Thompson v. Duke

• Decision Date: 14 August 1989
• Docket Number: No. 88-1147,88-1147
• Citation: 882 F.2d 1180
• Parties: Anthony Wayne THOMPSON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Cheryl L. DUKE, Chester J. Pucci, Floyd Cox, Robert Guthrie, Rita Allen, Harold Thomas, Michael Lane, Paul J. Klincar, Philip T. Hardiman, Roy Patrick, Dr. William Powell, and the County of Cook, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 1180

882 F.2d 1180

Anthony Wayne THOMPSON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Cheryl L. DUKE, Chester J. Pucci, Floyd Cox, Robert Guthrie, Rita Allen, Harold Thomas, Michael Lane, Paul J. Klincar, Philip T. Hardiman, Roy Patrick, Dr. William Powell, and the

County of Cook, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 88-1147.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued Sept. 30, 1988.

Decided Aug. 14, 1989.

Philip J. Nathanson, Nathanson & Wray, Chicago, Ill., for plaintiff-appellant.

Frank J. Parkerson, Roman Sukley, Asst. State's Attys., Office of the State's Atty. of Cook County, Karen S. Rosenwinkel, Asst. Atty. Gen., Office of the Atty. Gen., Terry L. McDonald, Joan S. Cherry, Joseph D. Ryan, Asst. State's Attys., Office of the State's Atty. of Cook County, Chicago, Ill., for defendants-appellees.

Before CUMMINGS, FLAUM, and KANNE, Circuit Judges.

KANNE, Circuit Judge.

While incarcerated and awaiting his parole violation hearing, Anthony Wayne Thompson was severely beaten by another inmate. Thompson brought a section 1983 action against various state defendants, alleging that their failure to schedule and conduct a timely parole violation hearing constituted a deprivation of his constitutionally protected liberty interests. He also sued various county defendants, alleging that their failure to instruct and train their subordinates to investigate independently the status of his case constituted a deliberate indifference to his constitutionally protected interests. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of all of the defendants-appellees. We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

On July 29, 1982, Anthony Wayne Thompson, a parolee, was arrested for burglary and incarcerated in the Cook County Jail. The next day, a court set his bond at $50,000.00 and scheduled his preliminary hearing for August 12, 1982. On that same day, Thompson's parole officer, Cheryl L. Duke, and her supervisor, Chester Pucci, issued a "parole violation warrant" based upon the burglary charge. ¹

On August 12, 1982, Thompson and his counsel appeared at the preliminary hearing on the burglary charge. Counsel called no witnesses and presented no evidence upon Thompson's behalf. The court ultimately determined that probable cause existed to believe that he had committed the offense charged and scheduled a trial for September 20, 1982. Thereafter, Duke, Pucci, and Robert Guthrie, an Illinois Department of Corrections hearing officer, scheduled Thompson's parole violation hearing for September 21, 1982, the day following the trial.

After the September 20 trial, the court acquitted Thompson of burglary. He was returned to the Cook County Jail to await his scheduled parole violation hearing. For unknown reasons, Duke, Pucci, and Guthrie did not conduct a parole revocation hearing the next day as planned. Thompson remained in the general prison population and three days later, on the evening of September 24, another inmate of the jail severely beat Thompson. He was hospitalized where his unfortunate situation was compounded by a series of less than desirable medical consequences. ²

After he was released from the hospital, he was returned to Cook County Jail, at which time parole officials conducted a parole revocation hearing. The state found that Thompson had not violated any condition of his parole and he was released. Apparently, the officials did not realize that the parole violation warrant in fact had been formally withdrawn the day before the hearing.

Thompson brought a section 1983 action against various state and county defendants. He alleged that the state defendants-appellees, Duke, Pucci, and Guthrie, had violated his due process rights because they did not proceed with, or insure that others would proceed with, a preliminary parole or release violation hearing prior to September 24, 1982, the date Thompson was injured. He made this same charge against the state defendants-appellees, Rita Allen, an Interstate Compact Administrator, Harold Thomas, Guthrie's supervisor, and Floyd Cox, the Illinois Department of Corrections' "relief hearing officer" whom Thomas normally assigned to conduct hearings when Guthrie was unavailable.

Finally, Thompson alleged that the state defendants-appellees, Paul J. Klincar, Chairman of the Prisoner Review Board, and Michael Lane, Director of the Illinois Department of Corrections, likewise had violated his fourteenth amendment due process rights by failing to insure his release from detention following his acquittal upon the burglary charge. As to each state defendant-appellee, Thompson charged that he or she in some way was responsible for the timely holding of the constitutionally required hearing and that his or her deliberate indifference to the absence of such hearing constituted a deprivation of his constitutionally protected liberty interest.

Thompson also alleged that the county defendants-appellees, Phillip Hardiman, Executive Director of the Cook County Department of Corrections, and Roy Patrick, Superintendent of the Cook County Jail, deprived Thompson of his liberty without due process by:

(1) promulgating or maintaining a policy whereby parolees are incarcerated without first making an independent determination of the validity of the incarceration; (2) incarcerating parolees with the general prison population; (3) denying parolees their right to counsel; and (4) failing to train, instruct and supervise subordinate officers as to the status and rights of parolees.

Thompson also contended that Hardiman and Patrick were directly responsible for parolees' custody and care, and that they should have released Thompson themselves or, at a minimum, inquired into his status following his acquittal, as well as investigate the state's subsequent failure to hold a preliminary parole hearing. He argued that their "blind following" of the facially valid parole violation warrant constituted deliberate indifference to his constitutionally protected liberty interest.

Thompson also alleged that the County of Cook promulgated and maintained a policy and practice "to blindly follow the State Board parole procedures" despite their unconstitutionality. He contended that the county's failure to implement independent policies and procedures to insure the protection of parolees violated his constitutional rights.

The district court granted summary judgment on the federal claims and dismissed Thompson's state law claims for want of federal jurisdiction. The district court ruled that, as a matter of law, the state defendants-appellees, as members, officers and employees of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board, enjoyed absolute immunity in the performance of their quasi-judicial activities. The court also ruled that Hardiman and Patrick did not violate Thompson's rights because they relied upon, and were required to follow, the facially valid parole violation warrant. The district court further held that Thompson could not demonstrate that those defendants, or Cook County, had failed to promulgate policy and train their subordinates adequately to protect his rights or that their own activity was the direct cause of his injuries.

II. DISCUSSION

On appeal, Thompson contends that the Supreme Court's decision in Forrester v. White, 484 U.S. 219, 108 S.Ct. 538, 98 L.Ed.2d 555 (1988), decided after the district court rendered its decision, undercuts the state defendants' ability to rely upon a claim of absolute immunity. Thompson also argues that the district court erroneously concluded as a matter of law that Hardiman, Patrick, and Cook County did not violate his due process rights.

A. The State Defendants-Appellees' Absolute Immunity Claims

As the district court correctly stated, absolute immunity serves to shield a defendant from suit altogether rather than merely acting as a defense to liability. See Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 526, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 2815, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985). Consequently, the district court focused solely, and correctly, upon the state defendants' absolute immunity claims first, noting that it would only reach the liability issue if it found that they did not enjoy immunity. Chief Judge Grady then determined as a matter of law that the state defendants were immune and dismissed the action because Thompson did not join his request for damages with a claim for declaratory or injunctive relief. See, e.g., Pulliam v. Allen, 466 U.S. 522, 104 S.Ct. 1970, 80 L.Ed.2d 565 (1984); Scruggs v. Moellering, 870 F.2d 376, 378 (7th Cir.1989).

However, since the district court ruled upon the immunity issue, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Forrester in which the Court attempted to redefine the scope of the absolute immunity which judicial officers and persons performing quasi-judicial functions enjoy. The Court noted that "[d]ifficulties have arisen primarily in attempting to draw the line between truly judicial acts, for which immunity is appropriate, and acts simply done by judges. Here, as in other contexts, immunity is justified by the functions it protects and serves, not the person to whom it attaches." 484 U.S. at ----, 108 S.Ct. at 544 (emphasis in original). With this distinction, the Court found that a judge's decision to demote and discharge a probation officer, as was his prerogative under Illinois law, was purely an "administrative decision," which "even though ... may have been essential to the very functioning of the courts," could not be "regarded as [a] judicial act[ ]." Id. The Court ultimately held that such activity may not be shielded from review by a claim of absolute immunity.

Thompson does not contest that the state defendants generally enjoy absolute immunity because they in fact are persons who perform duties of an adjudicatory nature "functionally comparable" to the duties of a judicial officer. See, e.g., Walker v. Prisoner Review Bd., 769 F.2d 396, 398 (7th Cir.1985); Trotter v. Klincar, 748 F.2d 1177, 1180 (7th Cir.1984) (involving among others...