Diana L. Whitten brought an action pursuant to 42 USC § 1983 alleging that Sergeant John C. Wooten, Jr. and Sergeant Ulises Nieves violated her constitutional rights and caused serious injury to her leg by using excessive force against her while she was a pre-trial detainee at the Glynn County Detention Center. Whitten appeals from the trial court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Wooten and Nieves.1 Because the trial court correctly found that qualified immunity protected Wooten and Nieves from these claims, we affirm. Whitten was arrested for a probation violation and placed in a cell at the Detention Center. While alone in the eight by twelve foot cell, Whitten threw her food on the cell floor, banged repeatedly on the cell window, screamed, cursed, removed all of her clothes, and smeared the cell window with food, toilet paper, and a bloody tampon. To stop Whitten’s disruptive behavior, the Detention Center physician ordered the nurse at the Detention Center to give her an injection of medication. Wooten and Nieves worked at the Detention Center as detention officers for the Glynn County Sheriff’s Department. Wooten and Nieves entered the cell first, and each took hold of Whitten by an arm as they attempted to verbally calm her down so the nurse could administer the injection. Whitten violently resisted these efforts by pushing and struggling to get free while continuing to scream and curse. In the struggle, Wooten, Nieves, and Whitten started to slip around in the food that Whitten had thrown on the floor. As Wooten struggled to keep his footing, Whitten spit in his face and started flailing about with her arms. When Wooten took a step back and started to slip, Nieves decided to physically force Whitten onto a nearby mattress. Nieves said he feared that, unless he forced Whitten down to the mattress to end her aggressive struggle, someone was going to slip and fall onto the hard concrete floor. At that point, Nieves extended one leg in front of Whitten, placed his hand on Whitten’s shoulder, and turned Whitten over his extended leg and down onto the mattress. The nurse then administered the injection. After the nurse administered the injection, another detention officer noticed that one of Whitten’s legs appeared to be bowed or twisted backwards at the knee. Although Whitten was repeating, “I’m okay, I’m okay,” the physician examined Whitten’s knee and sent her to the hospital. Whitten does not dispute these facts. She could recall nothing that occurred in the cell, and does not remember being taken to the hospital. Whitten recalled only that her injured knee was treated at the hospital, and that at some point thereafter her leg was amputated.
Whitten filed an action pursuant to 42 USC § 1983 against Wooten and Nieves individually alleging that, acting under color of state law as detention officers, they violated her rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments by using excessive force, which caused the leg injury and eventual amputation. On the present facts, the trial court correctly granted summary judgment in favor of Wooten and Nieves on the basis of qualified immunity.
