(PC) Thomas v. Johnson

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. California
DecidedOctober 13, 2022
Docket2:21-cv-01657
StatusUnknown

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

Bluebook
(PC) Thomas v. Johnson, (E.D. Cal. 2022).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 OTIS MICHAEL THOMAS, No. 2:21-cv-01657-CKD P 12 Plaintiff, 13 v. ORDER 14 L. JOHNSON, et al., 15 Defendants. 16 17 Plaintiff is a state prisoner proceeding pro se in this civil rights action filed pursuant to 42 18 U.S.C. § 1983. This proceeding was referred to this court by Local Rule 302 pursuant to 28 19 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1). 20 On December 13, 2021, the court screened plaintiff’s complaint and dismissed it with 21 leave to amend. ECF No. 4. Plaintiff’s first amended complaint is now before the court for 22 screening. ECF No. 11. 23 As plaintiff was previously advised, the court is required to screen complaints brought by 24 prisoners seeking relief against a governmental entity or officer or employee of a governmental 25 entity. 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(a). The court must dismiss a complaint or portion thereof if the 26 prisoner has raised claims that are legally “frivolous or malicious,” that fail to state a claim upon 27 which relief may be granted, or that seek monetary relief from a defendant who is immune from 28 such relief. 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b)(1), (2). 1 I. Allegations in the First Amended Complaint 2 At all times relevant to the allegations in the amended complaint, plaintiff was an inmate 3 at Folsom State Prison. While waiting in the pill line on November 23, 2019, plaintiff was 4 verbally threatened by defendant Johnson who told him to “move or I will hit you.” ECF No. 11 5 at 5. Plaintiff exchanged words with her prompting defendant Johnson to request additional staff 6 assistance. ECF No. 11 at 5. 7 Defendant Moulton arrived and ordered plaintiff to turn around so that he could be 8 handcuffed. Id. Defendant Oseguera then placed plaintiff in handcuffs. Id. Oseguera escorted 9 plaintiff to a holding cell where he searched plaintiff and then sprayed him with pepper spray 10 when he was not a threat to anyone. Id. According to the amended complaint, defendant 11 Oseguera administered the pepper spray in a malicious and sadistic manner for the purpose of 12 causing him harm. Id. In order to cover up this use of excessive force, Oseguera made false 13 statements and issued plaintiff a Rules Violation Report (“RVR”) for willfully resisting a peace 14 officer. ECF No. 111 at 109-112. Plaintiff further alleges that Oseguera confiscated his 15 identification card in order to prevent him from using the shower for a week to reduce the effects 16 of the pepper spray. ECF No. 111 at 5. 17 Plaintiff further alleges that defendants Welch, Zamora, Miller, Kestner, Jones, Moulton, 18 and Rebeterano were present and failed to protect him from this use of excessive force. Id. at 40, 19 44, 46, 49, 51, and 54. These same defendants engaged in a conspiracy to fail to protect him from 20 harm because they all had a conversation while he was in the holding cell. 21 Defendant Benedyuk reviewed the RVR in his supervisory capacity and just looked the 22 other way even though it was false. ECF No. 111 at 70. Plaintiff alleges that various supervisory 23 defendants reviewed the incident report related to the November 23, 2019 incident and did not 24 correct the false information contained in it. Various other defendants engaged in a conspiracy to 25 cover up the excessive use of force. 26 At the disciplinary hearing for the RVR, plaintiff alleges that defendant Banke, who was 27 the hearing officer, refused to allow him to call witnesses. ECF No. 111 at 57. Defendant 28 Lucatero, who was assigned as the Investigative Employee for the RVR, also failed to bring any 1 witnesses to the disciplinary hearing. ECF No. 111 at 66. After plaintiff was found guilty of the 2 disciplinary violation, defendant Loften told him that he could not use the phone on February 8, 3 2019 even though his loss of privileges had expired. ECF No. 111 at 68. 4 At plaintiff’s subsequent parole suitability hearing on July 23, 2020, defendant Ruff, who 5 was one of the parole commissioners, denied plaintiff parole based on this RVR. ECF No. 111 at 6 92. 7 By way of relief, plaintiff seeks declaratory judgment, compensatory and punitive 8 damages, as well as injunctive relief. 9 II. Legal Standards 10 The following legal standards are being provided to plaintiff based on his pro se status as 11 well as the nature of the allegations in the amended complaint. 12 A. Linkage Requirement 13 The civil rights statute requires that there be an actual connection or link between the 14 actions of the defendants and the deprivation alleged to have been suffered by plaintiff. See 15 Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658 (1978); Rizzo v. Goode, 423 U.S. 362 16 (1976). The Ninth Circuit has held that “[a] person ‘subjects' another to the deprivation of a 17 constitutional right, within the meaning of section 1983, if he does an affirmative act, participates 18 in another's affirmative acts or omits to perform an act which he is legally required to do that 19 causes the deprivation of which complaint is made.” Johnson v. Duffy, 588 F.2d 740, 743 (9th 20 Cir. 1978) (citation omitted). In order to state a claim for relief under section 1983, plaintiff must 21 link each named defendant with some affirmative act or omission that demonstrates a violation of 22 plaintiff's federal rights. 23 B. Supervisory Liability 24 Government officials may not be held liable for the unconstitutional conduct of their 25 subordinates under a theory of respondeat superior. Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 677 (2009) 26 (“In a § 1983 suit ... the term “supervisory liability” is a misnomer. Absent vicarious liability, 27 each Government official, his or her title notwithstanding is only liable for his or her own 28 misconduct.”). When the named defendant holds a supervisory position, the causal link between 1 the defendant and the claimed constitutional violation must be specifically alleged; that is, a 2 plaintiff must allege some facts indicating that the defendant either personally participated in or 3 directed the alleged deprivation of constitutional rights or knew of the violations and failed to act 4 to prevent them. See Fayle v. Stapley, 607 F.2d 858, 862 (9th Cir. 1979); Taylor v. List, 880 F.2d 5 1040, 1045 (9th Cir. 1989); Mosher v. Saalfeld, 589 F.2d 438, 441 (9th Cir. 1978). 6 C. Civil Conspiracy 7 To state a claim for conspiracy under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, plaintiff must plead specific facts 8 showing an agreement or meeting of minds between the defendants to violate his constitutional 9 rights. Woodrum v. Woodward Cty., 866 F.2d 1121, 1126 (9th Cir. 1989). Plaintiff must also 10 show how an actual deprivation of his constitutional rights resulted from the alleged conspiracy. 11 Id. “‘To be liable, each participant in the conspiracy need not know the exact details of the plan, 12 but each participant must at least share the common objective of the conspiracy.’” Franklin v. 13 Fox,

Related

Rizzo v. Goode
423 U.S. 362 (Supreme Court, 1976)
Monell v. New York City Dept. of Social Servs.
436 U.S. 658 (Supreme Court, 1978)
Sandin v. Conner
515 U.S. 472 (Supreme Court, 1995)
Ashcroft v. Iqbal
556 U.S. 662 (Supreme Court, 2009)
John Houston Sellars v. Raymond K. Procunier
641 F.2d 1295 (Ninth Circuit, 1981)
Ivey v. Board of Regents of University of Alaska
673 F.2d 266 (Second Circuit, 1982)
Michael Hanrahan v. Michael P. Lane
747 F.2d 1137 (Seventh Circuit, 1984)
Fagan v. City of Vineland
22 F.3d 1283 (Third Circuit, 1994)
Rhodes v. Robinson
408 F.3d 559 (Ninth Circuit, 2005)
Wilkinson v. Austin
545 U.S. 209 (Supreme Court, 2005)
Stuyvesant Ins. Co. v. Jacksonville Oil Mill
10 F.2d 54 (Sixth Circuit, 1926)
Johnson v. Duffy
588 F.2d 740 (Ninth Circuit, 1978)

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