Villa v. Arizona
| Decision Date | 25 April 2019 |
| Docket Number | No. CV-17-03557-PHX-JAT,CV-17-03557-PHX-JAT |
| Parties | Hector Villa, Plaintiff, v. State of Arizona, et al., Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Arizona |
At issue is Defendant State of Arizona's Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. 36), to which Plaintiff Hector Villa has filed a Response (Doc. 43), and Defendant has filed a Reply (Doc. 44). For the reasons set forth below, Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment is granted in part and denied in part.
Plaintiff Hector Villa brings this action under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e, alleging sex discrimination, national origin discrimination, and retaliation against his former employer, the Arizona Department of Corrections ("ADC") of the State of Arizona. (Doc. 1 at 1). Plaintiff is a heterosexual male, and a Mexican-American citizen of the United States. (Defendant's Statement of Facts ("DSOF"), Doc. 35 ¶¶ 36, 67; Plaintiff's Statement of Facts ("PSOF"), Doc. 42 ¶¶ 84-85, 87). From 2007 to 2017, Plaintiff worked at ADC as a Correctional Officer (CO) II at the Arizona State Prison Complex (ASPC) - Lewis. (DSOF ¶¶ 1, 50; PSOF ¶¶ 1, 92, 166). Plaintiff was assigned to the Eagle Point unit, which is across the street from and physically outside of the main prison complex. (DSOF ¶ 12; PSOF ¶¶ 12, 93).
In 2014, Plaintiff worked with another CO II named David Deem at the Eagle Point unit. (DSOF ¶ 11; PSOF ¶ 11). Plaintiff testified in his deposition that Deem called him slurs including "Italian n****r," "wet back," "chomo" (prison slang for a child molester), and "faggot" on a "daily basis" and "all the time." (PSOF ¶¶ 95, 97). On September 25, 2014, Plaintiff filed an internal complaint alleging that Deem had harassed him by, among other things, calling him a "fag" and a "Sicilian n****r" and by saying he was going to call the INS to have Plaintiff deported. (DSOF ¶ 10; PSOF ¶ 10; see Doc. 35-1 at 39-40). This internal complaint states that inmates and several employees of ADC—including Officers Flores, Robertson, Kingsland, Phillips, and Young—witnessed this harassment. (Doc. 35-1 at 39-40). Although not mentioned in Plaintiff's September 25, 2014 complaint, Officer Anderson states in his Declaration that he witnessed Deem call Plaintiff a "faggot" and a "Sicilian n****r." (Doc. 42-6 at 23). According to Officer Anderson, Plaintiff responded to these comments by telling Deem, "that isn't cool." (Id.).
Plaintiff also complained to a supervisor, Sgt. Abker, about CO II Deem's slurs on September 25, 2014. (PSOF ¶¶ 99-100; Doc. 42-5 at 5). That same day, Sgt. Abker submitted an information report regarding Deem's alleged harassment of Plaintiff to ADC Lieutenant Lunka, stating:
On the above date and approximate time COII Villa advised me that COII Deem had been making racial comments towards him. Comments like "I am going to deport you" and that he was "a faggot, gay, a homosexual" along with other derogatory comments. COII Villa advised me that this has been going on for the last few weeks and that he has approached Deem about the comments, stating that he did not approve of them and that they were disrespectful towards him. He also advised that COII Deem made these comments around other staff and inmates and that now inmates on the yard have been making inappropriate jokes towards him. End of report.
(PSOF ¶ 100; Doc. 42-5 at 5). On September 29, 2014, Chris Moody, the Warden of ASPC-Lewis, reassigned Deem to the Morey unit within the main complex. (DSOF ¶ 15; PSOF ¶ 15; Doc. 35-1 at 76). Despite Deem's reassignment, however, Plaintiff states that he still "ran into him on a daily basis" at the complex. (PSOF ¶¶ 15, 125-26).
Leola Baker, the Lead Equal Opportunity Liaison at ASPC-Lewis, forwarded Plaintiff's September 2014 complaint to Eric Abt, an Equal Opportunity Coordinator in ADC's Central Office. (DSOF ¶ 16; PSOF ¶ 16). After Abt recommended that a fact-finding investigation be conducted, Baker assigned another Equal Opportunity Liaison, Sgt. Tyrrell, to do the fact-finding. (DSOF ¶¶ 17-18; PSOF ¶¶ 17-18). Sgt. Tyrrell interviewed Deem in early November 2014. (DSOF ¶19; PSOF ¶ 19). At this interview, Deem denied calling Plaintiff an "Italian N****r, faggot, gay, or homosexual" and denied that he ever said he was going to call the INS to have Plaintiff deported. (Doc. 35-1 at 63).1 In December 2014, Sgt. Tyrrell interviewed Plaintiff. (DSOF ¶ 20; PSOF ¶ 20). Plaintiff told Sgt. Tyrrell that the September incident was not the only time he and Deem had a verbal altercation because Deem "always has something to say like your [sic] gay or call me a faggot." (Doc. 35-1 at 65). When asked by Sgt. Tyrrell whether anything has happened since Deem was reassigned, Plaintiff responded that individuals had approached him to tell him that Deem had been talking negatively about him, calling him a paper dropper (prison slang for someone who reports misconduct), and stating that Plaintiff lied about what happened. (Id. at 66; see PSOF ¶ 131).
In December 2014, Sgt. Tyrrell also interviewed CO II Robertson, one of the witnesses to the alleged harassment identified in Plaintiff's internal complaint. (DSOF ¶ 20; PSOF ¶ 20). Although CO II Robertson told Sgt. Tyrrell that he saw Deem "get up in CO II Villa[']s face" and then "heard CO II Deem state to CO II Villa that I don't like your face and I just want to punch you in the face," he also recalled that both men were laughing at the time so he "thought they were kidding around." (Doc. 35-1 at 67). In addition, Robertson stated that that he had not heard Deem call Plaintiff an "Italian N****r or gay or a faggot." (Id. at 68). When asked by Sgt. Tyrrell of his opinion of Deem, Robertson responded that Deem "is a little rough around the edges," and that Deem was "always going to have problems where ever he goes." (Doc. 35-1 at 68). Robertson also stated that Deem likes "to joke a lot but I don't think others have his same sense of humor." (Id.).
In February 2015, Baker and Jacqueline Hill, an Equal Opportunity Coordinator in the Central Office, determined that further investigation was needed to complete the Fact Finding. (DSOF ¶ 21; PSOF ¶ 21). Consequently, on February 27, 2015, Baker interviewed CO II Flores and re-interviewed CO II Robertson. (DSOF ¶ 22; PSOF ¶ 22). When asked whether he recalled the incident in September between Plaintiff and Deem, Flores responded that he did and stated that Deem had made some sort of racial comment to Plaintiff along the lines of calling border patrol to deport Plaintiff to Mexico. (Doc. 35-1 at 71). Flores noted, however, that Plaintiff "just laughed" in response to these and other racial comments made by Deem. (Id.). Flores also stated that he had never heard Deem call Plaintiff a "Sicilian N****r" or tell Plaintiff that he would punch him in the face. (Id.). On February 27, 2015, Baker re-interviewed Robertson, and asked him to clarify what he meant when he said in his previous interview that Deem would have problems wherever he goes. (Doc. 35-1 at 73). Robertson stated that he "meant only in general terms" that Deem might have problems with other staff. (Id.). Robertson also stated in his February interview that he couldn't say that he had not heard Deem make any racial or cultural comments, but noted that the recipient of the comments didn't show signs of beingoffended. (Id.). Baker then prepared a written report summarizing these interviews, which was sent to Hill, Abt, and Warden Moody. (Id.). There is no indication that ADC interviewed any of the other witnesses listed in Plaintiff's September 2014 complaint, including Officers Kingsland, Phillips, or Trinity Young. Compare (Doc. 35-1 at 39-40 (Plaintiff's September 25, 2014 complaint)), with (Doc. 35-1 at 62-68 (Sgt. Tyrrell's Fact-Finding Report)). Based on this report, on March 17, 2015 Warden Moody informed Plaintiff that the investigation did not establish that Plaintiff was subjected to discrimination. (DSOF ¶ 23; PSOF ¶ 23).
In his deposition, Plaintiff testified that he had no reason to believe that Deem was sexually or physically attracted to him. (DSOF ¶¶ 33-34; PSOF ¶¶ 33-34). Plaintiff also thought that when Deem called him a fag or gay, Deem was being anti-homosexual. (DSOF ¶ 35; PSOF ¶ 35). Plaintiff testified that he thinks it was sex discrimination for Deem to refer to him as a homosexual because Plaintiff is straight and Deem was calling him the opposite of straight. (DSOF ¶ 36; PSOF ¶ 36).
On March 30, 2015, Plaintiff filed an internal complaint expressing disagreement with the determination on his previous complaint, and alleging that CO II Deem was continuing to harass him in retaliation for that complaint. (DSOF ¶ 37; PSOF ¶ 37). In this complaint, Plaintiff states that "CO II Deem has made every attempt available to slur my name to other officers" by labeling him as a "paper dropper," "gay," "crazy" and a "liar." (Doc. 35-1 at 117). Plaintiff's complaint further states that he continues "to be harassed by CO II Deem through other employees who associate with this officer," and feels stressed when he runs into Deem in the complex because Deem "keeps his fist clenched and looks at [Plaintiff] with an angry facial expression." (Id.). Plaintiff also pointed out that he asked Officers Kingsland and Trinity Young—two of the witnesses identified in his September 25, 2014 complaint—if anyone had pulled them aside to discuss the incidents with Deem, but each of them stated that they were not questioned in the investigation. (Id. at 118).
Plaintiff's March 30, 2015 complaint was forwarded to Hill in the EqualOpportunity Unit at Central Office, and, after consultation with Hill, Baker assigned Lt. Jacole Swirsky to do a Fact-Finding investigation. (DSOF ¶¶ 38-39; PSOF ¶¶ 38-39). Lt. Swirsky first interviewed Plaintiff, who stated that he was being harassed...
To continue reading
Request your trial