Gomez v. Palmer

181 F. Supp. 3d 498, 2015 WL 996584, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25695
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedMarch 3, 2015
DocketNo. 11 C 1793
StatusPublished

This text of 181 F. Supp. 3d 498 (Gomez v. Palmer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gomez v. Palmer, 181 F. Supp. 3d 498, 2015 WL 996584, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25695 (N.D. Ill. 2015).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

Elaine E, Bucldo, United States District Judge

In May 2009, Illinois prisoner Raul Gomez (“Gomez”) sustained a gunshot wound when Correctional Officer Dwayne Johnson (“Officer Johnson”) fired a round of buckshot in Gomez’s direction as prison guards were physically separating two unarmed inmates who had gotten into a scuffle.

In this suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, Gomez alleges that Officer Johnson used excessive force against him and that Sergeant Lanel Palmer (“Sgt.Palmer”) and Nurse Andria Bacot (“Nurse Bacot”) were deliberately indifferent to his injuries.

All three Defendants have moved for summary judgment. I deny their motions for the reasons stated below.

I.

At the summary judgment stage, I must view the record in the light most favorable to Gomez and resolve all evidentiary conflicts in his favor. See Shields v. Ill. Dep’t of Corrections, 746 F.3d 782, 786 (7th Cir. 2014). It follows that my account of the facts “is not necessarily accurate in an objective sense but [instead] reflects the evidence through ’ the lens of summary judgment.” Id.

A.

On May 20, 2009, Gomez lived in the “E House” at Stateville Correctional Center (“Stateville”) on the ninth floor of cells. Around 10:00 am that day, Sgt. Palmer and Correctional Officer Troy Dunlap (“Officer Dunlap”) were escorting the fifty-six inmates on Gomez’s floor back from the dining hall. Gomez stood against the railing across from his cell while other inmates were still filing up the stairs.

While Gomez was waiting, two inmates started to fight on the ninth floor walkway close to the stairwell. Neither inmate had a weapon. Gomez was standing about ten to fifteen feet away from the fight when it broke out. Within three or four seconds, Sgt. Palmer and Officer Dunlap ran up the stairs and started to break up the fight. Sgt. Palmer sprayed the two inmates with mace about fifteen seconds after arriving at the scene. As Sgt. Palmer, and Officer Dunlap were physically separating the two inmates, Gomez heard a gunshot. He turned to look at Officer Johnson, who was patrolling the catwalk on the opposite wall across from the seventh floor of cells.

Gomez heard several inmates curse at Officer Johnson and ask why he had fired. In Gomez’s opinion, Sgt. Palmer and Officer Dunlap already had the fight under control when Officer Johnson fired a round of buckshot from his twelve-gauge shotgun. What transpired next is best captured in Gomez’s own words:

When [Officer Johnson] used the pump action on the shot to put another one in the chamber we knew he was trying to scare us or shoot again. And we kind of [501]*501leaned back. He fired and I ducked and closed my eyes to try to protect my eyes, and I felt an impact on my arm.

Gomez Dep. at 41. A buckshot pellet from Officer Johnson’s second shot ricocheted off an unknown object and lodged in Gomez’s upper right arm.1 Gomez said the impact “felt like a punch in my arm” and left a hole in his shirt. Id. at 49.

Officer Johnson aimed his second shot in Gomez’s direction—i.e., at an angle from the seventh floor catwalk towards the inmates on the ninth floor walkway—rather than at a “black box” target designed to catch warning shots and minimize ricochet. One of the targets was suspended from the ceiling on the same wall as the catwalk. After the second shot, Gomez saw Sgt. Palmer look at Officer Johnson in disbelief as if to say, “Why did you shoot?” Id. at 45.2 The entire incident, from the start of the fight until the two inmates were placed in handcuffs, lasted about thirty-five to forty seconds.

Aftér the fight, Gomez lifted up his shirt to inspect his wound. He saw “dark discoloration,” a bruise about the size of a quarter, and a drip of blood. Id. at 51. The actual puncture wound was about “the size of a big apple seed.” Id. at 52. Gomez showed Sgt. Palmer and Officer Dunlap his wound and requested medical attention. Sgt. Palmer instructed Officer Dunlap to summon a medical technician or nurse as soon as he finished letting the other inmates into their cells.

' About five minutes later, Officer Dunlap returned to Gomez’s cell with Nurse Bacot. Gomez showed Nurse Bacot his arm and told her, “I got hit when they fired the gun.” Id. at 91. At this point, there was still fresh blood on Gomez’s wound trickling down his arm. Nurse Bacot told Officer Dunlap that Gomez needed to go to the medical unit. Officer Dunlap responded that Gomez could not leave because the E House was being placed on lockdown. Nurse Bacot did not protest or explain to Officer Dunlap that Gomez’s situation presented a medical emergency. Nurse Bacot admits, however, that she can seek clearance to transfer inmates to the medical unit.at Stateville even during a lockdown.

When Gomez asked Nurse Bacot to place a note in his file so he could receive immediate medical attention after the lock-down, she responded, “I am not going to write shit.” Id. at 16. Gomez then asked Nurse Bacot to clean his arm. She conferred with Officer Dunlap, but did not respond to Gomez’s request. Gomez then asked Nurse Bacot to provide him with Bacitracin ointment and a Band-Aid so he could treat his own wound. Nurse Bacot agreed,- but never returned to Gomez’s cell with any medical supplies.3

Sgt. Palmer did a walk through on the ninth floor around 2:00 pm, nearly four hours after the shooting incident. Gomez asked Sgt. Palmer why he had not received any medical supplies to treat his injury. Sgt. Palmer promised to check with the medical unit, but never followed [502]*502up with Gomez. When Sgt.. Palmer spoke with an investigator about three weeks after the incident, he stated that “between tickets, paperwork, feeding etc., 2:30 pm [the end of his shift] came fast and he (Palmer) was unable to check with Gomez.” Pl.’s Ex. 25.

Around 6:00 pm, Nurse Bacot returned to the ninth floor to pass out medications. Gomez asked Nurse Bacot why he had not received any medical treatment or supplies. She said, “Oh, you will be alright,” and continued delivering medications. Gomez Dep. at 17. As Nurse Bacot was about to leave the ninth floor, Gomez asked for her full name given that she was refusing to treat his injury; She mumbled something inaudible, laughed, and walked away.

When Gomez realized he was not going to receive any medical treatment, he took matters into his own hands:

I started cleaning out my own arm and that’s when I noticed that there was something in it. All of this time I didn’t think there was anything in my arm. I thought it was just swelling and a puncture wound. When I started to clean it out with soap and water over my sink, I went back to the light, turned on the light and I started pushing in on it and everything and I seen [sic] a piece of metal. And I told my celly, man, I got something in my arm. So I extracted it with my fingernails and cleaned it out more. Put that, down, grabbed my sheet, ripped a piece off of it and put a bandage on it. And then I started to write [an] emergency grievance to the Warden.

Id. at 59. Gomez did not tell Sgt. Palmer, Officer Dunlap, or Nurse Bacot that he had extracted a piece of metal from his gunshot wound.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
181 F. Supp. 3d 498, 2015 WL 996584, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25695, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gomez-v-palmer-ilnd-2015.