2nd Circuit Revives Ex-Prisoner's 8th Amendment Claims Against Prison Staff
A Second Circuit panel said an inmate at Connecticut's Osborn Correctional Institution, had offered adequate support for Eighth Amendment claims that prison officials acted with "deliberate indifference" in ignoring his pleas for protection from a fellow inmate.
April 15, 2020 at 05:44 PM
4 minute read
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has revived constitutional claims against a former Connecticut state prison warden and another official accused of failing to protect an inmate who was badly beaten under their watch.
A three-judge panel of the Manhattan-based appeals court said Wednesday that Lloyd George Morgan Jr., an inmate at Connecticut's Osborn Correctional Institution, had adequately demonstrated support for Eighth Amendment claims that Warden Carol Chapdelaine and Captain Kyle Godding had acted with "deliberate indifference" in ignoring his pleas for protection from a fellow inmate.
The ruling reversed an earlier decision by a Connecticut federal judge who in 2018 dismissed the case in its entirety, finding that the two officials lacked any "personal involvement" in the alleged missteps of their subordinates.
The Second Circuit, however, said that Morgan's pro se complaint had established that he had personally raised safety concerns with Chapdelaine and Godding multiple times before the January 2014 assault in the prison showers.
"Taken together, we find that Morgan raised a question of material fact as to whether 'a substantial risk of inmate attacks was longstanding, pervasive, well-documented, or expressly noted by prison officials in the past,' such that a trier of fact could find that Chapdelaine and Godding 'had actual knowledge of the risk,'" Circuit Judge Rosemary S. Pooler wrote in a 14-page opinion on behalf of the panel.
She was joined in the decision by Judges Guido Calabresi and Michael H. Park.
According to a 48-page handwritten complaint, filed in June 2014, Morgan had informed prison officials about violent gang activity while incarcerated at Carl Robinson Correctional Institution in 2013. He was then transferred to Osborn, where Morgan said he was particularly targeted by Gabriel Rodriguez, a fellow inmate, who said he would "snap" Morgan's neck for being a "snitch" and a homosexual.
Morgan, who was released from prison in 2017, said he submitted multiple reports to Chapdelaine and Godding detailing the threats. Though both officials acknowledged receiving the warnings, neither ultimately decided to take action, the complaint said.
U.S. District Judge Victor A. Bolden granted summary judgment against all 21 named employees of the Connecticut Department of Correction, and declined to exercise jurisdiction over the remaining state claims.
Bolden's decision with regard to Chapdelaine and Godding focused on the doctrine of supervisor liability, which generally insulates government officials from unconstitutional actions by their subordinates. But Pooler said Wednesday that the lower court's analysis was misguided because Morgan's multiple warnings had put the officials on notice that he faced an unreasonable risk to his safety.
"In response, Godding made dismissive remarks to Morgan, which Morgan relayed to Chapdelaine," Pooler wrote. "Chapdelaine ignored these requests for help. These actions reflect Chapdelaine and Godding's subjective awareness of, and deliberate indifference to, Morgan's specific, repeated, and urgent expressions of fear for his safety."
"Here, while Chapdelaine and Godding both held supervisory roles at Osborn, Morgan seeks to hold them liable only for acts that they themselves committed," she said.
The appeals court did, however, uphold the district court's ruling in favor of the other state defendants.
Sherwin Yoder, Morgan's court-appointed counsel and a partner at Carmody Torrance Sandak & Hennessey in Waterbury, Connecticut, was not immediately available to comment on the decision.
The Connecticut attorney general's office, which represents the named defendants, did not respond to an email Wednesday seeking comment on the ruling.
The case, which was remanded to the district court, is captioned Morgan v. Dzurenda.
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