Gwiazdowski v. County of Chester

263 F.R.D. 178, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 97466, 2009 WL 3448121
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedOctober 20, 2009
DocketCivil Action No. 2:08-cv-04463
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 263 F.R.D. 178 (Gwiazdowski v. County of Chester) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gwiazdowski v. County of Chester, 263 F.R.D. 178, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 97466, 2009 WL 3448121 (E.D. Pa. 2009).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

LEGROME D. DAVIS, District Judge.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Plaintiff Mary Gwiazdowski commenced this class action against Defendant Chester County following incidents that occurred while Plaintiff was detained at Chester County Prison in West Chester, Pennsylvania (“Chester Prison”) on September 13, 2007, for misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence (“DUI”) and traffic violations. Plaintiff claims that she and others similarly situated were subjected to unconstitutional strip searches upon entry into Chester Prison. Defendant Chester County is “responsible for enacting uniform policies and overseeing the County Jail.”1 (CompU 7.)

A. Facts relating to Plaintiffs Detention and Alleged Strip Searches

Plaintiff was transferred to Chester Prison on September 13, 2007 following a brief detention at Riverside Correctional Facility in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (“Riverside”) for misdemeanor and summary charges of DUI, fleeing and reckless driving. (Comply 28.) Upon entry to Chester Prison, Plaintiff proceeded through intake questioning and paperwork and was pat down by a correctional officer. (Pl.’s Mot. Certify Class, Ex. A Pl.’s Dep. 85:10-16, Mar. 12, 2009.) Plaintiff alleges that she was then subjected to two strip searches, a debusing spray procedure and a cavity search. (Hr’g Tr. 8:9, Aug. 5, 2009.)

Plaintiff was taken to a showering area where she was required to submit to Defendant’s debusing procedure, during which Plaintiff removed all of her clothing, including undergarments, and an inspection officer, Donna Jennings (“Jennings”), sprayed Plaintiff with Lysol. (Pl.’s Dep. 86:2-3; Hr’g Tr. 15:22.) When Plaintiff undressed, Jennings noticed bruises on Plaintiffs body, and Plaintiff explained that she was assaulted by inmates at Riverside. (Pl.’s Dep. 12:7-14; Def.’s Resp., Ex. 3 Chester County Prison Incident Report 2 (hereinafter “Incident Report”).)2 According to Plaintiff, Jennings [182]*182first sprayed her hair, then her underarms, and then her “private areas.” (Pl.’s Dep. 35:15-16, 27:20.) Before beginning the process, Jennings advised Plaintiff to “hold [her] breath because of the spray being so cold.” (Id. at 61:4.) Plaintiff recalled that she asked Jennings, “how come do I need to get sprayed down,” and Jennings replied, “[because of lice and other things, that it’s like a disinfectant for people so you don’t spread stuff.” (Id. at 62:25.) Following the debusing procedure, Plaintiff showered and was then taken to a holding cell. (Id. at 28:24, 29:1.)

Plaintiff asserts that while she was being debused, she was also strip searched.3 (CompU 1.) Jennings never touched Plaintiff but Plaintiff alleged that she was “forced to bend over and spread the lobes of her buttocks.” (Id. at ¶ 28.) When asked to describe “specifically where they seareh[ed] you when you’re completely nude,” Plaintiff responded, “[t]hey just mainly[,] they are looking at you. They just check you and, like, you just have to spread open to make sure there’s nothing there ... Your privates, under your arms and hair. And your mouth.” (Pl.’s Dep. 87:6-16.) However, both Officer Jennings and Major D. Scott Graham, an officer at Chester Prison, stated that Plaintiff was not strip searched. (Pl.’s Mot. Certify Class, Ex. D Dep. of Donna Jennings 82:6, March 4, 2009; Id. at Ex. E Dep. of Major D. Scott Graham 130:2, March 3, 2009.) Jennings also wrote in the Incident Report, “[A]t no time is a female asked to squat and cough or spread their butt cheeks during an intake process.” (Incident Report 3.)

B. Defendant’s Policies and Procedures

Defendant admits to having a uniform debusing policy. Defendant has a written policy of “delous[ing] every new committal providing the individual is not pregnant or has open sores.”4 (Pl.’s Mot. Certify Class, Ex. B Chester County Prison, Policies and Procedures: Debusing of New Commitments.)5 The purpose of the policy is to “reduce the chances of lice, crabs and other infectious things to be introduced to the facility.” (Id.) After completing the intake paperwork, an inmate is taken to the “appropriate shower area” for the debusing procedure. (Id. at ¶ 1.) The inmate must remove his/her clothes and place them in the clothing bag assigned to him/her. (Graham Dep. 42:24.) An identification officer “will perform a visual inspection of the inmate’s body to ensure there are no open wounds or sores,” (Policies and Procedures: Debusing of New Commitments ¶ 3) and will also ask the inmate if he/she has any open wounds or sores, (Graham Dep. 43:2-3). If the officer detects no open wounds or sores, the inmate is “directed to close his/her eyes and hold up his/her arms,” (Graham Dep. 115:12-14,) and the officer proceeds to spray the inmate’s entire body, both the back and front of the body, with Lysol. (Hr’g Tr. 15:22.) The officer sprays the inmate’s “private part areas” during this procedure because “that’s where body lice, crabs, that’s where they harvest.” (Jennings Dep. 67:3.) When the spraying is complete, the inmate is directed to shower and dress in the issued inmate clothing. (Policies and Procedures: Debusing of New Commitments ¶ 8.)

Plaintiff also alleges that Defendant has a “written and/or de facto policy, custom or practice” of conducting suspicionless visual cavity searches of all detainees. (Compl.fl 25.) Plaintiff interviewed a former identification officer of Chester Prison, Benjamin Her stein, who stated that every inmate is “strip-searched and then debused.” (Pl. Mot. Certify Class, Ex. C Benjamin Her stein Interview 2, Mar. 6, 2009.) Herstein described the search as a “visual” search, where the officer wants the detainee to “shake their hair out ... bend over, cough, make sure there’s nothing up in the, I guess, [183]*183anal cavity. Lift their scrotum ... Check their ears, cheek their mouth.” (Id. at 3.) When asked whether searching was Chester Prison’s policy, however, Herstein explained that he was “never given any, you know, I.D. policies or book saying ‘this is what has to be followed,’ ” and “really [didn’t] know if it was protocol.” (Id. at 3.) Herstein followed what was told to him by his training officer. (Id. at 3.)

Defendant denies that it has a blanket visual strip search policy, and provides a copy of its policies and procedures for pat-downs and searches in support thereof. (Def. Resp., Ex. 2 Policies and Procedures: Inmate Pah-Down and Strip Search Protocol.) Specifically, the document describes searches of persons detained on misdemean- or charges as follows:

“No person ... arrested on a misdemean- or charge or a felony charge not involving violence, weapons or controlled substance, shall be subjected to a strip search unless the Chester County Prison Employee has a reasonable belief that the person is concealing a controlled substance or weapon....”

(Id. at ¶ 5.) This policy was set forth in writing for the first time on March 10, 2008, but Defendant alleges that the same policy was in place prior to March 2008. (Def.Resp.4-5.) Jennings and Grahams’ depositions further support this position.

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Bluebook (online)
263 F.R.D. 178, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 97466, 2009 WL 3448121, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gwiazdowski-v-county-of-chester-paed-2009.