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Townsend v. Jefferson County

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Before CARNES and PRYOR, Circuit Judges, and STAGG,*fn1 District Judge.

This interlocutory appeal presents the question whether two deputies at a county jail were deliberately indifferent to the serious medical need of a pregnant detainee who had used crack cocaine daily. The undisputed evidence proves that both deputies knew that a nurse at the jail had seen and spoken with the detainee, and it is undisputed that the nurse determined that the detainee’s medical need was not an emergency. Sherika Townsend suffered a miscarriage while detained in the Birmingham jail of Jefferson County, Alabama, and Townsend complained that Deputies Arlene Chambers and Brandy Daniels violated her civil rights under the Fourteenth Amendment by acting with deliberate indifference to her serious medical need. The deputies moved for summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity, and the district court denied the motion. We reverse and render a judgment in favor of the deputies.

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