Spann v. Strain
| Decision Date | 09 December 2016 |
| Docket Number | CIVIL ACTION NO. 16-4126 SECTION "E" (2) |
| Parties | KELTON L. SPANN v. SHERIFF RODNEY STRAIN ET AL. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Louisiana |
Plaintiff, Kelton L. Spann, was a prisoner formerly incarcerated in the St. Tammany Parish Prison in Covington, Louisiana. He paid this court's filing fee and filed this complaint pro se pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Rodney J. Strain, Lieutenant Jerry P. Miller, Jr., Deputy Patrick Smith and Detective Shane Wilkinson ("the Sheriff's Defendants"), and four civilian defendants, Tommy Warder, Allen Tingle, Robert Hanson and Lester Mitchell, who worked for St. Tammany Workforce Solutions, LLC ("the Workforce Solutions Defendants"), a work-release program and halfway house in which plaintiff participated.
Spann alleges that, while he was incarcerated in the St. Tammany Parish Prison and the work release program, (1) the Workforce Solutions Defendants delayed his release from prison on his conviction by failing timely to send to the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections ("DOC") a certification that Spann had completed a rehabilitation program on December 16, 2015 that qualified him for early release; (2) although he was scheduled for early release on January 13, 2016, defendants extended his release date until June 24, 2016 in retaliation for his having sent an Administrative Remedy Procedure ("ARP") grievance to Secretary James Le Blanc of the DOC on December 31, 2015, complaining that defendants had not timely sent the certification to the DOC; (3) in retaliation for that grievance and for his having told defendant Tingle that plaintiff would bring defendants Tingle and Mitchell before a federal judge regarding their failure to send a timely certification, defendants filed a false disciplinary charge against him and that his conviction on the disciplinary charge resulted in the loss of 180 days of "good time" credit; (4) also in retaliation for the grievance and for having told Tingle that plaintiff would bring Tingle and Mitchell before a federal judge, defendants filed a false criminal charge against him, which further delayed his release from June 24 until August 4, 2016; (5) the Workforce Solutions Defendants destroyed plaintiff's property in retaliation for his complaint about their delay in sending in his certification; (6) defendants discriminated against Spann, an African-American, based on his race because Caucasian prisoners who were caught with mojo did not receive disciplinary or criminal charges; and (7) Sheriff Strain failed to train and supervise his employees properly to prevent the alleged constitutional violations. Plaintiff seeks compensatory and punitive damages. Record Doc. No. 6, Complaint at p. 38.
On August 11, 2016, I conducted a telephone conference in this matter. Record Doc. No. 18. Participating were plaintiff pro se and Chadwick Collings, counsel for theSheriff's Defendants. Plaintiff was sworn and testified for all purposes permitted by Spears v. McCotter, 766 F.2d 179 (5th Cir. 1985), and its progeny.
Collings stated during the conference and in a subsequent letter to the court that the Workforce Solutions Defendants were never Sheriff's employees, but that they operated a halfway house under a contract with the Sheriff on property leased from the Sheriff. Collings stated that Workforce Solutions vacated the building when the lease expired on July 1, 2016, and that he had no information about the home addresses of the Workforce Solutions Defendants. Record Doc. No. 23.
Plaintiff received an extension of time to serve the Workforce Solutions Defendants. Record Doc. No. 33. After returns of service on these defendants were filed in the record, Record Doc. Nos. 36-39, defendants moved on November 10, 2016 for an extension of time to answer the complaint. Record Doc. No. 41.
Following the telephone conference, plaintiff provided the court with an extract of minutes of the Twenty-Second Judicial District Court for St. Tammany Parish dated August 15, 2016, stating that the matter of State of Louisiana vs. Kelton Spann, No. 572160, was "nolle prossed." Record Doc. No. 35 at p. 3. Staff of the undersigned magistrate judge confirmed with the Clerk of that court that Spann was charged with a single count of possession with intent to distribute marijuana, which was dismissed at the State's request on August 15, 2016.
After the hearing, Spann sent to the court a copy of several ARP grievances that he had filed with St. Tammany Parish prison officials in 2016 and the disciplinary hearing records. Record Doc. No. 24. His submission did not include the ARP that he allegedly sent to Secretary Le Blanc on December 31, 2015.
Spann testified that he had been incarcerated in the St. Tammany Parish prison from January 2016 until August 4, 2016, when he was released after serving his sentence on a January 21, 2010 conviction1 for drug and gun charges. He said that the Workforce Solutions Defendants operated and/or worked for the halfway house where he was staying on a work-release program.
Plaintiff stated that his first claim is that defendants delayed releasing inmates, including himself, who had earned good time credit. He testified that his second claim is that the delayed release in his case was retaliatory. He said that defendants held up his good time release beginning on December 31, 2015. He testified that he was certified on December 16, 2015, as having completed a reentry rehabilitation program called CTRP ("Certified Treatment and Rehabilitation Program") offered by the DOC and that the certificate qualified him for early release on January 13, 2016. Spann stated that defendant Mitchell, the director of Workforce Solutions, was supposed to send thecertificate to the DOC, but that Mitchell did not send it until sometime in January 2016, after plaintiff filed an Administrative Remedy Procedure ("ARP") complaint with the DOC on December 31, 2015 about the delay in his release.
Spann testified that defendants' continued delay in sending the certificate after that date was in retaliation for his ARP grievance. He stated that defendant Corporal Smith informed him that the prison had received his diminution of sentence papers, but that a disciplinary report had been faxed to the prison from Workforce Solutions on the same date, so plaintiff would be held until the next day for a disciplinary hearing.
Plaintiff alleges that the disciplinary charge was false and that the charge and the hearing were retaliatory. He testified that he returned to the jail from the hospital on January 9, 2016, but that no disciplinary charge was issued until January 13, 2016, the same day that his diminution of sentence papers came and the DOC ordered his release. He stated that the disciplinary action came to the prison the day after the DOC ordered his release. He said he was held until June 24, 2016, when the DOC released him from the sentence that he was serving.
Spann said that the DOC administered the disciplinary charge at the Rayburn Correctional Center in Angie, Louisiana, where the disciplinary board was sitting, and that the board took away his good time as a result of the disciplinary proceedings. He stated that, although he was incarcerated at the St. Tammany Parish prison, disciplinary actions for DOC prisoners are conducted at Rayburn. He testified that the DOC held him beyondthe date of his scheduled release because his good time had to be forfeited, based on the disciplinary charge.
Plaintiff said that the disciplinary write-up came from Workforce Solutions on January 13, 2016, and charged him with having smoked mojo and passed out as a result. However, he said his medical records show that this was not true. He stated that defendants charged him with smoking mojo in retaliation for his complaint to Secretary Le Blanc that defendants had delayed sending the certificate of completion.
Spann testified that he passed out while working on the line at Sunbelt Plastics on January 6, 2016, and was sent to the hospital emergency room. He said he ate "Roman Noodle" soup containing a lot of sodium for lunch that day and then passed out. He stated that the doctor told him he had passed out because he was a diabetic, which he had not previously known, and because he had an "infection" in his blood, although he said he might be mispronouncing the word that the doctor told him.
Spann testified that he was taken to Slidell Memorial Hospital, where defendant Tingle, the CEO of Workforce Solutions, came to see him on January 8, 2016, and asked him about smoking synthetic marijuana. Spann said he complained to Tingle that Tingle had allowed Mitchell to withhold sending in "our credits" and sometimes not to send in the credits about "classes we had completed." Plaintiff said he told Tingle that, if Tingle did not correct the problem, Spann would present his complaints about Tingle and Mitchell to a federal judge.
Plaintiff testified that the disciplinary write-up for using synthetic marijuana was faxed to the St. Tammany Parish prison from Workforce Solutions on January 13, 2016. He alleged as his third claim that the write-up was false. He said the write-up was in retaliation for having filed his ARP complaining to the DOC about the delay in his release and for having spoken to Tingle in the hospital about allowing Mitchell not to send in Spann's credits for weeks after he was supposed to be released. Spann stated that the medical records from Slidell Memorial Hospital prove that the charge was false. He said the records show that he passed out because he had high blood pressure and high levels of both salt and sugar in his blood. He denied that he had used mojo on the day he passed out.
Spann testified that he attended a hearing on January 14, 2016 at the St. Tammany Parish jail that was conducted via satellite with the disciplinary board at Rayburn. He said he had...
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