Neal-Williams v. Addison

CourtDistrict Court, D. Maryland
DecidedMay 6, 2024
Docket1:21-cv-03280
StatusUnknown

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

Bluebook
Neal-Williams v. Addison, (D. Md. 2024).

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT . _ FOR THE DISTRICT OF MARYLAND

RODJUAN ORLANDO JAMES . NEAL-WILLIAMS, Plaintiff, _ Civil No. 21-3280 PJM v. ADRIA ADDISON, et al.,- . Defendants. oe, □

MEMORANDUM OPINION In this prisoner civil rights case, initiated by pro se Plaintiff Rodjuan Orlando James Neal-Williams, the Court appointed pro bono counsel to represent Plaintiff, and counsel has recently filed an Amended Complaint (ECF No. 64). Two of the ten Defendants named in the Amended Complaint, Susan Malagari and Montgomery County, Maryland (the Municipal Defendants), have jointly filed a Motion to Dismiss Counts VI and XII of the Amended Complaint, or, in the Alternative, a Motion to Bifurcate (ECF No. 75). The Motion has been briefed (see ECF Nos. 78, 81), and the Court finds no hearing necessary. See D. Md. Local R. 105.6. □□ For the following reasons, the Court will GRANT IN PART and DENY IN PART the Municipal Defendants’ Motion and will BIFURCATE all further proceedings against Defendant Montgomery County.

1. . The factual background to this case was discussed extensively in the Court’s September 12, 2023 Memorandum Opinion addressing Defendants’ prior Motions to Dismiss. See ECF No. 48. The Court incorporates that background by reference and supplements it with a general

overview of the allegations in Plaintiff's Amended Complaint insofar as relevant to the Municipal Defendants’ present Motion.! A. Plaintiff was formerly a pretrial detainee at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility (MCCF). ECF No. 64 { 1. The MCCF is owned and operated by the County and, at all relevant times, Malagari served as the facility’s Warden. See id. Jf 20-21. The MCCF also employed individual Defendant Officers Adria Addison, Stephen Darden, Thomas Bryant, Oladys Beza Villatoro, Andrew Robinette, Jeffrey Butterworth, and Brandon Murphy, as well as Nurse Edith Kiplivi during the relevant period. See id. {¥ 11-18.

According to Plaintiff, on November 17, 2021, he was subjected to a litany of constitutional violations. He claims he was first physically assaulted by Addison in the MCCF’s recreational pod after he asked for a mask to comply with the facility’s then-extant COVID-19

prevention policy. See id. § 25-29. Apparently, while being assaulted by Addison, Plaintiff pushed her away in self-defense. That led her to call for back up. fd. §[ 29-30. Darden and Villatoro soon arrived in the recreational pod and all three officers resumed - beating Plaintiff by striking him in the face, restraining his arms, and pinning him to the ground with a knee on his back. See id. § 31-33. Plaintiff says he saw (or felt) Bryant, Butterworth, Murphy, Robinette, and other (nonparty) Officers join in the beating. Other Officers who are □

named as Defendants did not participate in the beating but observed it without attempting to intervene and stop the use of force. /d. |] 33-34. Eventually, Plaintiff was handcuffed and Addison, Bryant, Darden, Robinette, Villatoro and Butterworth escorted him out of the recreation pod to the processing unit of the facility. See

' The Court reviews the facts in the light most favorable to Plaintiff as the nonmoving party and draws all reasonable inferences in his favor. See Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555 (2007).

id, | 35, Along the way, Villatoro purportedly shoved him, and Bryant slammed his face against a glass window, applying such pressure to Plaintiff? s skull that another detainee who witnessed the incident was apparently concerned that Plaintiff's “eye would pop out of the socket.” Id. {{ 35-36. Villatoro then allegedly tackled Plaintiff, and she and Bryant applied leg restraints on him. Again, other Defendant Officers watched without intervening. See id. JJ 35-38. Once Plaintiff was back on his feet, some or all of the Defendant Officers proceeded to escort him toa | processing cell, but not before Bryant slammed his face against a glass window a second time. See id. {| 40. - The processing cell to which Plaintiff was taken was located outside of the view of any surveillance cameras. Jd. § 42. Once in the cell, Bryant, Darden, and Villatoro allegedly resumed beating Plaintiff, with Addison, Robinette, Butterworth, Murphy, and others watching and not intervening. See id. Jf 43-45. Eventually, Bryant, Darden, Robinette, and Butterworth subjected Plaintiff to a strip search, without any legitimate reason for doing so. The strip search was conducted in full view of female employees of the MCCF. including Addison and Villatoro. See id. 99 47-49. After the strip search, Butterworth, Murphy, and Robinette took Plaintiff to a medical examination room, where he was briefly seen by Nurse Kiplivi. /d@. 951. Plaintiff says that he was so distraught at the time, he could not relate to her the extent of his injuries, such that, instead of examining him or inquiring further, Kuplivi left shortly after arriving. Once Kiplivi left the room, Butterworth, Murphy, and Robinette lifted Plaintiff from the examination table and slammed him to the ground. In response to Plaintiff's cries of pain and protestations, Murphy said, “Shut up. You hit a black female. I don’t care what you got to say.” id, JJ 51-52. Thereafter, Plaintiff was taken out of the examination room and, along the way, Darden again

smashed his face into a glass window. Addison and other Officers saw this happen; Addison apparently laughed and told him that she “wanted . . . to see [him] cry.” id. | 53. By this time, Plaintiff had bruises on his face and chest, abrasions, two cuts on his neck, a laceration in his left

. ear, and a contusion on his left eyebrow. Jd. 955. . Darden, Robinette, and Butterworth then strapped Plaintiff, now handcuffed and- shackled, to a restraint chair, allegedly with far more force than necessary, causing pronounced pain. See id. | 56. Those Defendants then wheeled him to a different processing cell and left him alone for more than an hour. Nurse Kiplivi eventually arrived but refused Plaintiff's requests for medical care (whether to be given by her or by another provider), but she did check to see that his restraints were sufficiently tight. Kiplivi left and Plaintiff sat alone in the room for another hour. See id. J] 56-58. Plaintiff continues: Butterworth and Robinette returned and extricated him from the restraint chair, then directed him to the medical unit but had to assist him with walking because he could no longer feel one of his legs. Once they arrived at the medical unit, Robinette stepped on Plaintiff's injured leg. See id. J] 58-59. By the end of the day, Plaintiff says, he had a black eye, a swollen ear, eye and jaw pain, - and contusions on various parts of his body. See id. J] 61-62. His physical pain persisted for months, and he claims to have suffered psychological trauma from the incident. fd. {| 64-65. Plaintiff's torment purportedly did not end there—later that same day, Addison and the other Defendants filed a formal “Notice of Infraction” and “Incident Reports” against him, asserting that he had first assaulted Addison, among other infractions. /d {| 66. A “Summary of Adjustment” disciplinary hearing was held on November 23, 2021, and Plaintiff was found guilty on all five charges included in the Notice of Infraction. Three days later, Malagari

approved the findings and sanctions flowing from the disciplinary hearing; she later denied Plaintiff's appeal without conducting any further investigation. See id. 99 69-71. Plaintiff remained at MCCF until June 2023, having spent a total of eighteen months there. He claims that his mental health deteriorated as a result of the assault and its aftermath, and that he could not trust ary MCCF employees moving forward. See id. J 72. B.

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Neal-Williams v. Addison, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/neal-williams-v-addison-mdd-2024.