Robert W. Fowler v. Armond Cross, Commissioner of Florida Parole Board

635 F.2d 476, 1981 U.S. App. LEXIS 20651
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedJanuary 27, 1981
Docket76-2852, 78-2348
StatusPublished
Cited by34 cases

This text of 635 F.2d 476 (Robert W. Fowler v. Armond Cross, Commissioner of Florida Parole Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Robert W. Fowler v. Armond Cross, Commissioner of Florida Parole Board, 635 F.2d 476, 1981 U.S. App. LEXIS 20651 (5th Cir. 1981).

Opinion

R. LANIER ANDERSON, III, Circuit Judge:

The appellant filed this suit under 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983 seeking damages from the appellees for depriving him of his constitutional right to a prompt on-site preliminary parole revocation hearing following his arrest for alleged parole violations. By mistake the appellant was transferred from the Dade County Jail into the state prison system and, as a consequence, he did not receive his preliminary hearing until fifty days after the date originally scheduled for the hearing. The district court entered summary judgment in favor of defendants Sandstrom and Clark. Following a bench *478 trial, the district court entered judgment for the remaining defendants. We affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment, but reverse the judgment in favor of certain of the defendants.

I. FACTS

The appellant was convicted in Florida State Court of a felony on September 30, 1965, and was paroled on or about July 13, 1972, to a New Jersey detainer. On March 4,1973, he was released from prison in New Jersey and returned to the supervision of the Florida Parole and Probation Commission. On April 4, 1974, while the defendant was still under parole supervision of Florida authorities, he was arrested in Dade County, Florida, for the alleged commission of a felonious offense. Following a preliminary hearing 1 on April 9, 1974, all the charges against the appellant, including loitering and prowling and possession of drugs, were dismissed for lack of probable cause; however, the appellant remained incarcerated under the authority of Fla.Stat.Ann. §§ 949.10 and 949.11 until April 14, 1974, when he was released. 2 On April 19, 1974, the appellant was arrested on a parole violator’s warrant issued by the Florida Parole and Probation Commission and was again incarcerated at the Dade County Jail. On April 22, 1974, appellant was visited by appellee Benjamin Kenagen, a supervisor for the Florida State Parole and Probation Commission. Kenagen was responsible for conducting parole preliminary hearings for alleged parole violators in Dade County. Kenagen informed the appellant of his right to a preliminary hearing on the alleged violation and the appellant requested a hearing. A hearing was set for April 29, 1974, and Kenagen testified that he orally informed George Babula, a records officer at the Dade County Jail, that a hearing had been set and requested that the appellant not be transferred until after the hearing. At approximately 3:00 A.M. on the morning of April 29, the appellant was removed from the Dade County Jail and transported to state prison facilities at Lake Butler, Florida, and then to the Union Correctional Institute at Raiford, Florida, over 300 miles from Dade County.

When Kenagen arrived at the jail for the hearing, he discovered that the appellant had been removed, but took no other action other than to write a memorandum notifying the commission that appellant had been transferred without a hearing. Kenagen testified that it was the custom or practice of his office to give only oral notice of parole preliminary hearings to the jail officials. It was the jail’s policy to transfer parole violators into the state prison system within two to seven days from their arrest. Director Sandstrom, the director of the Dade County Jail, testified that he was unaware or unfamiliar with the required *479 parole preliminary hearing but that he tried to accommodate the Parole Commission however he could.

In late April or early May, Harry T. Dodd, administrative assistant for the Parole Commission, received Kenagen’s memorandum about appellant’s premature transfer from the Dade County Jail. He arranged for a final revocation hearing to be held at Raiford, Florida, on May 27, 1974, almost one month after the date scheduled for the preliminary hearing. Appellant refused to have a final parole revocation hearing at Raiford but instead insisted on a preliminary hearing to be held in Dade County, Florida. Defendant Commissioner Howard also suggested that the proper course would be to return appellant to Dade County for a preliminary hearing, and on May 30, 1974, Mr. Dodd sent a letter to the defendant Louis Wainwright requesting that appellant be returned to Dade County. Appellant was returned to Dade County and was finally given his preliminary hearing on June 19, 1974. The hearing officer found probable cause to remand appellant to the state prison pending a final hearing but recommended that he be restored to parole. Appellant was finally released on June 28, 1974. Therefore, he remained in custody for approximately 50 days beyond the date set for the hearing without having been accorded a preliminary parole revocation hearing.

Following his release, appellant filed a suit against Jack Sandstrom, Director of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation of Metropolitan Dade County, Florida, and LeRoy Clark, an employee of the Department of Corrections. For convenience sake, Sandstrom and Clark are referred to as “county defendants.” Also named as defendants were members of the Florida Parole and Probation Commission, Armond Cross, J. Hopps Barker, Roy W. Russell, Ray Howard, and Cale R. Keller and Benjamin Kenagen, an employee of the Commission. 3 The Commissioners and Kenagen are referred to as “state defendants.” The complaint sought compensatory and punitive damages for the deprivation of appellant’s right to a prompt on-site preliminary parole revocation hearing as required by Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 92 S.Ct. 2593, 33 L.Ed.2d 484 (1972) and Gagnon v. Scarpelli, 411 U.S. 778, 93 S.Ct. 1756, 36 L.Ed.2d 656 (1973). The case was tried by the district court without a jury.

At the close of the first day of the trial, the district court granted Sandstrom and Clark’s previously filed motion for summary judgment. The court held that the state imposed no duty upon the jailer to afford a preliminary revocation hearing. That duty rests upon the Parole and Probation Commission. It also held that appellant had failed to adduce evidence to contradict the affidavit and sworn testimony that the county defendants acted in good faith and with reasonable belief in the validity of their actions. Following the hearing, the district court entered findings of fact and conclusions of law applicable to the claims against the state defendants.

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Bluebook (online)
635 F.2d 476, 1981 U.S. App. LEXIS 20651, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/robert-w-fowler-v-armond-cross-commissioner-of-florida-parole-board-ca5-1981.