Santiago v. Bradley

CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Illinois
DecidedAugust 24, 2021
Docket3:17-cv-00989-SPM
StatusUnknown

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

Bluebook
Santiago v. Bradley, (S.D. Ill. 2021).

Opinion

FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS

FABIAN SANTIAGO, #B79716,

Plaintiff,

v. Case No. 17-cv-989-SPM

TYLER A. BRADLEY, et al.,

Defendant.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

MCGLYNN, District Judge: Pending before the Court is a Motion for Summary Judgment filed by defendants Tyler A. Bradley (“Bradley”), Rob Jeffries (“Jeffries”)1, Lyle Hawkinson (“Hawkinson”) and Lt. Martin Matherly (“Matherly”) (Doc. 194). Pursuant to the motion and supporting memorandum of law, defendants seek judgment as a matter of law on all of Santiago’s claims (Docs. 194, 195). Alternatively, defendants seek dismissal of this action under the doctrine of qualified immunity (Id.). Additionally, defendants claim the action is barred against defendant Jeffreys and seek his dismissal under the doctrine of sovereign immunity. For the following reasons, the Court grants the Motion for Summary Judgment. PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On September 14, 2017, plaintiff Fabian Santiago (“Santiago”) commenced this action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging violations of his constitutional rights

1 Rob Jeffries was appointed Acting Director of the Illinois Department of Corrections and substituted the previous Acting Director, John Baldwin as a defendant herein. 1915A, the Court issued an Order allowing plaintiff to proceed with the following

claim:, Count 1: First Amendment claim against Bradley for confiscating Plaintiff’s “prison legal news” publication without reasonable justification and against Baldwin, the Director of the Illinois Department of Corrections, in his official capacity only. (Doc. 6).

On December 19, 2017, Santiago filed an amended complaint; however, it had not yet gone through preliminary review pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915 (Doc. 18). On April 4, 2018, Magistrate Judge Donald Wilkerson issued a Report and Recommendation regarding merit review of the amended complaint (Doc. 40). On October 1, 2018, following a series of motions, objections, and rebuttals, an Order was entered adopting in part and rejecting in part the Report and Recommendation previously filed on April 4, 2018 (Doc. 73). At that time, the Court added Lyle Hawkinson as a defendant for a separate incident and indicated the following claim would proceed: Count 1: “First Amendment claim against Bradley and Hawkinson for confiscating Santiago’s “prison legal news” publication without reasonable justification and against the Illinois Department of Corrections Director Baldwin in his official capacity for implementing a policy and/or practice of confiscating inmate’s publications.” (Id.).

On October 12, 2018, Santiago sought leave to file second amended complaint (Doc. 80). On June 3, 2019, following preliminary review, an Order was entered granting in part and denying in part Santiago’s second amended complaint (Doc. 113). Specifically, Lt. Martin Matherly was added as a defendant as was the following Count 2: First Amendment claim against Hawkinson and Matherly for confiscating Plaintiff’s Abolitionist publication without reasonable justification and against the Illinois Department of Corrections Director Baldwin in his official capacity for implementing a policy and/or practice of confiscating inmate’s publications (Id.).

As such, Santiago’s claims increased from one count to two; however, those counts can be broken into five separate First Amendment allegations that various IDOC personnel wrongfully denied him access to publications he ordered (Id.). First, that Bradley confiscated Santiago’s November 2016 PLN while he was incarcerated at Menard. Second, that Hawkinson confiscated the August 2017 PLN while he was incarcerated at Hill. Third, that Hawkinson confiscated the winter 2018 Abolitionist while he was incarcerated at Hill. Fourth, that Matherly confiscated the winter 2018 Abolitionist while he was incarcerated at Hill. Finally, Santiago claims Jeffreys, as Acting Director of IDOC, implemented the policy/procedure for confiscating inmate publications. On February 22, 2021, defendants filed their motion for summary judgment on the merits of Santiago’s claims, along with supporting memorandum of law (Docs. 194-195). On April 13, 2021, Santiago filed his response in opposition to motion for summary judgment (Doc. 201). On May 17, 2021, this matter was transferred to this Court (Doc. 205). STATEMENT OF FACTS2

Fabian Santiago (“Santiago”) is an inmate in the Illinois Department of

2 In an effort to exclude immaterial and irrelevant facts, this Court has prepared its own Statement of Facts based upon the briefs provided by the parties herein. Santiago was at Menard prior to being transferred to Hill in July 2017 (Id.).

Bradley has worked at Menard for 24 years in various capacities, including publications review officer at Menard from November of 2015 until April of 2017 (Doc. 201-9, pp. 35-36). In that capacity, Bradley preliminarily reviewed Santiago’s November 2016 issue of PLN and completed the Publication Receipt and Course of Action Form on December 2, 2016, also known as the 211, advising Santiago that the publication was subject to review because it appears to: Encourage or instruct in the

commission of criminal activity; Be otherwise detrimental to security, good order, rehabilitation, or discipline or it might facilitate criminal activity; Other – Safety and security (Doc. 195-2). It is undisputed that the 211 Form was forwarded to Santiago, who had the option of requesting additional review or not (Id.). There is a 30-day stay on destruction of publications in case there is a delay in returning the document, which is supposed to happen within 7-days (Id., p. 75). Santiago claims he filled out the form

that very night and requested return of the PLN (Doc. 195-1, pp. 94-95). He testified that he placed the form on the cell bars forwarding it to the Publication Review Committee/person (Id., p. 101). Santiago cannot verify whether the form was received or destroyed (Id). Santiago also filed a formal grievance regarding the publication on December 7, 2016 (Doc. 201-2). Bradley claims the form was never returned, so further review was not conducted (Doc. 201-9, p. 114). If the inmate does not tell the

publication review committee what to do, at the end of the 30 days, the publication is destroyed, which is what happened to the November 2016 edition of PLN (Id., p. 115). 2019 (Doc. 196-1, p. 13). Since 2014 or 2015 until his retirement, Hawkinson

functioned as publication review chairperson at Hill (Id., pp. 28-29). Santiago was transferred to Hill in July 2017 and filed a grievance on August 29, 2017 claiming that he did not receive his August 2017 issue of PLN (Doc. 195-1, p. 195; Doc. 201-3). The counselor’s response to that grievance dated August 30, 2017 indicated that the publication review committee was currently reviewing the publication (Doc. 201-3). Santiago never received a 211 on the August 2017 PLN, and the only connections he

could make to Hawkinson were the grievance response and a hearsay conversation another inmate, Ron Kliner, claimed to have with Hawkinson (Doc. 195-1, pp. 197- 199). Hawkinson was not involved in the decision to review the August 2017 PLN for Santiago (Doc. 196-1, p. 81-83) Hawkinson was involved in the review of Santiago’s 2018 issue of the Abolitionist (Id., p. 28). Hawkinson recalled checking the PUBS list, filling out the 211, that Santiago wanted to file a grievance almost initially, and that Santiago was

concerned the publication remain intact (Id., p. 84). Hawkinson generated a hall pass for Santiago and met with him on March 9th to process the publication (Id., pp. 85- 86).

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Ex Parte Young
209 U.S. 123 (Supreme Court, 1908)
Pell v. Procunier
417 U.S. 817 (Supreme Court, 1974)
Pennhurst State School and Hospital v. Halderman
465 U.S. 89 (Supreme Court, 1984)
Brandon v. Holt
469 U.S. 464 (Supreme Court, 1985)
Turner v. Safley
482 U.S. 78 (Supreme Court, 1987)
O'Lone v. Estate of Shabazz
482 U.S. 342 (Supreme Court, 1987)
Anderson v. Creighton
483 U.S. 635 (Supreme Court, 1987)
Hope v. Pelzer
536 U.S. 730 (Supreme Court, 2002)
Overton v. Bazzetta
539 U.S. 126 (Supreme Court, 2003)
Pearson v. Callahan
555 U.S. 223 (Supreme Court, 2009)
Purvis v. Oest
614 F.3d 713 (Seventh Circuit, 2010)
Michael L. Martin v. Sheriff Richard Tyson
845 F.2d 1451 (Seventh Circuit, 1988)
Michael C. Antonelli v. Michael F. Sheahan
81 F.3d 1422 (Seventh Circuit, 1996)
Robert Siebert and Pamela Siebert v. David Severino
256 F.3d 648 (Seventh Circuit, 2001)
James Bennington v. Caterpillar Incorporated
275 F.3d 654 (Seventh Circuit, 2001)
Minix v. Canarecci
597 F.3d 824 (Seventh Circuit, 2010)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
Santiago v. Bradley, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/santiago-v-bradley-ilsd-2021.