Imbraguglio v. LeBlanc

CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Louisiana
DecidedMarch 6, 2024
Docket3:22-cv-00018
StatusUnknown

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

Bluebook
Imbraguglio v. LeBlanc, (M.D. La. 2024).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

MIDDLE DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA

DOMINICK IMBRAGUGLIO #522412 CIVIL ACTION VERSUS NO. 22-18-JWD-EWD JAMES M. LEBLANC, IN HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY AS SECRETARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY AND CORRECTIONS, ET AL.

RULING AND ORDER

This matter comes before the Court on the Motion to Dismiss First Supplemental and Amending Complaint (Doc. 73) (the “Second Motion”) filed by James M. LeBlanc, Secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections (“DPSC”); Seth Smith, Warden of Elayn Hunt Correctional Center (“EHCC”) and Chief of Operations of DPSC; Jerry Goodwin, Warden of David Wade Correctional Center (“DWCC”); Darryl Vannoy, Warden of Louisiana State Penitentiary (“LSP”); Timothy Hooper, Warden of EHCC and LSP; Paul Smith, Assistant Warden of LSP; Chadwick Darbonne, Assistant Warden of LSP; Vincent Knight, corrections officer at LSP; Todd Moreau, corrections officer at LSP; Herman Holmes, corrections officer at LSP; Tailor Graffia, agent at LSP; Sheri Barton, agent at LSP, and Lindsey Metz, agent at LSP, all moving in their individual and official capacities, and all referred to collectively as “Defendants.” Plaintiff Dominick Imbraguglio (“Plaintiff”) opposes the Second Motion, (Doc. 76), and Defendants have filed a reply, (Doc. 77). Oral argument is not necessary. The Court has carefully considered the law; the Court’s prior Ruling and Order (Doc. 63) on Defendants’ original Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 56) (“Original Motion”); the Plaintiff’s First Supplemental and Amending Complaint (Doc. 69) (“FSAC”); and the arguments and submissions of the parties and is prepared to rule. For the following reasons, Defendants’ Second Motion is granted. I. RELEVANT FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND A. Plaintiff’s Original Complaint (Doc. 1) The following factual allegations are taken from the Court’s prior Ruling and Order, which summarized the allegations of Plaintiff’s original Complaint. See Imbraguglio v. LeBlanc,

No. 22-18, 2023 WL 2601909, at *1–2 (M.D. La. Mar. 22, 2023) (deGravelles, J.). Plaintiff’s FSAC reasserts paragraphs 3 through 23 of that initial complaint, (FSAC ¶ I, Doc. 69), so these allegations remain relevant to the instant motion. In deciding it, the Court “accept[s] all well- pleaded facts as true and construe[s] the complaint in the light most favorable to the plaintiff.” In re Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. LLC, 624 F.3d 201, 210 (5th Cir. 2010). Plaintiff is an inmate housed in LSP. (Compl., Preamble, Doc. 1 at 3.) On or about June 14, 2014, Plaintiff was housed at EHCC, and there he was charged with simple escape. (Id. ¶ 3.) Consequently, he was “reclassified to extended lockdown custody and placed upon closed-cell restriction (‘CCR’)[.]” (Id.) Plaintiff claims that, as a result of this infraction, he was housed in solitary confinement

at three different DPSC facilities (EHCC, DWCC, and LSP) from June 14, 2014, to July 2, 2021, “without exception and without any solitary confinement break” in violation of the Louisiana Administrative Code tit. 22, pt. I, § 341, which lists the penalty for such an infraction as 30 days confinement to dormitory, room, or cell and/or up to 10 days of disciplinary detention, for each violation. (Id. ¶¶ 4, 6, 7, 8.) Indeed, Plaintiff “has been held in solitary confinement for a total of 2,708 days over a period of about seven and a half years, or 2,767 days from June 14, 2014, until the time of this filing” of the Complaint. (Id. ¶ 5.) He has only been out of solitary for 59 days on two separate occasions: on July 2, 2021, for 47 days, and September 20, 2021, for 17 days. (Id.) Plaintiff went to the Lockdown Review Board (the “LRB”) every 90 days during his time in solitary confinement at each facility. (Id. ¶ 10.) After each hearing the LRB decided that Plaintiff would remain in solitary confinement because of “the original nature of his lockdown, Simple Escape,” even though this decision violates the above cap on confinement from the

Administrative Code. (Id.) Further, on or about January 27, 2021, LSP started to use “an unauthorized schedule of punishment for inmate infractions” named the “Disciplinary Sanctions Matrix,” (“Matrix”). (Id. ¶ 11.) Plaintiff claims that the “schedule of discipline is not legislatively authorized” for the DPSC and that it “institutes sanctions that are more than nine times the legislative rules.” (Id.) On at least four occasions detailed in the Complaint, Plaintiff was sentenced pursuant to the Matrix to time in solitary confinement well beyond what was allowed by the Administrative Code. (See id. ¶¶ 12–15.) Plaintiff appealed each time, but those appeals were denied by LSP officials Warden Timothy Hooper, Deputy Warden Joseph Lamartiniere, and Assistant Warden Tim Delaney. (Id. ¶ 16.)

Plaintiff claims these sanctions, and his consistent placement in solitary, violates not just the Administrative Code but also “Ralph v. Dees, C.A.71-94 USDC (Md. LA) [sic], which addressed the entire disciplinary process, including isolation/detention, specifically stating that ‘No inmate shall be confined in isolation for a period exceeding ten consecutive days, nor shall [any] inmate [be] confined in isolation for more than 20 days of each calendar month.’ ” (Compl. ¶ 17, Doc.1) All of this is also “in accordance with federal court issued orders in compliance with the due process guarantees specified in Wolff v. McDonnell[,] 94 S. Ct[.] 2963 (1974).” (Compl. ¶ 17, Doc. 1.) Additionally, starting around January 27, 2021, and continuing, Plaintiff was only allowed to leave his 6’ × 9’ cell in solitary confinement for fifteen minutes a day. (Id. ¶ 18.) Plaintiff could only do so to shower. (Id.) Further, after the January and March disciplinary hearings, Plaintiff “was subjected to strip searches and cell searches every twelve hours[.]” (Id. ¶ 19.) Defendants did so despite” Woodfox v. Phelps No. 209,535 ‘H’ 19th JDC (1978)) and despite

the Administrative Code's prohibition on using such actions as punishment. (Compl. ¶ 19, Doc. 1.) There is no penological interest for these searches, as Plaintiff is only let out of his cell for fifteen minutes a day and as he is fully restrained, escorted, and observed during that time. (Id. ¶ 20.) Plaintiff alludes to a due process violation for being unable to “appeal the loss of visitation privileges, or the implementation of strip searches and cell searches every twelve hours[,]” again, in violation of the Administrative Code. (Id. ¶ 21.) Further: [T]he circumstances and conditions under which Plaintiff Imbraguglio were held in solitary confinement include but are not limited to: only fifteen minutes a day outside of his cell, and then only to shower[;] possession of no personal property: possession of only one pair of boxers, one towel, one pair of socks, no use of telephone, radio, or television; no access to reading materials; and visitation privileges.

(Id. ¶ 22.) Moreover, Plaintiff alleges that his visitation privileges were suspended for three months twice in 2021, even though the Administrative Code provides that such privileges can only be lost “[i]f the violation involves visiting.” (Id. ¶ 23 (italics omitted).) B. The Court’s Ruling and Order (Doc. 63) Defendants filed their first Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 56) the claims against them in the Complaint, and, on March 22, 2023, this Court granted that motion. Imbraguglio, 2023 WL 2601909, at *15. Specifically, in its Ruling and Order, the Court granted Defendant’s Original Motion because (1) Plaintiff’s claims for damages against Defendants in their official capacity were barred by the Eleventh Amendment, and Plaintiff made no attempt to satisfy the exception of Ex Parte Young, id.

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