Balbin v. Latin

CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Florida
DecidedFebruary 10, 2022
Docket1:22-cv-20332
StatusUnknown

This text of Balbin v. Latin (Balbin v. Latin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Balbin v. Latin, (S.D. Fla. 2022).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA

Case No. 22-cv-20332-BLOOM

MANUEL BALBIN,

Plaintiff,

v.

SGT. J. LATIN, et al.,

Defendants. / SCREENING ORDER THIS CAUSE is before the Court on pro se Plaintiff Manuel Balbin’s pro se civil rights complaint filed under 42 U.S.C. (“Complaint”), ECF No. [1]. Plaintiff alleges violations of his constitutional rights arising from his confinement while a pre-trial detainee at the Pretrial Detention Center (“PDC”) in Miami-Dade County. See generally id. For the reasons set out below, this action shall proceed as to Plaintiff’s individual capacity claims of failure to protect against Defendants Sergeant J. Latin, Corporal C. McGahee, Lieutenant Wooden, and Corrections Officer Williams; this action shall be dismissed as to Plaintiff’s individual capacity failure to protect claims against Defendants Corporal D. Labri, Captain Daniel Junior, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, and Miami-Dade County Board of Commissioners; this action shall be dismissed as to the fictitious party Defendants, the unknown PDC Corrections Officers and the unknown Jackson Memorial Hospital Doctor; and this action shall be dismissed as to Plaintiff’s official capacity failure to protect claims against all Defendants. I. BACKGROUND Plaintiff’s allegations take place during August 2021 when he was a detainee confined at PDC. ECF No. [1] at 17-26. On August 5, 2021, Plaintiff was housed in Wing C on the 8th floor when another detainee “made unwanted sexual advances towards [him].” Id. at 18 (alteration added). Plaintiff reported the incident and filed a Prison Rape Elimination Act (“PREA”) complaint. Following the PREA incident, Plaintiff was re-housed alone in a “Safety Cell” in an adjacent wing, Wing A, on the same floor. Id. He was made to wear a red uniform to indicate that he should be “locked down 24/7 [and] restricted from having any physical contact with other

detainees.” Id. (alteration added). Plaintiff states that because Wing A was adjacent to Wing C, the move did not protect him because word of the PREA incident quickly spread to Wing A. Id. Plaintiff filed a grievance requesting to be moved to a different location but, “due to quarantine [protocol]” his request was not honored. Id. (alteration added). On August 16, 2021, during weekly rounds, Corporal C. McGahee and Lieutenant Wooden entered Plaintiff’s cell (Room 5). Id. Plaintiff told them that he was in fear for his life because detainees in neighboring cells (Rooms 1, 2, and 3), had heard about the PREA incident and were threatening to stab and kill him in the “yard or anywhere they could.” Id. at 18-19. McGahee responded, “I know white boys are soft, you got to be tough though,” and Wooden stated, “[t]he

most that can happen is a fight.” Id. at 19 (alteration added). On August 18, 2021, Plaintiff filed an emergency inmate grievance reporting the threat of serious bodily harm. Id. In the grievance, he wrote that he believed the threats were serious because one of the other detainees previously stabbed another detainee in the yard. Id. Per PDC procedures, the emergency grievance was hand-delivered to Sergeant J. Latin. Id. However, no actions were taken to protect Plaintiff from the specifically identified harm. Id. The morning of August 20, 2021, Plaintiff made several attempts to alert PDC staff that he was in imminent danger of being attacked. At 7:30 AM, Plaintiff told Corporal D. Labri that during recreation time, he must go to the yard alone “because room 1, 2, [and] 3 want to stab [and] kill me.” Id. at 20 (alterations added). In response, Labri stated, “[w]hatever[.]” Id. (alterations added). At 8:50 AM, two unknown corrections officers, described only as Black males, came to Plaintiff’s cell and instructed him that they needed to relocate him temporarily in order to fumigate his cell. Id. Plaintiff told the corrections officers that he could not leave his cell “because the inmates that are trying to kill me are in the yard right now[.]” Id. (alteration added). The corrections officers told him that he would be safe because they would put him in a holding cell while the fumigation

was performed. Id. They said the fumigation would not take long and they would return him to his cell as soon as it was finished. Id. The corrections officers moved Plaintiff to the holding cell where he remained for 40 minutes. He states that after the fumigation was complete, he begged the corrections officers to return him to his cell but they took no action. Id. Corrections Officer Williams was also present and witnessed Plaintiff in the holding cell. Plaintiff screamed to Williams that he needed to go back to his cell. Id. at 21. “I can’t be here when they come back from the yard, they’re trying to kill me!” Id. Williams ignored Plaintiff’s pleas. Id. At 9:30 AM, the five detainees Plaintiff had warned about returned from the yard and saw

Plaintiff through the glass of the holding cell. Id. Plaintiff screamed for help but the detainees opened the holding cell and proceeded to physically and sexually assault Plaintiff. Id. Plaintiff was cut with a knife in the eye, arm, and leg. Id. at 21-22. He also sustained bruising to his body and face. Id. at 22. He was taken to the PDC clinic where he had a seizure due to brain damage from the assault. Id. at 22. Plaintiff was then transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital (“JMH”) in an ambulance for treatment. Id. at 22. Once at JMH, an unknown female doctor at JMH treated Plaintiff. Plaintiff immediately told the doctor that she needed to call the police because he had been sexually battered and the attack had been an attempt to murder him. Id. The doctor refused to call the police and told Plaintiff, “We don’t do that here, what we do here is treat you for your wounds.” Id. Plaintiff insisted that he needed police officers to document his wounds while they were still fresh because he feared that PDC corrections officers were trying to cover up the attack. Id. The doctor again refused and prevented Plaintiff from calling the police during the four-day duration of his hospital stay. Id. Additionally, the doctor failed to report the sexual battery to JMH’s rape treatment center. Id.

Plaintiff states that the holding cell where he was attacked had an “unsecure latch” instead of a lock and key apparatus. Id. at 24. He alleges that all of the holding cells on floors 2 through 10 had these same latches. Id. He states that Captain Daniel Junior regularly made rounds through PDC and observed the “unsecure [holding cell] latches” but never ordered them to be fixed or replaced. Id. (alteration added). Additionally, Plaintiff alleges that Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and the Miami-Dade County Board of Commissioners had knowledge of the “unsafe and unsecure latches” because they approved of PDC’s building and construction but failed to fix or replace the latches. Id. at 24. As a result of the attack, Plaintiff received four face fractures, a fractured jaw, several stab

wounds, and nerve damage in his left eyelid. Id. at 26. He suffers from seizures, memory loss, headaches, and ongoing severe pain. Id. He also suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and experiences nightmares, depression, shame, anxiety, and feelings of worthlessness. Id. Plaintiff seeks compensatory and punitive damages as well as injunctive relief to have the PDC holding cell latches replaced. Id. II. STANDARD OF REVIEW Plaintiff has been granted permission to proceed in forma pauperis (“IFP”) and is therefore subject to the screening provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2). See Farese v. Scherer, 342 F.3d 1223, 1228 (11th Cir. 2003). Pursuant to 28 U.S.C.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cottrell v. Caldwell
85 F.3d 1480 (Eleventh Circuit, 1996)
Rooney Ex Rel. Rooney v. Watson
101 F.3d 1378 (Eleventh Circuit, 1996)
Sewell v. Town of Lake Hamilton, FL
117 F.3d 488 (Eleventh Circuit, 1997)
Cottone v. Jenne
326 F.3d 1352 (Eleventh Circuit, 2003)
Grech v. Clayton County, GA
335 F.3d 1326 (Eleventh Circuit, 2003)
Farese v. Scherer
342 F.3d 1223 (Eleventh Circuit, 2003)
Purcell Ex Rel. Estate of Morgan v. Toombs County, GA
400 F.3d 1313 (Eleventh Circuit, 2005)
West v. Tillman
496 F.3d 1321 (Eleventh Circuit, 2007)
Richardson v. Johnson
598 F.3d 734 (Eleventh Circuit, 2010)
Monell v. New York City Dept. of Social Servs.
436 U.S. 658 (Supreme Court, 1978)
Marilyn Greason v. Ralph Kemp
891 F.2d 829 (Eleventh Circuit, 1990)
Mary Goodman v. Clayton County Sheriff Kemuel Kimbrough
718 F.3d 1325 (Eleventh Circuit, 2013)
Jody O'Neil Harrison v. Grantt Culliver
746 F.3d 1288 (Eleventh Circuit, 2014)
Trevis Caldwell v. Warden, FCI Talladega
748 F.3d 1090 (Eleventh Circuit, 2014)
Allan Campbell v. Air Jamaica LTD
760 F.3d 1165 (Eleventh Circuit, 2014)
Alfred Barr v. David Gee, Paul Fitts
437 F. App'x 865 (Eleventh Circuit, 2011)
Scott v. Miami Dade County
657 F. App'x 877 (Eleventh Circuit, 2016)
Adam Keith Waldman v. Alabama Prison Commissioner
871 F.3d 1283 (Eleventh Circuit, 2017)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
Balbin v. Latin, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/balbin-v-latin-flsd-2022.