Zakora v. Chrisman

• Decision Date: 10 August 2022
• Docket Number: 21-1620
• Citation: 44 F.4th 452
• Parties: Estate of Seth Michael ZAKORA; Brandy Zakora, in her capacity as the Personal Representative of the Estate of Seth Michael Zakora, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Troy CHRISMAN ; Matthew Huntley; Chadwick Mobley; Steve Johnson ; Bonita J. Hoffner; Steve Rivard ; Heidi E. Washington; Brandon Oaks; Russell Rurka; Heather Lass; James Wolodkin; James Coleman; Unknown Party, named as Jane Doe, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

44 F.4th 452

Estate of Seth Michael ZAKORA; Brandy Zakora, in her capacity as the Personal Representative of the Estate of Seth Michael Zakora, Plaintiffs-Appellants,

v.Troy CHRISMAN ; Matthew Huntley; Chadwick Mobley; Steve Johnson ; Bonita J. Hoffner; Steve Rivard ; Heidi E. Washington; Brandon Oaks; Russell Rurka; Heather Lass; James Wolodkin; James Coleman; Unknown Party, named as Jane Doe, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 21-1620

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued: April 27, 2022

Decided and Filed: August 10, 2022

ARGUED: Madeline M. Sinkovich, JOHNSON LAW, PLC, Detroit, Michigan, for Appellants. Kyla L. Barranco, OFFICE OF THE MICHIGAN ATTORNEY GENERAL, Lansing, Michigan, for the MSP Appellees. James T. Farrell, OFFICE OF THE MICHIGAN ATTORNEY GENERAL, Lansing, Michigan, for the MDOC Appellees. ON BRIEF: Madeline M. Sinkovich, Christopher Patrick Desmond, JOHNSON LAW, PLC, Detroit, Michigan, for Appellants. Kyla L. Barranco, OFFICE OF THE MICHIGAN ATTORNEY GENERAL, Lansing, Michigan, for the MSP Appellees. James T. Farrell, OFFICE OF THE MICHIGAN ATTORNEY GENERAL, Lansing, Michigan, for the MDOC Appellees.

Before: SUTTON, Chief Judge; GILMAN and MOORE, Circuit Judges.

GILMAN, J., delivered the opinion of the court in which MOORE, J., joined. SUTTON, C.J., (pp. 483–89), delivered a separate opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part.

RONALD LEE GILMAN, Circuit Judge.

Seth Michael Zakora died from an overdose of fentanyl

in his prison cell at the Lakeland Correctional Facility (Lakeland) in Michigan. His mother, Brandy Zakora, as the personal representative of his estate, brought this lawsuit against a number of employees and officials with the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) and the Michigan State Police (MSP), asserting multiple claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

The claims in essence allege that the defendants are responsible for Zakora's death because (1) they failed to protect him from the allegedly rampant problem of drug smuggling at Lakeland, and (2) they failed to promptly investigate two other incidents of drug overdoses in Zakora's small unit that occurred within two days of his own death. Zakora's estate (the Estate) also alleges that two corrections officers were deliberately indifferent to Zakora's serious medical needs by not heeding verbal warnings from other inmates about Zakora's dire health status immediately before he died.

The district court granted the defendants’ motions to dismiss or, in the alternative, for summary judgment. For the reasons set forth below, we AFFIRM in part, REVERSE in part, and REMAND the case to the district court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual background

On the morning of January 22, 2017, Zakora was found lying unresponsive in his bunk in the C-Unit of Lakeland by defendant Steven Johnson, a corrections officer at the facility. Responding officers determined that Zakora was already dead due to the presence of rigor mortis, and the cause of death was later found to be accidental fentanyl toxicity. Earlier that morning, another prisoner allegedly told Johnson and/or defendant Chadwick Mobley (another corrections officer at Lakeland) to "check on Mr. Zakora because he was not doing well or because there appeared to be something wrong with him." The complaint alleges that these warnings went unheeded, and that Zakora was never checked on, foreclosing the possibility of any lifesaving medical treatment.

Mobley worked the night shift in Zakora's housing unit from 10:00 p.m. on January 21 until 6:00 a.m. the next morning, at which time Johnson's shift started. Both Johnson and Mobley stated in unrebutted affidavits that they had no knowledge either before or during the night shift that Zakora possessed, ingested, or intended to ingest illegal drugs. Mobley stated that he did not speak with Zakora during that shift, and no one advised him to check on Zakora or to watch Zakora closely. According to Johnson's affidavit, he discovered Zakora dead in his bunk on January 22 at 7:58 a.m., only seconds after a prisoner who was exiting the unit said that Zakora was not "doing too good" or "words to that effect." Johnson also asserts that no one advised him that he should check on Zakora or watch him closely prior to that time.

The C-Unit of Lakeland is a single enclosure that houses between 12 to 16 prisoners. Two other prisoners in the C-Unit were hospitalized from drug overdoses in the two days prior to Zakora's death, but no immediate investigation was undertaken. After Zakora's death, the MSP brought a drug-detection dog into the facility. The dog's alerts gave positive indications of contraband in the C-Unit.

Zakora's overdose, according to the complaint, was the consequence of a longstanding problem of drug smuggling into Lakeland and other Michigan state prisons. At the time of Zakora's death, illegal drugs were allegedly being smuggled into Lakeland in basketballs that were thrown over the facility's fence. This scheme was allegedly orchestrated by defendant Jane Doe—an unidentified female corrections officer—and a prisoner with whom she was romantically involved.

According to the complaint, an unidentified prisoner had informed defendant Troy Chrisman, an inspector at Lakeland, about the drug-smuggling ring "on more than one occasion prior to Zakora's death, ... provid[ing] information to the officers with details of how the drugs were coming in and who was providing them." Chrisman allegedly relayed this information to another inspector at Lakeland, defendant Matthew Huntley, but neither took any action nor undertook any investigation. This information was then allegedly passed on by Chrisman and Huntley to their supervisors, defendant Bonita Hoffner (the Warden at Lakeland) and defendant Steve Rivard (the Assistant Deputy Director of the MDOC), but they allegedly either ignored the information or instructed Chrisman and Huntley to not investigate the accusations. Defendant Russell Rurka (the Administrative Assistant to the Warden of Lakeland) and defendant Heather Lass (a detective with the MSP) allegedly told Brandy Zakora that they knew about the scheme involving the drug-filled basketballs, but that they had not been able to catch the perpetrator. The prisoner who gave the information to the inspectors was subsequently charged with and convicted of smuggling drugs into Lakeland, allegedly to avoid any internal investigation into the female corrections officer who was involved in the smuggling.

As alleged in the complaint, drug smuggling by corrections officers is a chronic problem throughout the Michigan state prisons. The complaint recounts two incidents from 2016 when MDOC employees reported drug smuggling by corrections officers, but no investigation was undertaken. One of the employees allegedly sent his report to the MSP, and the other emailed his concerns directly to defendant Heidi Washington, the Director of the MDOC. Both of these employees were allegedly fired, only to be reinstated after instituting litigation and a civil-service hearing, respectively.

B. Procedural history

The operative first amended complaint was filed in December 2019. Of the 13 defendants, 9 are current or former MDOC employees: MDOC Director Heidi Washington, Assistant Deputy Director Steve Rivard, former Lakeland Warden Bonita Hoffner, Lakeland Inspector Troy Chrisman, former Lakeland Inspector Matthew Huntley, former Administrative Assistant to the Warden Russell Rurka, Lakeland Corrections Officer Steven Johnson, Lakeland Corrections Officer Chadwick Mobley, and Lakeland Corrections Officer Jane Doe (who allegedly orchestrated the drug-smuggling scheme) (collectively, the MDOC Defendants). The remaining four defendants are MSP employees: Trooper Brandon Oaks, Trooper James Wolodkin, Lieutenant James Coleman, and Detective Heather Lass (collectively, the MSP Defendants).

Four claims were asserted in the first amended complaint. Count I alleged that all defendants except Johnson and Mobley failed to protect Zakora from illegal drugs that entered Lakeland, in violation of Zakora's Eighth Amendment rights. Similarly, Count II alleged that all defendants except Johnson and Mobley violated Zakora's Fourteenth Amendment rights under the state-created-danger doctrine by failing to investigate allegations of drug smuggling. Count III alleged that MDOC defendants Washington, Rivard, and Hoffner failed to train and supervise their subordinates with regard to preventing the smuggling of drugs into the prison, in violation of Zakora's Fourteenth Amendment rights. Finally, in Count IV, the Estate alleged an Eighth Amendment deliberate-indifference claim against MDOC Defendants Johnson and Mobley for failing to promptly check on Zakora after a prisoner allegedly told them that something was wrong with Zakora.

The MDOC Defendants and the MSP Defendants filed separate motions to dismiss or, alternatively, for summary judgment. These motions were accompanied by declarations and affidavits from some of the defendants that attested to their involvement in the events at issue as well as by other documents from the MSP investigation into Zakora's death.

After those motions were fully briefed, the Estate filed a motion for leave to file a second amended complaint, which sought to identify MDOC defendant Jane Doe as former Corrections Officer Tammy Blair. Its proposed second amended complaint also added two new MDOC defendants: current Corrections Officer Thomas Ivany and former Corrections Officer Chase White, both of whom, the Estate alleged, were engaged in smuggling drugs into Lakeland either jointly with or separately from Blair. The Estate asserted in its motion that, on April 30, 2021, the Estate's counsel had "received information from a person who was employed at the MDOC on the date of Seth's death" that included the names of the three aforementioned individuals who were allegedly involved in the drug smuggling at Lakeland.

In July...