Border v. Trumbull County Board of Commissioners

414 F. App'x 831
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedMarch 17, 2011
Docket10-3167
StatusUnpublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 414 F. App'x 831 (Border v. Trumbull County Board of Commissioners) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Border v. Trumbull County Board of Commissioners, 414 F. App'x 831 (6th Cir. 2011).

Opinion

GRIFFIN, Circuit Judge.

Defendant Mike Palumbo appeals the district court’s interlocutory order denying his motion for summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity from suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

I.

The present case arises from the drug-overdose death of a pretrial detainee, plaintiffs’ decedent Adam N. Border, at the Trumbull County Jail in Ohio in January 2008. The relevant facts are set forth in the district court’s Memorandum Opinion and Order denying in pertinent part defendant Michael Palumbo’s motion for summary judgment:

This action arises out of Adam Border’s (“Border”) arrest, subsequent transportation, and detention at the Trumbull County Jail. On January 12, 2008, [officers] responded to a BP gas station in Cortland, Ohio after receiving reports of a physical altercation involving Border and his ex-wife, Lacina Smith.
A. Arrest and Transportation
At the scene, witnesses observed that Border showed obvious signs of intoxication. In her affidavit, Lacina Smith states that Border was visibly intoxicated, his face was pale, his eyes were glazed, his speech was slurred, he had difficulty maintaining balance, and he had poor coordination. Smith recalls that another witness, Michael Overton, told officers that Border was under the influence. *832 Lacina Smith also recalls that she witnessed Adam exit the vehicle with a pill bottle in his hand. Smith states that she advised [officers] from the Cortland Police Department that Border was “messed up” and “had a pill bottle on him that was full pills (sic).”
Justin Schubert, a friend of Border, was also present at the scene and recalls that Border appeared intoxicated, had difficulty maintaining eye contact, had difficulty keeping his head up, and had difficulty maintaining consciousness. In his affidavit, Schubert states that he asked officers to “look after” Border. Schubert recalls telling the officers at the time that Border “isn’t acting like himself right now.” Both Lacina Smith and Justin Schubert state that Border went behind the BP building before the police arrived. According to Schubert, Border was behind the building for approximately 1-2 minutes. A prescription bottle was later found at the scene, but not until a full 24 hours after Border’s arrest, and after Border’s death.
Border was arrested and transported to the Trumbull County Jail by City of Cortland Police Officer John Weston. In their briefs, multiple parties refer to a video recording, submitted by the City of Cortland, ... showing a portion of Border’s transportation to the Trumbull County Jail. In the video, Border appears either intoxicated or very tired. While Border appears to nearly nod off multiple times, he is able to hold an intelligible conversation with Officer Weston throughout the video. At no point in the video does the subject of medications come up during the conversation between Border and Officer Weston.
B. Detention
At the Trumbull County Jail, Border was booked by Officer Michael Palumbo. Sometime shortly after he was booked, Border was treated by Noreen Whitlock for a gash on his forehead. Whitlock is an unlicensed medical assistant who, on the night of Border’s death, was assigned general nursing duties and to distribute medications to inmates. While treating Border’s forehead, Whit-lock states that she asked Border if he “drank anything or ingested anything.” According to Whitlock, Border responded by telling her “no” several times. Officer Todd Harvey observed Border when he was brought to the second floor of the jail, which is where inmates are placed who are not deemed by a booking officer to be a suicide risk or otherwise require special monitoring. Officer Harvey observed that Border was steady on his feet, did not have difficulty walking, and was able to make his own bed. Thirty minutes later, Border requested an unoccupied cell. Officer Harvey denied the request, and recalls that during his conversation with Border, Border did not appear to complain of a medical problem, nor did he have trouble breathing or speaking. Throughout the evening of Border’s death, various corrections officers conducted hourly “watch tours.” The purpose of these watch tours was to ensure that inmates were safe, to provide medical treatment to inmates if necessary, to respond to inmate concerns, and to ensure that all inmates were counted and present.... None of these officers reported any evidence or personal awareness that Border was experiencing any medical condition other than appearing intoxicated.
Inmate Gary Smith, who was in the same pod with Border, recalls that Border was slumped over as he entered the pod and his eyes were “red/glazed.” Inmate Lewis Moler describes Border’s *833 breathing as labored, and observed that Border’s condition got worse as the evening went on. Smith recalls that at approximately 9:10 p.m., Border lost control of his bladder. Smith states that when this was brought to the attention of a corrections officer by another inmate, the unidentified officer responded by saying, “f—him.”
Lewis Moler also states, without identifying the individuals by name, that at some point during the evening the “nurse” told a C.O. that Border was “messed up.” According to Moler, the corrections officer responded by saying Border “came in drunk” and that he would “sleep it off.” Finally, Lewis Moler recalls that he witnessed inmate Gary Smith tell an unidentified corrections officer, over an intercom, that Border couldn’t breathe. Moler states, “[t]he C.O. told Gary they can’t do anything until 6:00 [a.m.].”
C. Death
Border was found dead in his pod around 5:30 a.m. on the morning of January 13, 2008. As soon as jail staff learned Border had stopped breathing, they immediately responded and attempted to resuscitate Border. The coroner later concluded that Border died of acute polydrug intoxication by consuming excessive amounts of drugs including oxycodone, methadone, citalopram, and benzodiazepines.

(Citations omitted.)

In December 2008, Border’s parents, Daniel and Diane Border (“plaintiffs”), initiated the present suit, asserting a deprivation of their son’s constitutional rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, including violations of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, wrongful death, and other state law claims. The named defendants included the City of Cortland and its officers who arrested the decedent, and Trumbull County and its sheriff, wardens, correctional officers, and medical personnel who interacted with the decedent during his incarceration at the Trumbull County Jail. In April 2009, plaintiffs amended their complaint to add Officer Palumbo as a defendant, alleging that he was one of the Trumbull County correctional officers who was deliberately indifferent to the decedent’s serious medical needs during and after his booking at the Trumbull County Jail.

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Bluebook (online)
414 F. App'x 831, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/border-v-trumbull-county-board-of-commissioners-ca6-2011.