Zhanda Carey v. Jason Alexander, Sarah Allison-Foisy, Kirk Campbell, Jose Carbajal, Uwriyel Israel, Annalissa Reynolds, Gregory Telisma, William Walden, Chris Breznay, and Jane Doe

CourtDistrict Court, D. Colorado
DecidedMay 28, 2026
Docket1:25-cv-01304
StatusUnknown

This text of Zhanda Carey v. Jason Alexander, Sarah Allison-Foisy, Kirk Campbell, Jose Carbajal, Uwriyel Israel, Annalissa Reynolds, Gregory Telisma, William Walden, Chris Breznay, and Jane Doe (Zhanda Carey v. Jason Alexander, Sarah Allison-Foisy, Kirk Campbell, Jose Carbajal, Uwriyel Israel, Annalissa Reynolds, Gregory Telisma, William Walden, Chris Breznay, and Jane Doe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Zhanda Carey v. Jason Alexander, Sarah Allison-Foisy, Kirk Campbell, Jose Carbajal, Uwriyel Israel, Annalissa Reynolds, Gregory Telisma, William Walden, Chris Breznay, and Jane Doe, (D. Colo. 2026).

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLORADO

Civil Action No. 25-cv-01304-PAB-CYC

ZHANDA CAREY,

Plaintiff,

v.

JASON ALEXANDER, SARAH ALLISON-FOISY, KIRK CAMPBELL, JOSE CARBAJAL, UWRIYEL ISRAEL, ANNALISSA REYNOLDS, GREGORY TELISMA WILLIAM WALDEN, CHRIS BREZNAY, and JANE DOE,

Defendants. ______________________________________________________________________________

RECOMMENDATION OF UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE ______________________________________________________________________________

Cyrus Y. Chung, United States Magistrate Judge. During the events of this case, defendants Jason Alexander, Sarah Allison-Foisy, Kirk Campbell, Jose Carbajal, Uwriyel Israel, Annalissa Reynolds, Gregory Telisma, and William Walden were prison guards at the Denver Downtown Detention Center, where plaintiff Zhanda Carey was housed in the summer of 2024. They move to dismiss the plaintiff’s Eighth Amendment claims against them pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), asserting that he fails to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face and that they are entitled to qualified immunity. ECF No. 31. Because the defendants’ argument against the plaintiff’s Eighth Amendment excessive force claim brought against Alexander, Telisma, Israel, and Carbajal relies on video evidence the Court cannot consider on this motion, the Court recommends that the motion be denied as to that claim. But because the plaintiff fails to plead a claim for deliberate indifference to a medical need or failure to intervene under the Eighth Amendment, the Court recommends that the motion be granted as to those claims.

BACKGROUND According to the amended complaint, whose factual allegations the Court accepts as true for this motion, Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009), on July 29, 2024, while housed in the Denver Downtown Detention Center, the plaintiff asked Telisma to call for medical assistance because he “had a spoon halfway inside [his] anal cavity,” to which Telisma responded: “if you can get a spoon in your ass you can get a spoon out of your ass.” ECF No. 29 at 8. The amended complaint does not address the question of how the spoon got there. Feeling that his medical needs were being disregarded, the plaintiff hit his head on the window of his secured cell, leading Campbell to call for a cell extraction. Id. He stopped hitting his head against the window and again complained about the spoon stuck in his anal cavity and refusals by

Telisma and defendant Chris Breznay, a nurse who has not been served in this action, see ECF No. 46, to send him to the hospital. ECF No. 29 at 8. Israel, Telisma, Alexander, and Carbajal responded to the cell-extraction call and entered the cell. Id. at 9. Israel stood in the doorway holding a use-of-force shield, and the door was opened. Id. The plaintiff then stayed still, but Alexander entered the cell and aggressively grabbed the plaintiff causing pain to his fingers. Id. He then pushed the plaintiff, bruising his chest. Id. Israel then hit the plaintiff with the shield. Id. Telisma and Carbajal grabbed the plaintiff, and Israel hit him again with the shield, making him fall backward and hit his head against the wall, leaving him “halfway unconscious.” Id. The plaintiff was directed to submit to handcuffs and shackles and immediately complied. Id. Once cuffed, the plaintiff sat leaning to the side to prevent the spoon from going further inside him. Id. at 10. The use of a restraint chair, though, made those efforts futile. Medical staff

had been called about the spoon, but deputies nevertheless brought a restraint chair into the cell. Id. Believing the chair’s use would adversely affect the spoon’s position, the plaintiff protested, but Alexander, Telisma, Israel, and Carbajal picked him up and forced him into the restraint chair. Id. Alexander’s knee pushed into the plaintiff’s genitals, causing pain and, later, swelling. Id. Walden, Reynolds, Allison-Foisy, and Campbell did not intervene. Id. Forcing the plaintiff into the restraint chair, caused the spoon to lodge fully in his anal cavity. Id. Prior to him being restrained in the chair, each defendant knew about the spoon. Id. at 11. The plaintiff was left in the restraint chair alone with his hands behind his back for approximately 90 minutes, which caused further pain and injury. Id. at 12. And prior to the defendants leaving the plaintiff alone in the cell, Breznay told a deputy that the plaintiff’s doctor

was content with the plaintiff being restrained in the chair for two hours. Id. When the plaintiff was released from the restraint chair, he expressed concerns about injury to his anal cavity in Alexander’s and Reynolds’s presence, but they ignored his concerns. Id. at 13. Two days later, after unsuccessfully seeking medical attention about the spoon, the plaintiff asked Deputy Dawson to activate his body camera to record the plaintiff attempting to pass the spoon. Id. at 14. The plaintiff physically removed the spoon with his hand, but suffered pain for those two days and continues to suffer from chronic anal pain and itching and emotional issues. Id. at 14. He suffers a variety of ongoing psychological and emotional effects. Id. at 16. On April 25, 2025, the plaintiff filed this action. ECF No. 1. His amended complaint asserts Eighth Amendment claims pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for, as he puts it, excessive force, deliberate indifference, failure to intervene, causation, breach of contract, medical malpractice, and gross negligence against the defendants in their individual capacities and seeks

compensatory and punitive damages. ECF No. 29 at 16–18, 20-22. This motion followed. ECF No. 31. ANALYSIS The defendants challenge these claims under Rule 12(b)(6). They briefly indicate that, as a technical matter, their motion arises under Rule 12(c) because it asserts qualified immunity. ECF No. 31 at 4 n.4 (citing Brown v. Montoya, 662 F.3d 1152, 1160 n.4 (10th Cir. 2011)). But the defendants in Brown had raised qualified immunity “in their answer.” 662 F.3d at 1160 n.4. Brown did not hold that qualified immunity generally transforms a Rule 12(b)(6) motion into a Rule 12(c) motion. In all events, nothing turns on this, as the defendants concede that the substantive evaluation would be the same. ECF No. 31 at 4 n.4.

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(a)(2) requires that a complaint provide “a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” As such, a plaintiff’s “failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted” warrants dismissal under Rule 12(b)(6). The standard for evaluating those arguments is oft-repeated and well-known. “To survive a motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’” Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678 (quoting Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570 (2007)). “A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Id. Plausibility refers “to the scope of the allegations in a complaint: if they are so general that they encompass a wide swath of conduct, much of it innocent, then the plaintiffs ‘have not nudged their claims across the line from conceivable to plausible.’” Robbins v.

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Bluebook (online)
Zhanda Carey v. Jason Alexander, Sarah Allison-Foisy, Kirk Campbell, Jose Carbajal, Uwriyel Israel, Annalissa Reynolds, Gregory Telisma, William Walden, Chris Breznay, and Jane Doe, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/zhanda-carey-v-jason-alexander-sarah-allison-foisy-kirk-campbell-jose-cod-2026.