Smith v. Mensinger

• Decision Date: 11 June 2002
• Docket Number: No. 99-1382.,99-1382.
• Parties: Carl M. SMITH, Appellant, v. Robin MENSINGER; David Novitsky; Jerome Paulukonis; Mary Canino; Paul Burgard; Martin Dragovich, Jeffrey Yurkiewicz, Paul Androshick, Bernard McCole, James Zubris, and Raymond Jones.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

293 F.3d 641

Carl M. SMITH, Appellant, v. Robin MENSINGER; David Novitsky; Jerome Paulukonis; Mary Canino; Paul Burgard; Martin Dragovich, Jeffrey Yurkiewicz, Paul Androshick, Bernard McCole, James Zubris, and Raymond Jones.

No. 99-1382.

United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.

Argued: July 31, 2001.

Filed: June 11, 2002.

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Deena J. Schneider (argued), Matthew B. Holmwood, Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis, LLP, Philadelphia, PA, for appellant.

Calvin R. Koons (argued), John G. Knorr, III, Office of Attorney General, Appellate Litigation Section, Harrisburg, PA, for appellees.

Before: BECKER, Chief Judge, and McKEE and WEIS, Circuit Judges.

OPINION OF THE COURT

McKEE, Circuit Judge.

Carl M. Smith, an inmate at the Pennsylvania State Correctional Facility at Frackville ("SCI-Frackville") filed this civil rights action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging that certain corrections officers and prison employees denied him due process of law and/or violated his Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. The district court dismissed Smith's due process claims against some of the defendants under FED. R.CIV.P. 12(b)(6), but Smith was allowed to proceed on his Eighth Amendment claims. The court subsequently granted summary judgment against Smith and in favor of the defendants on all of Smith's claims. For the reasons that follow, we will reverse in part and affirm in part, and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I. Background

A. The Misconduct Reports

Sometime during the morning of June 3, 1995, Corrections Officer Robin Mensinger issued a misconduct report citing Smith with refusing to obey an order to return to his cell after cell cleanup, and for using foul language towards a corrections officer. Later that afternoon, Mensinger cited Smith in a second misconduct report for allegedly punching her in the eye. That evening, Sergeant Paulukonis issued a third misconduct report against Smith. That report cited Smith for assaulting corrections officers as they were escorting him to the Restricted Housing Unit ("RHU").

Smith denies that he assaulted Mensinger or struggled with other corrections officers later that evening. He admits that he did not return to his cell when Mensinger requested him to, but claims that he only refused because his cell was still wet. According to Smith, Mensinger was drunk and out of control when she issued the first misconduct report. He claims that as he was leaving his cell during an organized prisoner movement later that day, he heard a whistle blow and looked up to see Mensinger pointing at him. A few seconds later, Corrections Officers Jones and Yoder purportedly arrived on the cell block. Smith claims that Mensinger told the corrections officers that Smith had punched her in the eye. Smith maintains that Yoder then handcuffed him behind his back, and walked him to a bench where Smith was ordered to sit down. According to Smith, other corrections officers (including Androshick, Zubris and McCole) entered the area a few minutes later. The officers then purportedly grabbed Smith by both arms and followed Corrections Officer Novitsky to the Unit Manager's Office. There, Smith claims that Yurkiewicz and Jones joined the group and Yoder left.

Once inside the Unit Manager's Office, the officers allegedly rammed Smith's head into walls and cabinets and knocked him to the floor. He claims that while he was on the floor, Yurkiewicz kicked and punched him, and Novitsky "pulled him to his feet, pushed him against the wall, punched him in the stomach, and choked him with both hands...." Brief for Appellant at 15. Smith alleges that Paulukonis saw the beating, but did nothing to intervene or restore order.

Smith further alleges that after the beating in the Unit Manager's office, two or three guards took him to the RHU where Yurkiewicz placed him face-down on a bench, tightened the handcuffs as much as possible, and hit him on the back of the head while verbally threatening him and showering him with racial epithets.

B. Smith's Injuries

Smith alleges that his head was bleeding and the beating also resulted in pain in his ribs, ears, and right eye. His ribs were purportedly red and bruised and remained sore for a couple of weeks after the beating. Smith was seen by the medical staff each of the following two days, but according to the medical records, he was treated only for chronic asthma. In his deposition, Smith stated that a doctor gave him ice for his ribs and told him to keep a wet towel against them the day after the incident. However, a report prepared by the defendants' medical expert states that an examination of Smith soon after the incident failed to disclose any wounds, marks, or bruises near his rib cage or anywhere else.

C. The Aftermath of the June 3, 1995 Incident

On June 4, 1995, Pennsylvania State Trooper Leo Luciani interviewed Smith regarding Smith's alleged attack of Mensinger. During that interview Luciani purportedly showed Smith a photograph of Mensinger that Smith claims supports his claim that he never hit her in the face. Nevertheless, the Commonwealth filed a criminal complaint against Smith based upon Mensinger's allegation, and Luciani testified for the prosecution at the preliminary hearing on those charges. The charges included assault, assault by a prisoner, and retaliation for past official action. The Commonwealth subsequently added the charge of disorderly conduct, and Smith eventually pled nolo contendere to that charge. The trial court then granted the Commonwealth's request to nol pros the remaining charges.

Meanwhile, a hearing on the three misconduct reports was scheduled at SCI-Frackville, and Smith completed a "Request for Representation" form listing two inmates he wanted to call as witnesses at that hearing. He claims that those two inmates would have testified that he did not strike Mensinger as she had charged. When Smith arrived at the hearing, Hearing Officer Mary Canino informed him that his witnesses were not available and that the hearing would be delayed until that afternoon.¹ However, the hearing did not proceed that afternoon, and Smith was transferred to the State Correctional Institution at Mahoney ("SCI-Mahoney") the next day.

Smith's misconduct hearing reconvened at SCI-Mahoney a few days later. However, since Smith's witnesses remained at SCI-Frackville, Canino offered to continue the hearing to afford Smith an opportunity to submit written statements from his witnesses. Smith refused the offer because he did not trust that prison officials would obtain accurate statements. Rather than submit those statements, Smith sought a continuance in order to attempt to recover the allegedly exculpatory photograph that Trooper Luciani had shown him. Canino denied Smith's request for a continuance, and Smith's hearing on the misconduct reports proceeded without his witnesses.

Canino credited the testimony against Smith, and found Smith guilty of the conduct charged in all three misconduct reports. He received seven months disciplinary confinement for assaulting Mensinger and for resisting the officers who were escorting him to the RHU. Canino also ordered that Smith's prison account be assessed for "medical and other expenses" to pay for contact lenses for Officer Mensinger even though no evidence of any such expenses had been produced at the hearing. App. at 63. Accordingly $165.00 was deducted from Smith's inmate account. Smith challenged that action by filing a grievance in which he complained that there was insufficient evidence to debit his account to buy Mensinger lenses. He also unsuccessfully appealed to the Program Review Committee, and to Superintendent Dragovich.

II. Procedural History

On May 23, 1997, Smith filed the instant pro se civil rights action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against Corrections Officers Mensinger, Novitsky, and Paulukonis; as well as Hearing Officer Canino, and Business Manager Burgard. The defendants were each sued individually and in their official capacity. Smith later joined Corrections Officers Yurkiewicz, Androshick, McCole, Zubris, and Jones as well as Superintendent Dragovich.

Smith claimed that several corrections officers used excessive force during the June 3 incident, and that they thereafter falsified reports regarding that incident in order to cover up their use of excessive force. Smith also claimed that Canino violated his due process rights by improperly assessing his inmate account, and that Burgard and Dragovich did not adequately investigate his grievance on appeal.

Although the district court granted Smith's request to amend his Complaint to join Dragovich as a defendant, the court later dismissed the claim against Dragovich as well as Smith's claim against unknown defendant, "John Doe." Mensinger, Paulukonis, Canino, and Burgard thereafter moved to dismiss Smith's claims against them pursuant to FED.R.CIV.P. 12(b)(6). The district court granted that motion. In an unreported opinion, Smith v. Luciani, Nos. CIV.A. 97-3037, CIV.A. 97-3613, 1998 WL 151803 (E.D.Pa. March 31, 1998) (hereinafter "Smith I"), the district court explained that since Smith did not have a liberty interest in remaining in the general prison population, he could not establish a due process claim based upon being placed in disciplinary custody. The court also dismissed Smith's claim against Mensinger based in part upon its belief that the claim constituted an improper collateral attack on Smith's disorderly conduct conviction.

The district court allowed Smith to proceed against the remaining corrections officers on his Eighth Amendment claim, but later granted defendants' motion for summary judgment, dismissing that claim, as well. In a second unreported opinion, Smith v. Mensinger, No. CIV.A. 97-3613, 1999 WL 178539 (E.D.Pa. March 31, 1999) (hereinafter "Smith II"), the court concluded that Smith could not prevail under the Eighth...