Brown v. District of Columbia

66 F. Supp. 2d 41, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14415, 1999 WL 728327
CourtDistrict Court, District of Columbia
DecidedSeptember 8, 1999
DocketNo. Civ.A. 93-672(RCL)
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 66 F. Supp. 2d 41 (Brown v. District of Columbia) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, District of Columbia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brown v. District of Columbia, 66 F. Supp. 2d 41, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14415, 1999 WL 728327 (D.D.C. 1999).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

LAMBERTH, District Judge.

This matter comes before the Court on plaintiffs motion for partial summary judgment and defendants’ cross-motion to [42]*42dismiss or, in the alternative, for summary-judgment. Upon consideration of the motions, the oppositions and other relevant papers, the record in this case, and recent applicable case law, the Court will grant plaintiffs motion for partial summary judgment. The defendants’ cross-motion will be denied in part. The Court will also deny as moot plaintiffs pending motion to stay consideration of defendants’ cross-motion, and farther proceedings will be ordered on a small number of specific issues.

I. BACKGROUND

On October 12, 1992, plaintiff Brown, then an inmate at a medium-security facility of Lorton prison, got into an altercation with a prison guard, Corporal Parks, over the confiscation of a pack of cigarettes from plaintiff. Plaintiff alleges that he was forcibly confined to his cell by Corporal Parks and another officer, Sergeant Kidwell, and that the two officers beat him with handcuffs on. In response, plaintiff allegedly threw a mixture of urine and feces on Corporal Parks. Plaintiff was subsequently restrained. During a search of plaintiff’s cell, Sergeant Kidwell found a “shank” fashioned from a toothbrush. Following the incident and search, Corporal Parks prepared a disciplinary report charging plaintiff with two offenses: Bodily Injury and Threatening Conduct. A copy of the report was given to plaintiff.

The following day, plaintiff was notified that a disciplinary hearing would be held before the Adjustment Board on October 16, 1992 to address the charge of Threatening Conduct as well as one charge of Possession of Major Contraband resulting from the recovery of the shank in his cell. Plaintiff was transferred that same day to administrative segregation at Lorton’s Maximum Security Facility.

For reasons never adequately explained to the Court, no hearing was ever held by the Adjustment Board on the charges of Threatening Conduct or Possession of Major Contraband. However, on October 15, 1992, plaintiff was brought before the Lor-ton Housing Board, the body charged with placing prisoners in administrative segregation. The parties agree that the purpose of the Housing Board hearing was only to determine suitable housing for the plaintiff,1 not to address the disciplinary charges against him.

Plaintiff alleges, by sworn declaration, that he never received prior notice of the October 15 hearing before the Housing Board. Although the defendant has submitted a declaration executed by the chairperson of the Housing Board, Sergeant Arralean Ellis, that declaration is insufficient to raise any genuine issue of fact on this point because it makes no statement beyond the assertion that, according to standard procedures, Sergeant Ellis “would not have conducted the hearing” without prior notice to the inmate. Declaration of Arralean Ellis at ¶ 5.

Sergeant Ellis’s general assertion of the standard procedure cannot create a genuine issue in the face of plaintiffs specific and credible statement that no notice was received, which is supported by strong circumstantial evidence in the record. For example, the Notice of Housing Hearing prepared by Sergeant Ellis includes a place for the inmate to sign, acknowledging receipt of the notice; however, plaintiffs signature does not appear there. Nor does the Notice bear a mark indicating plaintiffs waiver of the standard three-day notice of the hearing, although the Notice was apparently prepared on October 15, the day of the hearing. The defendants have provided no direct evidence to contradict plaintiffs assertion that he never received the Notice until December of 1992, when he obtained it in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. [43]*43This circumstantial evidence strongly supports the credibility of plaintiffs statement, and the Court finds that Sergeant Ellis’s statement of standard procedures2 could not support a finding by the Court or any factfinder that plaintiff did in fact receive notice of the Housing Hearing.

Likewise, plaintiff swears that he was never informed, before or during the October 15 hearing, that the hearing would address charges that he had assaulted an officer. See January 26, 1999 Declaration of Ernest Brown. The declaration of Officer Ellis, in the same conspicuously qualified language as the rest of the declaration, states that Officer Ellis “would have read to plaintiff’ a memorandum setting forth the charge that plaintiff had assaulted Corporal Parks. Ellis Declaration at ¶ 10. While the Court does not question the integrity or reliability of Officer Ellis, a statement of routine practice is simply insufficient in this context to create a genuine issue of fact in the face of plaintiffs declarations and the supporting circumstantial evidence. For example, even the Notice of Housing Hearing which Sergeant Ellis asserts “would have” been provided to plaintiff identifies no charges or allegations to be considered at the hearing. Moreover, the only recorded statement by plaintiff from the hearing does not address any charges or allegations against him, but simply requests access to a law library. The Court finds that this circumstantial evidence supports plaintiffs version of events to the extent that a contrary finding could not be made on the mere basis of Sergeant Ellis statement of standard practice.

The conclusions of the Housing Board are set forth in a Housing Board Action sheet. That document references an October 5, 1992 fighting incident as well as an “alleged incident involving staff on October 12, 1992.” It also states the Board’s conclusion that Brown posed a “threat to self and others due to the alleged incident involving correctional staff,” concluding with the statement “Resident Brown assaulted Cpl. Parks.”

Pursuant to the Board’s determination, plaintiff was placed in administrative segregation for a total of ten months.3 In contrast to the relative freedom of the general population at the medium-security facility, plaintiffs day was tightly controlled in administrative segregation. He was held in solitary confinement, allowed to leave his cell for only two (and later three) hours a day for indoor exercise and to meet with visitors (while fully shackled).

While still in administrative segregation, plaintiff filed this action alleging due process, free exercise, and Eighth Amendment violations. This Court dismissed the due process claim on October 13, 1995, finding that plaintiff had no protected liberty interest implicated by his transfer to administrative segregation at the maximum-security facility. Plaintiffs remaining claims were settled and voluntarily dismissed. Then, on December 16, 1997, the Court of Appeals vacated the dismissal of plaintiffs due process claims and remanded the case back to this Court to determine whether, assuming that plaintiff did have a cognizable liberty interest, he had been afforded adequate process under Hewitt v. Helms, 459 U.S. 460, 103 S.Ct. 864, 74 L.Ed.2d 675 (1983). See Brown v. Plant, 131 F.3d 163 (D.C.Cir.1997).

The Court concludes that plaintiff did not receive adequate process under Hewitt. However, given the recent cases from the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, [44]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
66 F. Supp. 2d 41, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14415, 1999 WL 728327, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brown-v-district-of-columbia-dcd-1999.