Foster v. State of Nevada

CourtDistrict Court, D. Nevada
DecidedAugust 10, 2022
Docket2:19-cv-00969
StatusUnknown

This text of Foster v. State of Nevada (Foster v. State of Nevada) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Nevada primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Foster v. State of Nevada, (D. Nev. 2022).

Opinion

1 |} AARON D. FORD Attorney General 2 || LORIN M. TAYLOR (Bar No. 14958) Deputy Attorney General 3 State of Nevada Office of the Attorney General 4 ||555 E. Washington Ave., Ste. 3900 Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 5 (702) 486-2389 (phone) (702) 486-3773 (fax) 6 Email: lmtaylor@ag.nv.gov 7 || Attorneys for Defendanis Harold Wickham, Dwight Neven, and 8 || Richard Ashcraft 9 10 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 11 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 12 |} AMBER FOSTER, Case No. 2:19-cv-00969-GMN-VCF 13 Plaintiff, 14 || v. AMENDED JOINT PRETRIAL ORDER 15 || STATE OF NEVADA, et al., 16 Defendants. 17 Following pretrial proceedings in this case, 18 IT IS ORDERED: 19 20 NATURE OF ACTION AND CONTENTIONS OF THE PARTIES 21 NATURE OF ACTION 22 This is an inmate civil rights action brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Plaintiff 23 || Amber Foster is an inmate in the custody of the Nevada Department of Corrections and is 24 ||currently incarcerated at Jean Conservation Camp. Foster sued under the Fifth and 25 ||Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.! The Court screened the 26 |;Complaint and allowed Foster’s Fourteenth Amendment due process claims to proceed 27 ECF 7. 28 Page 1 of 15

1 |{against Defendant Harold Wickham, Dwight Neven, and Richard Ashcraft; dismissed 2 || Foster’s Fifth Amendment claim; and dismissed Amber Parkerson and Gabriela Garcia.? Foster sued for injunctive relief for events that took place while incarcerated at 4 ||Florence McClure Women’s Correctional Center. On June 21, 2018, an unknown 5 ||individual sent Foster mail without a return address.4 Mail without a return address 6 ||cannot be delivered to inmates.5 Former Correctional Officer Parkerson, per protocol, 7 ||opened the mail and noted it appeared to be sprayed with an unknown substance.® The 8 ||substance tested positive for methamphetamine, and Foster was charged with an MJ53: 9 || possession, introduction, or sales of any narcotics, drugs, alcohol, or other intoxicants or 10 || possession of materials/items suitable for such manufacture and/or use.7 11 Defendant Ashcraft conducted Foster’s disciplinary hearing on July 1, 2018.8 12 || During the hearing, Foster stated she did not know who had sent her the mail, that she 13 || has no control over who sends her mail, and that she would never have asked for mail to 14 sent to her anonymously because she knew that it would not be delivered.? Ashcraft 15 || found her guilty of the offense. !® 16 Foster appealed the guilty finding via the administrative grievance process.!! 17 ||Neven denied Foster’s grievance at the first level, and Harold Wickham denied her 18 grievance at the second level.!2 As a result of the guilty finding, Foster received multiple 19 |}sanctions, including loss of canteen privileges for ninety days, loss of personal calls for 20 21 ———________________ ECF 8. 22 ECF 7. 4 23 : at 4. 24 at 4-5. 95 fd. at 6. 9 Id. 26 || 1° Id. ie at 7.

28 Page 2 of 15

1 j|ninety days, placement in segregation for sixty days, and “stat ref’ for sixty days.!3 Based 2 these allegations, Foster asserts NDOC Employees violated her right to due process 3 under the Fourteenth Amendment, !4 4 CONTENTIONS OF THE PARTIES 5 1, Plaintiff's Contentions 6 Foster asserts the guilty finding from Offense in Custody No. 445464 and the 7 ||punishments of “segregation confinement & other numerous sanctions. . . occurred 8 || without any evidence indicating that there was any knowledge on [Foster’s] behalf of this 9 || illegal action therefore the defendants violated [Foster’s] due process rights.” !5 10 2. Defendants’ Contentions 11 Defendants are entitled to qualified immunity on Foster’s claims. 12 The evidence does not support Foster’s allegations. 13 Foster's constitutional rights have not been violated. 14 Foster is not entitled to any of the relief demanded in the complaint. 15 Defendant Ashcraft relied on some evidence with indicia of reliability to support 16 ||the guilty finding in OIC No. 445464, 17 Defendants Wickham and Neven were not personally involved any alleged 18 constitutional violation. 19 Foster's prayer to reverse of the guilty finding in OIC No. 445464 and to clear her 20 |/institutional record of the disciplinary infraction is barred under Preiser v. Rodriguez!¢ 21 Heck v. Humphry." 22 Foster did not pray for recovery of monetary damages in her complaint and as a 23 24 95 || Id. "Id. at 8. 26 Id. at 3. 16 411 U.S. 475, 489 (1973). 27 512 U.S. 477, 483 (1994). 28 Page 3 of 15

1 result Foster cannot seek monetary damages at trial.!8 2 To the extent that Plaintiff sues Defendants for damages in their official capacities, 3 ||state officials acting in their official capacities are not “persons” under § 1983 and the 4 ||claims against Ashcraft, Neven, and Whickham in their official capacity should be 5 || dismissed. !9 6 A. C. RELIEF SOUGHT 7 Foster seeks injunctive relief in the form of reversing the guilty finding, the 8 ||sanctions, and “clearing [Fostev’s] institutional record of any disciplinary infractions.”2° 9 I. 10 STATEMENT OF JURISDICTION 11 This is a civil action for injunctive relief commenced under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. This 12 || Court has jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1331. 13 Ii. 14 UNCONTESTED FACTS ADMITTED BY THE PARTIES WHICH REQUIRE NO 15 PROOF 16 1. On June 21, 2018, Foster was an inmate housed at Florence McClure 17 || Women’s Correctional Facility. 18 2. Under Nevada Department of Corrections Administrative Regulation (AR) 19 ||750 - Inmate General Correspondence and Mail, effective date December 17, 2013, 20 “Inmates are responsible to comply with mail and correspondence procedures.”2! 21 22 See Bain v. California Tehrs. Ass'n, 891 F.3d 1206, 1212 (9th Cir. 2018) (rejecting plaintiffs 23 attempt to “transform their lawsuit from a request for prospective equitable relief into a plea for money damages to remedy past wrongs.”); Seven Words LLC v. Network Solutions, 260 F.3d 94 || 1089, 1092, 1096-1097 (9 Cir. 2001) (plaintiff cannot assert a late-in-the-day damages claim to avoid mootness when plaintiff “consistently represented that it was seeking only declaratory and 95 injunctive relief’ throughout the litigation). 18 Will v. Michigan Dep’t of State Police, 491 U.S. 58, 71 (1989). 26 Id. at 14. Nevada Department of Corrections Administrative Regulation 750.1 — Inmate General 27 Correspondence and Mail, effective date December 17, 2013 28 Page 4 of 15

1 3. On June 21, 2018, the Florence McClure Women’s Correctional Facility 2 || mailroom received two envelopes addressed to Foster. 3 4, The envelopes had no return address. 4 5. Envelopes with no return address are not delivered to an inmate pursuant to 5 || AR 750. 6 6. The envelopes were opened by Correctional Officer Parkerson. 7 7. Correctional Officer Parkerson observed that each envelope contained a 8 || greeting card. 9 8. Correctional Officer Parkerson observed that each greeting card “appeared 10 || to be bubbly as ifit were sprayed with something.” 11 9. Correctional Officer Parkerson suspected that the cards contained drugs. 12 10. Correctional Officer Parkerson contacted Correctional Lieutenant Clinton 13 || Snowden. 14 11. Correctional Lieutenant Snowden tested the cards for drugs. 15 12.

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Foster v. State of Nevada, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/foster-v-state-of-nevada-nvd-2022.