the motions. See Summary Judgment Notice (Doc. 133); Order Directing Service of Process Upon Defendants; Notice to Plaintiff; Special Appointment (Doc. 30) at 4-5, ¶ 10. Sanders responded. See Declaration in Opposition to Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment (Response; Doc. 137) with exhibits (P. Ex.); Declaration in Opposition to Medical Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment (Response II; Doc. 141). Defendants' motions are ripe for judicial review.
In his verified SAC,4 Sanders asserts that he was housed in the inpatient mental health transitional care unit in H dormitory at Suwannee Correctional Institution (SCI). See SAC at 10, ¶ 1. He states that, on February 16, 2014, he submitted a grievance and asserted that Dr. Lim and the multi-disciplinary services team refused "to give [him] a mental health level in hopes that [he] would go off so they could jump on [him] with the cell extraction team." Id. at ¶ 2. According to Sanders, after he filed thegrievance, Greene instructed him that he should stop writing grievances and stop having his mother call the prison's administration, and if he did not, Greene "had ways of making [him] stop." Id. at 10-11, ¶ 3.
Sanders asserts that, on April 11, 2014, Richter told him that he, Richter, would put Sanders on property restriction on the following day because he "was putting as many blacks on strip (property restriction) as he could." Id. at 11, ¶ 4. Sanders states that Riegel gave him a telephone, so he called his mother and told her about Richter's plan. See id. at ¶ 5. According to Sanders, on April 12th, his mother called and informed the administration about Richter's plan. See id. at ¶ 6. He avers that, on that same day, Richter, Stratton, Coates and another officer came to his cell, and Richter told Sanders that his mother could not "save" him by contacting the administration. Id. at ¶ 7. Sanders asserts that, after that, Stratton refused to feed him lunch and dinner and told him that he was complying with Richter's directives. See id. at ¶ 8. He declares that Stratton commented that if it was his decision, he would summon "the five biggest Mother fu**ers and run in [Sanders'] cell and beat [his] ass." Id. Sanders states that Richter directed Riegel to place Sanders on property restriction "to make up for Sgt. Riegel giving Sanders the phone and to make it look like Sgt. Richter had nothing to do with it." Id. at ¶ 9. Sanders maintains that Riegel wrote a false disciplinary report(DR) against Sanders for misuse of state property, forced Sanders to sleep on a steel bunk, and confiscated Sanders' clothing and personal property to cover up his "maliciously placing Sanders on property restriction." Id. at 13, ¶ 10.
According to Sanders, on April 15th, he submitted an emergency grievance to Warden Landrum, who said he forwarded it to Inspector Beasley; however, no one interviewed Sanders, and nothing was done to remedy the misconduct. See id. at ¶ 11. Sanders asserts that, on April 17th, he informed Dr. Lim about the April 12th abuse, but she neither filed an incident report nor informed the administration. See id. at ¶ 12. He states that after speaking with Dr. Lim, Stratton escorted him back to his cell and told him that "it was just a matter of time" before he and Richter "fu** his black ass up." Id. at ¶ 13. Sanders maintains that he tried to inform Assistant Warden Mock, but Mock told him he "better get off the door before he has him put on property restriction." Id. at ¶ 14. Sanders avers that he complained to his mother, who spoke with Assistant Warden Gartman on April 18th; and Gartman directed Lieutenant Woods to escort Sanders to the medical clinic for Nurse Murphy to check him. See id. at ¶¶ 15, 16, 17.
Sanders asserts that, on April 18th, Crawford came to his cell and told him they were going to "break" him of his "little habits" (writing grievances). Id. at ¶ 18. According to Sanders, that same day, Crawford directed Robertson and Capen to take Sanders out ofhis cell, search his cell, and place him on property restriction; they would have summoned the cell extraction team if Sanders had not yelled at the handheld camera that he was not refusing to exit his cell. See id. at 14, ¶¶ 19, 20. He states that Landrum reviewed the camera footage, but "did not do anything to help Sanders." Id. at ¶ 21. Sanders declares that, on April 20th, he told Gartman about what had transpired on April 12th with Richter and Stratton and with Crawford, Robertson and Capen on April 18th. See id. at ¶ 22. According to Sanders, Gartman told him "they kick ass" at SCI, and that Sanders was "lucky" she did not oversee the cell extraction team when he initially refused to be seen by the medical staff on April 18th. Id.
Sanders maintains that, on April 21st, Richter and Greene placed a magnet over his window to try to get him to "go off" or declare a mental health emergency so they could pull him out of his cell and "jump on him in the blind spot in the hallway." Id. at ¶ 23. According to Sanders, when he refused to "go off," Greene and Richter acted like Sanders had his vent covered and told him that the camera "sees me pointing at your vent and telling you to uncover your vent[,] that's three more days on strip fu** boy." Id. at 14-15, ¶ 24. Sanders states that Richter then wrote a false DR against him to keep him on property restriction. See id. at 15, ¶ 25.
According to Sanders, on April 24th, Greene and Crawford used the cell extraction team to "jump on" him. Id. at ¶ 26. Sanders asserts that an inmate yelled to him that Greene and Crawford "were suiting up the cell extraction team," so he tied up his property in a sheet and stored it under his bunk. Id. at ¶ 27. He states that, when the cell extraction team arrived, he yelled to the camera that he was not refusing to exit and that he wanted to submit to hand restraints; nevertheless, the cell extraction team proceeded anyway. See id. at ¶ 28. He avers that Greene refused to open the food flap and permit him to submit to hand restraints and told the camera that Sanders was refusing to "cuff up." Id. at ¶ 29. Sanders describes what transpired when the cell extraction team (Powe, Jackson, Russell, Williamson, and Lamberson) initially tried to enter his cell.
[Sanders] squeezed his body past them and fell on the floor outside of his cell because [he] knew from watching Lt. Greene use the cell extraction team on other inmates that if he didn't get out [of] the cell they were going to jump on him because the fixed wing camera couldn't see what they were doing inside the cell and the officer with the handheld camera would point it at Lt. Greene's back so that what they were doing wouldn't be caught on camera.
Id. at ¶ 30. Sanders states that Williamson "pinned [him] down" with a shield on the floor outside the cell. Id. at ¶ 31. He recalls that he screamed to the handheld camera that he was outside his cell and not resisting the officers. See id. He asserts thatJackson and another officer grabbed his legs and pulled him back into the cell, and then punched, kicked, and twisted his legs and arms, while Lamberson, Powe, Williamson and Russell hit him in the back, legs, ribs and arms. See id. at 15-16, ¶ 32. Sanders contends that Jackson grabbed his left hand, dislocated Sanders' left thumb, and then popped it back into place; he screamed to the camera about what Jackson had done. See id. at 16, ¶ 32. He maintains that, although he was not resisting, Greene continued to yell "stop resisting" to cover up the misconduct. Id. at ¶ 33. He alleges...
To continue reading
Request your trial