Shorts v. Bartholomew

• Decision Date: 20 February 2009
• Docket Number: No. M2008-00049-SC-R23-CQ.,M2008-00049-SC-R23-CQ.
• Citation: 278 S.W.3d 268
• Parties: Michael Lee SHORTS v. Bendell BARTHOLOMEW, In his Official Capacity as the Sheriff of Carroll County, Tennessee.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

278 S.W.3d 268

Michael Lee SHORTS v. Bendell BARTHOLOMEW, In his Official Capacity as the Sheriff of Carroll County, Tennessee.

No. M2008-00049-SC-R23-CQ.

Supreme Court of Tennessee, at Jackson.

November 5, 2008 Session.

February 20, 2009.

Benjamin S. Dempsey, Huntingdon, Tennessee, for the Plaintiff/Adverse Party, Michael Lee Shorts.

Brandon O. Gibson and Jon A. York, Jackson, Tennessee, for the Defendant/Movant, Bendell Bartholomew.

Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General and Reporter; Michael E. Moore, Solicitor General; and Kimberly J. Dean, Deputy Attorney General, for the Amicus Curiae, State of Tennessee.

OPINION

CORNELIA A. CLARK, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which JANICE M. HOLDER, C.J., GARY R. WADE, WILLIAM C. KOCH, JR., and SHARON G. LEE, JJ., joined.

We accepted a question of law certified by the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee: whether Tennessee Code Annotated section 8-8-201(a)(3) imposes any duty upon a Tennessee sheriff to calculate the release date and order the release of a Tennessee Department of Correction ("TDOC") prisoner who is serving a period of incarceration in a county jail. We answer that question in the negative. We also conclude that, notwithstanding erroneous information contained in the relevant judgment orders of conviction entered against Plaintiff, the trial court imposed a sentence of split confinement on Plaintiff. See Tenn.Code Ann. § 40-35-306(a) (2006). Sentences of split confinement are required by Tennessee Code Annotated section 40-35-314(a) to be served in a local jail or workhouse. Plaintiff was not, therefore, a TDOC prisoner. We hold that Tennessee Code Annotated section 8-8-201(a)(1) & (3) does impose a duty upon the sheriff to calculate the release date and order the release of prisoners sentenced to a sentence of split confinement.

I. Facts and Procedural History¹

Plaintiff Michael Lee Shorts was arrested on July 10, 2002, and incarcerated in the Carroll County jail pending resolution of several charges against him. On September 9, 2002, he pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, burglary of a vehicle, and two counts of misdemeanor theft. The trial court imposed sentences of eight years, three years, and one year, respectively, and eleven months, twenty-nine days for each of the two theft convictions. The sentences were run concurrently to one another, resulting in an effective sentence of eight years.² As to manner of service, the trial court ordered that Plaintiff serve one year in confinement followed by seven years of probation. Under Tennessee law, this type of sentence structure is known as "split confinement" or "shock probation." See Tenn.Code Ann. § 40-35-306 (2006), Sentencing Comm'n Cmts. Subsequently, on January 13, 2003, Plaintiff pleaded guilty to burglary of a vehicle and four counts of forgery. The trial court imposed sentences of one year for each of these offenses and ran them concurrently to each other and the previous sentences. Plaintiff was ordered to serve these latter sentences by six months in confinement followed by six months of probation; thus, Plaintiff's overall effective sentence remained one year in confinement followed by seven years on probation.

The Judgment Order for each felony reflects that Plaintiff was "Sentenced to TDOC" but that he was to be released on probation after service of a period of confinement, the longest period being one year. Further, each judgment gave Plaintiff credit for time already served in the Carroll County jail, back to his original incarceration date of July 10, 2002. If the judgments had been enforced as written, Plaintiff would have completed serving one year no later than July 10, 2003. However, he remained continuously incarcerated in the Carroll County jail until February 13, 2004.

Beginning in April 2003, Plaintiff began asking about a release date. His first inquiry was to the TDOC. Amber Phillips, an employee of the TDOC's Sentence Management Services responded on May 10, 2003, by a letter that simply stated, "You are serving a split confinement. The jail will calculate your sentence."

Plaintiff then approached Sue Barnes, Chief Jailer for the Carroll County jail, about his release date. Barnes attested by affidavit that she contacted Tennessee Board of Probation and Parole ("TBPP") officer Jeff Barnett on several occasions to try to resolve the issue, but never received a satisfactory response.³ Accordingly, Plaintiff's one year anniversary date passed on July 10, 2003, with no prospect of his release.

After months of inactivity, on February 11, 2004, Plaintiff's family retained counsel to investigate the situation. On February 12, 2004, Donna Meggs, an employee of retained counsel, contacted Barnes and obtained Plaintiff's jail records. Meggs attested by affidavit that those records consisted of (1) a copy of the judgments, which reflected a split sentence of one year and jail credit back to July 10, 2002; (2) the jail roster, which noted a sentence of one year and a beginning date of July 10, 2002; (3) the letter from Amber Phillips of the TDOC; and (4) the written inquiries previously made by Plaintiff. Meggs then spoke with TBPP officer Barnett, who advised her that the TDOC had no involvement with split sentence release dates. On February 13, 2004, Meggs spoke with Terry Dickey, Chief Deputy of the Carroll County Sheriff's Department, and informed him of her conversation with Barnett in which Barnett had indicated that local jail officials were responsible for calculating Plaintiff's release date.

Both Chief Deputy Sheriff Dickey and Chief Jailer Barnes attested by affidavit that they spoke with each other on February 13, 2004, about the release date for Plaintiff. Dickey attested that after speaking with Barnes, he contacted Jeff Barnett at "TDOC."⁴ Barnes attested that Barnett contacted her on that same day and told her that Plaintiff had served his time and to release him. Plaintiff was released that day.

Plaintiff filed this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action in the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, Eastern Division, on February 10, 2005. The complaint alleged that Defendants Carroll County, Tennessee, and Sheriff Bartholomew, in both his individual and official capacity, violated Plaintiff's federal constitutional rights by causing him to remain incarcerated beyond his release date. Neither Sue Barnes, Jeff Barnett, Terry Dickey, Amber Phillips, nor the TDOC were named as defendants in the lawsuit.

Both Plaintiff and Defendants filed motions for summary judgment. On May 26, 2006, the District Court granted Sheriff Bartholomew's and Carroll County's motions for summary judgment, denied Plaintiff's motion for summary judgment, and entered judgment in favor of Sheriff Bartholomew and Carroll County. The court found that Plaintiff had failed to produce any evidence that either Sheriff Bartholomew or Carroll County "caused" his unlawful detention and concluded that

no official or employee at the Carroll County Jail or in the Carroll County Sheriff's Department had unilateral discretion either to "calculate" [Plaintiff's] "sentence expiration" and "release" date or to determine that [Plaintiff] could be released without instructions either from a judge or from someone at the state department of correction.

Furthermore, although the court recognized that a jailer might have some obligation to investigate a claim of illegal detention, it noted that there was no evidence in the record that Sheriff Bartholomew knew of or participated in the inquiries and investigations regarding Plaintiff's or any other inmate's release date. Also absent was any evidence that Carroll County had a particular "policy" in this area.

Plaintiff appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The Sixth Circuit noted the three elements of a proper claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983:(1) the violation (2) of a right secured by the Constitution and laws of the United States (3) committed by a person acting under color of state law. Shorts v. Bartholomew, 255 Fed.App'x 46, 51 (6th Cir.2007). The court determined that Plaintiff's claim properly alleged a violation—that he was incarcerated beyond his release date. Id. Further, the court acknowledged established case law holding that when a prisoner's sentence has expired, he is entitled to release. Id. Finally, the court held that the third element— that the violation was committed by a person acting under color of state law—was "beyond dispute." Id. at 52. The latter finding rested on the language of the statute at issue in this Rule 23 appeal, that "[i]t is the sheriff's duty to ... [t]ake charge and custody of the jail of the sheriff's county, and of the prisoners therein; receive those lawfully committed, and keep them personally, or by deputies or jailer, until discharged by law...." Tenn.Code Ann. § 8-8-201(a)(3) (Supp.2008).⁵ See also Tenn.Code Ann. § 8-8-221(a) (2002) (providing that, except for state prisoners held in the county jail, "no person shall be incarcerated in the county jail without the approval of the sheriff, or the sheriff's designee, subject to approval of the court having criminal jurisdiction over the sheriff's jurisdiction"). The court concluded that "the Sheriff is the final policymaker over the operation of the jail." Shorts, 255 Fed.App'x at 52 (citing Heflin v. Stewart County, 958 F.2d 709, 713 (6th Cir.1992)).

Plaintiff alleged two alternate theories of recovery: either that Sheriff Bartholomew directly caused the harm, or that Sheriff Bartholomew failed to prevent the harm by his deliberate indifference to the risk that prisoners would be unlawfully detained beyond the period of their adjudged incarceration. After analyzing Plaintiff's theories of recovery, the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld the District Court's grant of summary judgment as to the suit against Sheriff Bartholomew in his...