Laxton v. Watters

348 F. Supp. 2d 1024, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25483, 2004 WL 2913631
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Wisconsin
DecidedDecember 10, 2004
Docket04-C-777-C
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 348 F. Supp. 2d 1024 (Laxton v. Watters) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Laxton v. Watters, 348 F. Supp. 2d 1024, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25483, 2004 WL 2913631 (W.D. Wis. 2004).

Opinion

ORDER

CRABB, District Judge.

This is a proposed civil action for monetary and injunctive relief, brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1988. Petitioner John Lee Laxton is presently confined at the Wisconsin Resource Center as a patient pursuant to Wisconsin’s Sexually Violent Persons Law, Wis. Stat. ch. 980. He seeks leave to proceed without prepayment of fees and costs or providing security for such fees and costs, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915. From the affidavit of indigency accompanying petitioner’s proposed complaint, I conclude that petitioner is unable to prepay the full fees and costs of instituting this lawsuit. Because he is a patient and not a prisoner, petitioner is not subject to the 1996 Prison Litigation Reform Act.

In addressing any pro se litigant’s complaint, the court must construe the complaint liberally. Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 521, 92 S.Ct. 594, 30 L.Ed.2d 652 (1972). However, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2), if a litigant is requesting leave to proceed in forma pauperis, the court must deny leave to proceed if the action is frivolous or malicious, fails to state a claim on which relief may be granted or seeks money damages from a defendant who is immune from such relief.

In his complaint, petitioner alleges the following facts.

ALLEGATIONS OF FACT

Petitioner John Lee Laxton is presently confined at the Wisconsin Resource Center as a patient pursuant to Wisconsin’s Sexually Violent Persons Law, Wis. Stat. ch. 980. Prior to July 15, 2003, he had been confined at the Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center in Mauston, Wisconsin. Defendant Steve Watters is the director of the Sand Ridge facility.

While petitioner was incarcerated at the Sand Ridge facility, he was enrolled in the Sand Ridge conventional treatment track program which was commonly referred to as the “Core” program. Petitioner was progressing well in the Core program. On *1027 May 7, 2002, petitioner informed his Core group and facilitators that he would not submit to a polygraph exam. Later that day, one of petitioner’s Core facilitators, Lorie Goeser, told petitioner that he would be removed from the Core treatment program and transferred to High Management/Initial Unit AA for refusing to take a polygraph examination. The decision to transfer petitioner was made by the Sand Ridge treatment center clinical director, Dr. David Thorton, for the sole reason that petitioner had refused to take a polygraph examination. Shortly before May 7, petitioner had received a memo (presumably from an employee at the Sand Ridge center), indicating that refusing a polygraph exam would “NOT BE A GENERAL REFUSAL OF TREATMENT.”

After petitioner was transferred to the High Management/Initial Unit, he was subjected to a more restrictive work policy, an earlier curfew and increased security restrictions. Petitioner and other similarly situated patients filed complaints about not receiving a hearing before they were transferred to a more restrictive unit. The Sand Ridge official stance was that these patients had opted out of treatment. Linda Alsum-O’Donovan and respondent denied the complaints. Their decisions “boiled down” to denying petitioner treatment and placing him on a more secure unit.

On June 3, 2002, one of the Sand Ridge social workers, Ms. Wheeland, gave petitioner an “individualized treatment opportunity” which was designed to change petitioner’s mind about submitting to a polygraph test. Petitioner’s treatment and learning plan indicates that the purpose of the treatment opportunity is “to help the patient assess the rationality of his decision-making process leading to his refusal of the polygraph.” Petitioner refused to participate in the treatment session or sign a treatment form.

On July 1, 2002, Wheeland again tried to hold an individualized treatment session with petitioner. This time, no mention of petitioner’s refusal' to take a polygraph examination was made. Petitioner provided Wheeland and the Sand Ridge clinical staff a written explanation of his reasons for refusing to participate in this second treatment session and said once again that he was not refusing treatment.

On January 30, 2003, petitioner attended a staffing meeting at which patients and staff discuss treatment planning. The Sand Ridge treatment team asked petitioner to sign a form consenting to treatment. Petitioner expressed his concern that signing the form might be construed as consent to submit to a polygraph examination but also noted that he thought he should be returned to the Core program. The Sand Ridge treatment staff told petitioner that if he signed the treatment consent form, he would be re-enrolled in the Core program. On May 7, 2003, petitioner signed the consent form.

Having signed the agreement, petitioner anticipated that he would be returned to the Core program at his next staffing meeting on June 5. However, the treatment staff informed him at that meeting that Dr. Thorton had decided to place petitioner in the “Responsible Thinking” program instead. The staff also informed petitioner that fighting with them would be fruitless because the decision about his placement had already been made. Nonetheless, petitioner insisted that the treatment staff look at his “treatment learning plan,” where it was written that petitioner had been told that he would be returned to the Core program. After seeing the notation, the treatment staff ended the staffing meeting, telling petitioner that they would take the matter up with Dr. Thorton. Petitioner refused to participate in the Responsible Thinking program. The pro *1028 gram would- not have provided him with prompt and adequate treatment. After the June 5 staffing meeting, he submitted a written explanation for declining to participate in the Responsible Thinking program.

On July 15, 2003, petitioner was transferred to the Wisconsin Resource Center. He was not given a hearing before the transfer. Petitioner has fewer -freedoms and privileges at the resource center than he had at the Sand Ridge facility. At the Wisconsin Resource Center, petitioner is not allowed to use as many electronic devices, he is charged higher canteen prices, made to wear prison clothing when visiting with friends and family, offered fewer recreational opportunities, and has less furniture and fewer electrical outlets in his cell than he had at Sand Ridge. Sex offender treatment is not offered to civil patients at the Wisconsin Resource Center. Petitioner has told resource center staff on many occasions that he wished to return to the Sand Ridge center and that he was not refusing treatment. Petitioner remains at the Wisconsin Resource Center with no hope of receiving treatment, release or less restrictive confinement for the sole reason that he refused to take a polygraph examination.

DISCUSSION

A. Due Process

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Related

Morel v. Wilkins
84 So. 3d 226 (Supreme Court of Florida, 2012)
Thiel v. Nelson
422 F. Supp. 2d 1024 (W.D. Wisconsin, 2006)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
348 F. Supp. 2d 1024, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25483, 2004 WL 2913631, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/laxton-v-watters-wiwd-2004.