Brent Jacoby v. Baldwin County

835 F.3d 1338, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 15929, 2016 WL 4506051
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedAugust 29, 2016
Docket14-12932
StatusPublished
Cited by99 cases

This text of 835 F.3d 1338 (Brent Jacoby v. Baldwin County) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brent Jacoby v. Baldwin County, 835 F.3d 1338, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 15929, 2016 WL 4506051 (11th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

MARTIN, Circuit Judge:

Brent Jacoby appeals the District Court’s grant of summary judgment to Sheriff Huey Mack in this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 suit. Mr. Jacoby was a pretrial detainee at the Baldwin County Corrections Center (“Baldwin jail”) in Bay Minette, Alabama. On August 12, 20,12, Mr. Jacoby was placed in administrative segregation after testing positive for cocaine. He alleges that he was forced to sleep on the floor next to a toilet while in administrative segregation and was exposed to human excrement as a result. Mr. Jacoby also alleges that the August 15, 2012, disciplinary hearing that stemmed from his failed drug test was procedurally inadequate. First, Mr. Jacoby complains that he was prevented from calling a key witness — Sergeant Griffith — who would have testified in his defense. Second, Mr. Jacoby argues that one of the disciplinary hearing board members, Officer Arnold, should not have been permitted to hear the case because he was involved in the underlying investigation that led to Mr. Jacoby’s arrest.

On appeal, Mr. Jacoby challenges the District Court’s ruling on two claims, citing violations of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment for both. 1 Mr. Jacoby first argues that Sheriff Mack violated his substantive due process rights by confining him in an unsanitary and overcrowded cell. Mr. Jacoby also argues that Sheriff Mack violated his procedural due process rights at his August 15, 2012, disciplinary hearing. We affirm the District Court as to both claims.

I.

We review de novo a district court’s decision on a motion for summary judgment, viewing the facts in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. Terrell v. Smith, 668 F.3d 1244, 1249-50 (11th Cir. *1343 2012). Summary judgment is proper when “there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and [ ] the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.” Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2552, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986) (quotation omitted); see also Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). “A party asserting that a fact ... is genuinely disputed must support the assertion by ... citing to particular parts of materials in the record.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c)(i). Summary judgment is thus warranted “against a party who fails to make a showing sufficient to establish the existence of an element essential to that party’s case, and on which that party will bear the burden of proof at trial.” Celotex, 477 U.S. at 322, 106 S.Ct. at 2552.

II.

Mr. Jacoby alleges that on August 12, 2012, he was placed in administrative seg-' regation in the Baldwin jail’s “F-Block” after a urine test administered by the jail came back positive for cocaine. According to Mr. Jacoby, he had to sleep on the floor next to a toilet while in administrative segregation because he was the third inmate in an 8-by-10-foot cell meant for two. He also alleges that his cellmates “uri-nat[ed] and defecatfed] over him” as he tried to sleep, and that other inmates in the segregation unit “thr[ew] feces and urine at him.” Mr. Jacoby alleges that he developed a foot rash due to these unsanitary conditions and the lack of hygiene products available to him. 2

On August 15, 2012, Mr. Jacoby had a disciplinary hearing about his failed drug test. Mr. Jacoby raises the issue of the propriety of one of the three officers (Officer Arnold) serving on the hearing board after having been present for the incident that resulted in Mr. Jacoby being disciplined. Mr. Jacoby also says that he wanted to call Sergeant Griffith as a witness to explain that Mr. Jacoby was working on drug busts with him, and that Mr. Jacoby was only using drugs as a cover. However, the hearing board refused to let him call Sergeant Griffith. Mr. Jacoby was found guilty of cocaine use and given 45 days of segregation. The next day, Mr. Jacoby was given 24 additional days of segregation after being found guilty in a separate disciplinary hearing of possessing a small piece of copper wire that could be used as a weapon.

III.

To proceed with his constitutional claims, Mr. Jacoby must clear the significant hurdle posed by Sheriff Mack’s qualified immunity defense. “Qualified immunity protects government officials performing discretionary functions ... from liability if their conduct violates no clearly established statutory or constitutional *1344 rights of which a reasonable person would have known.” Foy v. Holston, 94 F.3d 1528, 1532 (11th Cir. 1996). “In this [Circuit, the law can be ‘clearly established’ for qualified immunity purposes only by decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court, Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, or the highest court of the state where the case arose.” Jenkins v. Talladega City Bd. of Educ., 115 F.3d 821, 826 n.4 (11th Cir. 1997). If a public official was acting within the scope of his discretionary authority, the burden falls to the plaintiff to show that qualified immunity is inappropriate. Terrell, 668 F.3d at 1250. To do so, the plaintiff must: (1) “allege facts that establish that the officer violated [his] constitutional rights”; and (2) “show that the right involved was clearly established at the time of the putative misconduct.” Id. (quotation omitted). We may consider these two prongs in either order, and a public official is entitled to qualified immunity if the plaintiff fails to establish either one. See Pearson v. Callahan, 555 U.S. 223, 236, 129 S.Ct. 808, 818, 172 L.Ed.2d 565 (2009).

Mr. Jacoby does not contest that Sheriff Mack was acting within his discretionary authority at all times relevant to this lawsuit. Instead, he claims that it was clearly established that both his conditions of confinement and the process provided at his August 15 disciplinary hearing were constitutionally inadequate. “For a constitutional right to be clearly established, its contours must be sufficiently clear that a reasonable official would understand that what he is doing violates that right.” Hope v. Pelzer, 536 U.S. 730, 739, 122 S.Ct. 2508, 2515, 153 L.Ed.2d 666 (2002) (quotation omitted). The specific action in question need not have been previously found unlawful, but “in the light of pre-existing law the unlawfulness must be apparent.” Id. (quotation omitted). The central question is whether the state of the law at the time of. the violation gave the officials “fair warning” that their alleged actions were unconstitutional. Id. at 741, 122 S.Ct. at 2516.

IV.

We first consider whether it was clearly established that Mr. Jacoby’s conditions of confinement violated his constitutional rights. Again, Mr.

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835 F.3d 1338, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 15929, 2016 WL 4506051, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brent-jacoby-v-baldwin-county-ca11-2016.