D. S. v. County of Montgomery, State of AL

286 F. App'x 629
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedJuly 3, 2008
Docket07-15671
StatusUnpublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 286 F. App'x 629 (D. S. v. County of Montgomery, State of AL) 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
D. S. v. County of Montgomery, State of AL, 286 F. App'x 629 (11th Cir. 2008).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

This case arises from the alleged rape of D.S., who at the time was eleven years old and a detainee at the Montgomery County Youth Facility (“MCYF”), by a fellow juvenile detainee. D.S., through his mother and then a guardian ad litem, brought suit against Montgomery County, Alabama (the “County”), which operates MCYF, and detention officers Milton Webb, Charlie Terrell, and Darryl Andrews. D.S. asserted claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and various state law tort theories.

Webb, Terrell, Andrews, and the County brought this interlocutory appeal from the district court’s order denying in part their motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity and Alabama state-agent immunity. After review, we affirm in part and reverse in part. 1

I. BACKGROUND

A. MCYF Juvenile Detention Facility

MCYF is a juvenile detention facility for young people aged seven to seventeen. Defendants Webb, Terrell, and Andrews are juvenile detention officers at MCYF. *631 Detainees at MCYF are assigned to one of various wings of the facility based on their sex and age, although physical size and gang affiliation may also affect placement.

On April 14, 2002, D.S. was admitted to MCYF on charges of property theft and domestic violence. Because he was an eleven year old male, D.S. was assigned to B-wing, which generally houses boys under the age of fifteen. MCYF Detention Supervisor Barbara Cabbie met with D.S. during the intake process. Because D.S. was charged with hitting his mother, Cabbie directed the MCYF staff members to “keep a close eye” on D.S. Cabbie issued this directive because she was concerned that D.S. might hurt another detainee.

Detainees at MCYF are assigned to single-person cells that are locked down at night. During the day, detainees engage in various activities, such as attending classes, going to court, having visitation, going to the doctor, or eating in the cafeteria. Each wing has two dayrooms, thirty feet square, where detainees may watch television, play cards or board games, or read. Between the two dayrooms on B-wing is a control room with glass windows, from which officers monitor the detainees in the two dayrooms.

Officers monitor detainees by observing them through the windows in the control room, listening through the windows, and listening to audio amplification devices in the control room. Officers also periodically enter the dayrooms to monitor detainees there. MCYF’s security manual provides that “[n]o detainee is to be left unsupervised,” and that if an officer does leave a detainee unsupervised, such action “will be considered reasonable grounds for termination of employment.”

B. Events of April 18, 2002

MCYF has three detention wings, and its maximum detainee capacity is fifty-two juveniles. On April 18, 2002, there were twenty-nine detainees at MCYF.

Four to six detainees were in B-wing, including D.S. and C.P., the fifteen year old male who raped D.S. C.P. was detained on charges of first-degree robbery. In April 2002, C.P. was 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighed 150 pounds, while D.S. was 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighed 220 pounds.

D.S. began having problems with C.P. shortly after being admitted to MCYF. During the four-day span from April 14-18, 2002, C.P. had thrown shoes at D.S. on several occasions, and had punched D.S. in the back. D.S. testified that a staff member had witnessed one of the shoe-throwing incidents and D.S. had reported the punching incident. D.S. did not remember which staff member saw C.P. throw the shoe at him or which one took his report on the punching, although D.S. recalled that they were regular staff members assigned to B-wing.

D.S. testified that some time before April 18, 2002, B-wing staff “were informed that [C.P.] was threatening to have sex with a fourteen ... year old white boy in B-Wing” and that in response MCYF staff told C.P. “that he better stop threatening to have sex with the white boys.” However, D.S. did not remember: (1) the fourteen year old’s name, (2) which staff member or members received the information about C.P.’s alleged threats, or (3) the name of the staff member who told C.P. that he should stop the threats.

In the late morning on April 18, 2002, D.S. and C.P. were alone in one of the B-wing dayrooms. This dayroom had a single bathroom which was next to the control room. The wall between the bathroom and the control room had a small plexiglass window that was approximately eight inches by sixteen inches. The detainees frequently cover the window with toilet *632 paper so that the officers cannot observe them while they are in the bathroom, and the window was so obscured on April 18, 2002. MCYF has a written policy that only one detainee is permitted in the bathroom at a time.

On the morning of April 18, 2002, the 13-wing duty log shows that defendants Webb, Terrell, and Andrews were the officers on duty in MCYF’s B-wing. D.S. and C. P. were alone in the dayroom playing cards during this late-morning period. 2 D. S. also testified that two officers were in the control room. D.S. identified the two officers as Webb, a defendant here, and Vincent Calhoun, a MCYF detention officer who is not a defendant in this case.

However, the parties agree that Calhoun was not working at MCYF on April 18, 2002, and that defendants Webb, Terrell, and Andrews were on duty. The two officers were next to the window on the far side of the control room (the one which faced the other dayroom). According to D.S., the officers were “reading newspapers and watching TV,” and this was consistent -with the officers’ normal practice, which was to be less attentive when only a few detainees were present in a wing.

After playing cards with C.P. for about one hour, D.S. went to the bathroom. According to D.S., about a minute later, C.P. entered the bathroom with “his private out” and grabbed D.S. Despite D.S.’s attempts to fight him off, C.P. raped D.S. During the attack, D.S. twice called for help from the staff “as loud as I could.” The first time D.S. said, “Staff, that man is messing with me”; the second time, he called out, “Staff.” However, no one came. After about five minutes, C.P. stopped and let D.S. go.

D.S. left the bathroom and started to go knock on the window to the control room. C.P. grabbed D.S., threw him in the corner, and told D.S. not to tell the MCYF staff what had happened or C.P. would beat him. D.S. sat down at a table in the dayroom. D.S. looked into the control room and saw the same two officers he had seen earlier. One of the officers was still reading a newspaper, and the other appeared to be doing something on a computer. Neither looked up from what they were doing. After a few minutes, the two officers in the control room came and escorted D.S. and C.P. to lunch. MCYF’s B-wing duty log reflects that this occurred at 11:40 a.m.

The parties agree that D.S. subsequently informed MCYF staff that he had been raped by C.P. 3

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Bluebook (online)
286 F. App'x 629, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/d-s-v-county-of-montgomery-state-of-al-ca11-2008.