Diaz v. Drew

305 F. Supp. 3d 234
CourtDistrict Court, District of Columbia
DecidedMarch 30, 2018
DocketCivil Action No. 16–11579–NMG
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 305 F. Supp. 3d 234 (Diaz v. Drew) 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
Diaz v. Drew, 305 F. Supp. 3d 234 (D.D.C. 2018).

Opinion

GORTON, J.

This case arises from the alleged mistreatment of pro se plaintiff Luis Diaz ("Diaz" or "plaintiff"), who is currently incarcerated at the Souza Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, Massachusetts ("SBCC"). Diaz was transferred from the Department Disciplinary Unit ("DDU") at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Cedar Junction in Walpole, Massachusetts ("MCI-Cedar Junction") after completing *235a 27-month disciplinary sanction at that facility.

In his complaint, Diaz alleges that defendants, who are various employees of the Massachusetts Department of Correction ("the DOC"), inter alia, beat him, withheld food and toiletries, retaliated against him, wrongly placed him in the Departmental Disciplinary Unit, withheld supplies needed for his legal case and prevented him from getting mental health treatment, all in violation of 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1983 and 1985.

The following motions are pending before the Court:

1) Plaintiff's motion for injunctive relief to preserve video footage (Docket No. 64),
2) Plaintiff's motion for reconsideration of the Court's May, 2017 memorandum and order (Docket No. 72),
3) Plaintiff's motion for Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b) relief (Docket No. 75),
4) Plaintiff's motion to check the facts and evidence of defendant's associates in the SBCC (Docket No. 84),
5) Plaintiff's motion to focus the Court's attention to the plaintiff's specific motions concerning the record, pens and paper (Docket No. 85),
6) Defendants' motion to dismiss for failure to comply with court order (Docket No. 88) and
7) Plaintiff's motion for an extension of time to file a response to defendants' motion to dismiss (Docket No. 90).

For the reasons that follow, the Court will deny the plaintiff's six pending motions and allow defendants' motion to dismiss.

I. Background

Diaz is incarcerated and awaiting trial on state charges at SBCC. The defendants who have been served are employees of the DOC: the Director of the Departmental Disciplinary Unit (the "DDU") Elena Clodius, Captain William Harold a/k/a Harrold Wilkes, Sergeant Michael Kasprzak and Correction Officers Jeremy Drew, Burns a/k/a William Byrnes and Matthew Sawash (collectively, "defendants").1

The parties offer different versions of the facts. Plaintiff alleges that corrections officers beat him in September, 2015. He asserts that when he decided to file a lawsuit about the beating, prison officials began to retaliate against him by issuing fake disciplinary "tickets". He also claims that he has been denied showers and toiletries and that officers have tampered with his legal documents. He alleges officer misconduct, such as officers telling him to kill himself, making racist and homophobic comments to him, sexually harassing him and desecrating his Muslim hairstyle. He asserts that 1) defendants are starving him, 2) he has been denied due process and 3) he is being held illegally.

According to defendants, plaintiff's version of the facts is delusional. They rely on the affidavit of Michael Rodrigues, the Superintendent of MCI-Cedar Junction, in which Mr. Rodrigues states that plaintiff receives three meals daily and that Diaz's allegations of officer misconduct have been investigated and found to be unsubstantiated. Defendants also rely on the affidavit of Mitzi Peterson, the DOC's Director of Behavioral Health, in which she states that Diaz has received adequate psychological treatment.

*236Plaintiff filed a complaint in August, 2016, alleging that defendants have engaged in actions prohibited by 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1983 and 1985 by violating the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Plaintiff further claims that defendants have violated Article 12 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights.

That same month, Plaintiff moved to proceed in forma pauperis, for the appointment of counsel and for injunctive relief. This Court allowed the motion to proceed in forma pauperis and denied without prejudice the motion to appoint counsel. Plaintiff's motion for injunctive relief was also denied without prejudice because he had not served defendants.

In January, 2017, plaintiff moved for a hearing. In March, 2017, defendants Clodius, Wilkes, Kasprzak, Drew, Byrnes and Sawash were served. The following month, plaintiff moved for emergency injunctive relief, for injunctive relief to stop starvation and for a hearing on his motions for injunctive relief. He also filed a third motion for the appointment of counsel. Defendants moved for an extension of time to respond to the complaint and for exemption from Local Rule 7.1. At the end of April, plaintiff moved for injunctive relief to preserve video footage.

In May, 2017, this Court entered a memorandum and order taking under advisement plaintiff's motion for injunctive relief to preserve video footage but denying his other motions and allowing defendants' motions. With respect to the motion that the Court took under advisement, the Court requested that defendants answer three questions:

1) Why has plaintiff been held for such a lengthy period before trial on the pending state charges?
2) What is plaintiff's current weight (as opposed to his weight in April, 2016)?
3) Can the Court be assured that the relevant videos from April, 2017 will be preserved and available if and when they become pertinent to this case?

Defendants filed their response to the Court's order in June, 2017, which they supplemented later that month. In those responses, defendants indicate that defendant has been awaiting trial in DOC custody since December, 2013 and that DOC is tasked with implementing orders and sentences imposed by the courts but that it has no role in the underlying criminal proceedings or determining plaintiff's release date. Defendants provided copies of the dockets in the underlying state cases. A review of those dockets indicates that trial is scheduled in Suffolk Superior Court for April 17, 2018 in Commonwealth v. Diaz, Docket No. 1384CR10997 and in Middlesex Superior Court for May 30, 2018 in Commonwealth v. Diaz, Docket No. 1681CR00047.

In its first response to the Court's inquiry regarding plaintiffs' weight, defendants stated that plaintiff refused to be weighed on two separate occasions. Defendants supplemented that response two weeks later, stating that as part of Diaz's transfer from MCI-Cedar Junction to SBCC, plaintiff was weighed and was recorded as weighing 184 pounds.

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Bluebook (online)
305 F. Supp. 3d 234, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/diaz-v-drew-dcd-2018.