James T. Murzike v. Ronnie Weems, et al.

District Court, M.D. Florida·Decided March 19, 2026·No. 3:23-cv-00098·Unknown

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT MIDDLE DISTRICT OF FLORIDA JACKSONVILLE DIVISION

JAMES T. MURZIKE,

Plaintiff,

v. Case No. 3:23-cv-98-WWB-PDB

RONNIE WEEMS, et al.,

Defendants. _______________________________/

ORDER

THIS CAUSE is before the Court on the following motions: the Nurse Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. 141), with exhibits (Doc. Nos. 141-2 to 141-15, 143); the Officer Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. 142), with exhibits (Doc. Nos. 142-1 to 142-3, 143);1 and Plaintiff’s Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. 144), without exhibits. Defendants have not responded to Plaintiff’s Motion. Plaintiff has responded only to the Officer Defendants’ Motion (Doc. 161), but he filed it late without seeking leave of Court. As such, the Court will strike it.2

1 The Officer Defendants submitted video evidence under seal in support of their Motion (Doc. 143). The Nurse Defendants rely on the same video evidence. (See Doc. 141 at 3). Except for the video evidence, all exhibits will be cited by document and page number as assigned by the Court’s electronic docketing system. The video evidence, which consists of three separate clips on one thumb drive, will be cited according to the Officer Defendants’ exhibit designation (D, E, or F) followed by the time stamp. 2 Even if the Court were to consider Plaintiff’s late response, it would not help him. He adds new allegations or attempts to revive claims previously dismissed or not pursued in his Amended Complaint, some of his writing is indecipherable, and he filed no exhibits with it. Rather, he relies on the evidence Defendants filed with their Motions, and that evidence contradicts his claims. In a separate filing, which Plaintiff mailed four days after he mailed the response, Plaintiff contends that he “had medical documents” to support his alleged injuries, but security officials destroyed them (Doc. 162). As with most of I. BACKGROUND Plaintiff, an inmate of the Florida Department of Corrections, is proceeding pro so on an Amended Complaint for Violation of Civil Rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Doc. 20) on the following claims arising out of an organized use of force that occurred on December 22, 2022: excessive force or failure to intervene against Officer Defendants Weems, Bias,

Taylor, Green, and Mattox; retaliation against Defendant Weems; deliberate indifference to serious medical needs against Nurse Defendants Cummings and Putney; and failure to intervene against Nurse Defendants Cummings, Putney, Allen, and Kushner. The allegations supporting these claims are fully set forth in this Court’s August 18, 2025 Order on Defendants’ separate Motions to Dismiss:3 [As to the Officer Defendants, Plaintiff] . . . alleges Defendants Weems, Bias, and Talyor hit him, grabbed him, cut him, or unnecessarily sprayed him with chemical agents “maliciously [and] sadistically to cause [him] harm when [he] was not violating any prison rule []or . . . acting disruptively.”

Specifically, Plaintiff alleges that Defendant Taylor unnecessarily sprayed him with chemical agents twice, including one time “continuously,” causing second or third degree burns, while Defendant Weems “repeatedly slammed [and] smash[ed his] arm [and] shoulder into [the] cell door”; Defendant Bias stabbed him with a “switch blade”; and Defendants Bryan, Green, and Mattox (along with the Nurse Defendants) “stood by [and] watched.” Additionally, he alleges that when he was in the medical exam room, Defendants Green and Bias “repeatedly punch[ed him] in [his] side, ribs, [and] stomach,” while Defendant Cummings watched.

* * *

[As to the Nurse Defendants, Plaintiff] asserts his arm was cut so badly that he had “tissues [and] meat . . . hang[ing] out while gushing out blood,” and

Plaintiff’ filings, this notice is not a proper motion, it is largely illegible, it contains conclusory, unsupported allegations, and in it, Plaintiff complains about other conduct unrelated to the issues in this case. 3 In that Order, the Court dismissed numerous claims, substantially narrowing the issues before the Court now. (See Doc. 103 at 19). even after having had a decontamination shower, he had second- or third- degree burns that were not treated [by Defendants Cummings and Putney].

(Doc. 103 at 8–9, 12). II. LEGAL STANDARD Summary judgment is appropriate when the moving party demonstrates “that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). A dispute is genuine “if the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving party.” Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248 (1986). A fact is material if it may “affect the outcome of the suit under the governing law.” Id. “The moving party bears the initial burden of showing the court, by reference to materials on file, that there are no genuine issues of material fact that should be decided at trial.” Allen v. Bd. of Pub. Educ., 495 F.3d 1306, 1313–14 (11th Cir. 2007). Stated differently, the moving party discharges its burden by showing “that there is an absence of evidence to support the nonmoving party’s case.” Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 325 (1986). However, once the moving party has discharged its burden, “Rule 56(e) … requires the nonmoving party to go beyond the pleadings and by her own affidavits, or by the depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, designate specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial.” Id. at 324 (quotation omitted). The nonmoving party may not rely solely on “conclusory allegations without specific

supporting facts.” Evers v. Gen. Motors Corp., 770 F.2d 984, 986 (11th Cir. 1985). Nevertheless, “[i]f there is a conflict between the parties’ allegations or evidence, the [nonmoving] party’s evidence is presumed to be true and all reasonable inferences must be drawn in the [nonmoving] party’s favor.” Allen, 495 F.3d at 1314. III. DISCUSSION A. Plaintiff’s Motion Plaintiff’s Motion is not proper under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56. It reads like both a response to a motion to dismiss (referencing Rule 8(a)(2) and using the failure- to-state-a-claim language) and a motion to compel (including a list of discovery requests

to which Defendants “fail[ed] to act or respond”).4 (See Doc. 144 at 3–4). More importantly, however, Plaintiff does not demonstrate by reference to “particular parts of materials in the record” that there is no genuine issue of material fact. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c)(A). Indeed, he provides no evidence supporting his Motion but rather relies on Defendants’ evidence, which justifies summary judgment in their favor, as explained below. (See Doc. 144 at 7). To the extent Plaintiff intended his Motion to be one for summary judgment under Rule 56, he has not carried his burden. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c)(A). Accordingly, Plaintiff’s Motion will be denied. B. Nurse Defendants’ Motion

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James T. Murzike v. Ronnie Weems, et al., (M.D. Fla. 2026).

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