Strouss v. Michigan Dept. of Corrections
| Decision Date | 29 November 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. 98-CV-72658-DT.,98-CV-72658-DT. |
| Citation | 75 F.Supp.2d 711 |
| Parties | Susan STROUSS, Plaintiff, v. MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, a state agency, and Marie Fletcher, and Gerald DeVoss, in their individual capacities, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Michigan |
Christine A. Green, Ann Arbor, MI, for plaintiff.
Marie Shamraj, Dept. of Atty. General, Lansing, MI, for defendant.
This Title VII/Section 1983 due process and equal protection action is presently before the Court on Defendants' Motion to Dismiss and/or for Summary Judgment. Plaintiff has responded to Defendants' Motion. The Court has reviewed and considered the parties' respective briefs and supporting documents and has determined that oral argument on this matter is not necessary. Therefore, as counsel for the parties were advised, pursuant to Local Rule 7.1(e)(2), the Court will decide this matter on the briefs. This Opinion and Order sets forth the Court's ruling.
Plaintiff Susan Strouss, a 40-year-old white female, is a former Michigan Department of Corrections nurse. Ms. Strouss began working for the MDOC in 1992 as a staff nurse on the 3-East Unit of Duane Waters Hospital on the premises of the State Prison of Southern Michigan in Jackson. She was subsequently promoted to an RN12 Nurse-Manager position. While working on 3-East, Plaintiff worked the first shift (5:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.)
In late 1993, one of Plaintiff's subordinates, Teresa Walters, complained to her of sexual harassment by Wardell Brown, who was Plaintiff's immediate superior. Plaintiff claims she took Walters' complaint to Nancy Duckworth, the Assistant Director of Nursing, who, in turn, allegedly took the complaint to Defendant Marie Fletcher, the Director of Nursing. Strouss claims that Duckworth and Fletcher promised to take care of the matter, but nothing ever happened. Instead, Plaintiff claims that after complaining of Brown's sexual harassment, Brown began to accuse her with not doing her work. Eventually, in April 1994, Plaintiff was transferred out of Brown's 3-East Unit to the 3-West (Chronic Care) Unit1 where she remained until July 1997. During this entire time period, Plaintiff worked the first shift, i.e., the same shift she worked while on 3-East.
During her three-year tenure in the Chronic Care Unit, it appears that there were a number of patient complaints concerning Plaintiff's care. Although Defendant Fletcher testified that she never criticized Plaintiff in a performance evaluation in connection with any of the prisoner-patient complaints she admitted that she took the complaints into consideration in deciding to reassign Plaintiff in July 1997, after disciplinary charges for failing to abide by work rules were brought against her.
On June 4, 1997, Plaintiff was charged with violation of several Department Work Rules.2 The charges rose out of two incidents — one for violating a directive that she was to take another nurse with her into the room whenever administering to one particular prisoner. The other was for failing to call an eye specialist regarding a pre-surgical medication that was to be administered to another prisoner. Plaintiff was notified of the charges against her by Defendants Gerald DeVoss and Marie Fletcher and was suspended without pay as of June 5, 1997, pending an investigation into the charges. The suspension-pending-investigation lasted five days, through June 11, 1997, [see Defendants' Ex. B], during which time Inspector Brad Balance and Nurse Nancy Duckworth conducted an investigation. Plaintiff Strouss refused to participate in the investigation.3 The investigators submitted their reports on June 13 and July 1. [See Plaintiffs' Ex. 7 and 8.]
A Disciplinary Conference was convened by Defendant DeVoss on August 19, 1997 at which conference Nancy Duckworth, Plaintiff Susan Strouss, and her AFSCME representative, Marsha Kelly, were present. R. Cole Bouck, Regional Administrative Assistant, presided as hearing officer. At this Disciplinary Conference, Mr. Bouck focused only on the two specific incidents discussed above — i.e., entering a patient's room alone and the physician's order for eyedrops. Plaintiff was given an opportunity to present her side of the story as to both of these incidents. [See Defendants' Ex. B; Plaintiff's Ex. 6].4 After the Disciplinary Conference, Plaintiff was found guilty of the Rules violations alleged and given a five-day unpaid suspension. She was credited for the time she was suspended pending the investigation and, therefore, was not further disciplined for these incidents. [See Defendants' Ex. B.] Plaintiff alleges that she grieved the disciplinary action taken against her through the Civil Service to the third step. [Complaint, ¶ 83.] She claims, however, that the departmental investigator refused to take the matter on to the adjudicatory level, id, and she did nothing further to pursue the matter.
Meanwhile, while the investigation into the charges of rules violations was still in progress, on July 9, 1997, Plaintiff was informed that she was being transferred to the Central Complex facility, effective July 14, 1997, due to operational needs. Although not entailing any change in salary or status, this transfer was to the second shift (2:00 p.m.-10:30 p.m.). Strouss complained that the change to the second shift would conflict with her taking classes that she needed to complete her degree at Ferris State University. She further complained that there were prisoners housed in the Central Complex who had made threats against her. Plaintiff took her complaints to Jacklyn Jackson, Regional Director of Nursing for Outpatient Care (also known as "Ambulatory Care"). In response to Plaintiff's concerns, Ms. Jackson placed Strouss on the day shift as a staff nurse in Ambulatory Care at the Joseph Cotton Facility without any decrease in her pay.
Jacklyn Jackson stated in her deposition and her subsequent Affidavit that Plaintiff was told at the time of her assignment to the Joseph Cotton Facility that that assignment was only temporary; that they were in the process of interviewing for permanent day shift positions. She encouraged Plaintiff to interview for these positions because once they were filled, Plaintiff would have to return to her RN12 Manager position in Central Complex.5 Plaintiff counters that she was told by Ms. Jackson that her transfer to the day shift in Ambulatory Care was to be permanent; that she did not have to interview for the positions, but rather, only had to give Ms. Jackson her social security number so her name could be placed on the "register" for the open positions. This, Plaintiff said, she did.
With respect to Plaintiff's concern about placement in Central Complex because of threats allegedly made by prisoners who were housed there, Jacklyn Jackson testified that she told Plaintiff to give her the names and prisoner numbers of these alleged prisoner enemies, but Plaintiff never did so. Plaintiff disputes this. Although not disputing that she never gave Ms. Jackson prisoner numbers and that she never provided the prisoners' names in writing, she claims that she did at least verbally tell Ms. Jackson who the prisoners were who had made threats against her.
Plaintiff worked in Ambulatory Care at the Cotton Facility apparently without incident for the next few months. Then, on October 2, 1997, Plaintiff told her immediate supervisor, Nancy Lange, about some inappropriate comments (about her "butt") made by one of the contract doctors, Dr. Donovan Givens, who worked there. Plaintiff, however, did not want to file a formal complaint of sexual harassment against Dr. Givens. Nonetheless, Nancy Lange reported the incident to the sexual harassment counselor at the facility, and also informed Dr. Gregory Naylor, Dr. Givens' supervisor, and Gerald DeVoss, the Regional Health Care Administrator, about the matter. A few days later, Dr. Givens was transferred out of Ambulatory Care.
On October 20, 1997, Plaintiff was informed by Jacklyn Jackson that she was being transferred back to the Central Complex Facility to work the second shift as originally scheduled. Ms. Jackson's October 20 Memorandum to Plaintiff stated:
Effective November 3, 1997, it will be necessary for you to report to SMI/JMF on the afternoon shift 2:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.
You have expressed to me that you have concerns regarding certain "prisoners" locking in this area. If this is still so, you must supply me with the names and numbers by October 23, 1997.
As mutually discussed and agreed upon, you were temporarily assigned to JCF on the day shift to allow you the opportunity to orient to ambulatory care and to interview for anticipated 6:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. positions here in Jackson. These positions have been filled and the JCF staff is up to complement.
Plaintiff claims that on October 21, 1997 she again gave Jacklyn Jackson the names of the prisoners housed in Central Complex who had threatened her and that Jackson said she would "see what she could do about it." [Plaintiff's Dep. p. 164.] Plaintiff testified in her deposition that, "[t]hat just wasn't good enough for me, and I told her I would have to give her my resignation." Id. Strouss had two weeks of sick leave time so she took the next two weeks off and on November 4, 1997, quit her job. Id. at 165-66.
On November 20, 1997, Plaintiff filed an EEOC complaint charging the Michigan Department of Corrections with retaliation. Unlike her previous August 1994 charge, Plaintiff did not indicate that this was a "continuing action," but rather indicated only that the date on which the alleged wrongful retaliation took place was "10/20/97," i.e., the date on which Plaintiff was notified that ...
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