Filed: Nov. 06, 1997
Latest Update: Mar. 03, 2020
Summary: REVISED United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit. No. 96-11103. Carlos Perez FLORES, Individually and as Next Friend of Carlos Tudon Flores, Deceased, et al., Plaintiffs, Carlos Perez Flores, Individually and as Next Friend of Carlos Tudon Flores, Deceased, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. COUNTY OF HARDEMAN, TEXAS, et al., Defendants, County of Hardeman, Texas; Chester Ingram, Sheriff of Hardeman County, Texas, Defendants-Appellees. Christina Rose Moore, As Next Friend of Shelley Brianne Flores, a
Summary: REVISED United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit. No. 96-11103. Carlos Perez FLORES, Individually and as Next Friend of Carlos Tudon Flores, Deceased, et al., Plaintiffs, Carlos Perez Flores, Individually and as Next Friend of Carlos Tudon Flores, Deceased, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. COUNTY OF HARDEMAN, TEXAS, et al., Defendants, County of Hardeman, Texas; Chester Ingram, Sheriff of Hardeman County, Texas, Defendants-Appellees. Christina Rose Moore, As Next Friend of Shelley Brianne Flores, a M..
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REVISED
United States Court of Appeals,
Fifth Circuit.
No. 96-11103.
Carlos Perez FLORES, Individually and as Next Friend of Carlos
Tudon Flores, Deceased, et al., Plaintiffs,
Carlos Perez Flores, Individually and as Next Friend of Carlos
Tudon Flores, Deceased, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
COUNTY OF HARDEMAN, TEXAS, et al., Defendants,
County of Hardeman, Texas; Chester Ingram, Sheriff of Hardeman
County, Texas, Defendants-Appellees.
Christina Rose Moore, As Next Friend of Shelley Brianne Flores, a
Minor, Individually and as Next Friends of Carlos Tudon Flores,
Deceased, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
County of Hardeman, Texas, Defendant-Appellee.
Oct. 14, 1997.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern
District of Texas.
Before JONES, EMILIO M. GARZA and PARKER, Circuit Judges.
ROBERT M. PARKER, Circuit Judge:
Carlos Perez Flores and Christina Rose Moore as next friend of
Shelley Brianne Flores appeal the grant of summary judgment for
defendants in their 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and Texas Tort Claims Act
claims against Hardeman County, Texas and Hardeman County Sheriff
Chester Ingram. We affirm.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
Plaintiff's decedent Carlos Tudon Flores ("Flores") committed
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suicide while he was a pretrial detainee in the Hardeman County
Jail. Flores was arrested after a one-hour standoff with police,
during which he stood on top of a building and fired a rifle,
hitting two police cars. Flores was taken to the Hardeman County
Jail where he was booked, strip searched and placed in a security
cell. The inside of the cell was visible through a small window in
the door. Hardeman County Sheriff Chester Ingram ("Ingram") gave
orders to check Flores every half hour, instead of the usual
one-hour checks. Ingram also ordered that Flores be stripped to
his underwear and given only a mattress and pillow instead of the
full issue of inmate supplies. Ingram took these precautions
because, having known Flores all of his life, he felt that Flores
was not acting like himself.
Flores talked to the custodial officer on duty and to another
inmate that first night. Flores did not threaten or attempt
suicide or exhibit any overt signs that he intended to commit
suicide. Flores declined breakfast the next morning. At 11:28
Flores was taken for his arraignment, where his bail was set at
$225,000. His father was present at the arraignment, and testified
that he did not suspect that Flores was thinking about suicide.
After the arraignment, Flores was fingerprinted, allowed to
shower and issued standard inmate supplies: a blanket, toothbrush,
cup and soap. He was then placed in a larger cell and checked once
an hour. The custodial officers could not visually check the
toilet and shower area of the new cell from outside the cell. At
12:31 p.m. the custodial officer saw Flores walking around in his
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cell. At 12:45 she could not see him, but could hear him on the
sound monitors. At 1:20 p.m. the officer could not see Flores, so
she called out to him but he did not respond. Because female
officers were not allowed to enter a male inmate's cell alone, she
went to find another officer, who was standing outside the jail
building. When they entered the cell, they found Flores hanging by
a piece of the blanket from the shower curtain rod. The officers
cut Flores down and performed CPR, but could not revive him.
Plaintiffs filed a complaint pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and
the Texas Tort Claims Act, alleging that Flores's Fourth, Fifth
Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights had been violated. The
district court granted summary judgment for defendants and
plaintiffs appeal.
STANDARD OF REVIEW
To determine the appropriate standard to apply in analyzing
constitutional challenges by pretrial detainees, we must first
classify the challenge as an attack on a "condition of confinement"
or as an "episodic act or omission." Hare v. City of Corinth,
74
F.3d 633, 644 (5th Cir.1996). A "condition of confinement" case is
a constitutional attack on "general conditions, practices, rules,
or restrictions of pretrial confinement."
Id. In such cases we
may assume, by the municipality's promulgation and maintenance of
the complained of condition, that it intended to cause the alleged
constitutional deprivation.
Id. at 645.
However, if the complained-of harm is a particular act or
omission of one or more officials, the action is characterized as
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an "episodic act or omission" case. See
Hare, 74 F.3d at 645. In
an episodic act or omission case, an actor is usually interposed
between the detainee and the municipality, such that the detainee
complains first of a particular act of, or omission by, the actor
and then points derivatively to a policy, custom or rule (or lack
thereof) of the municipality that permitted or caused the act or
omission. The detainee in such a case must establish that the
official(s) acted with subjective deliberate indifference to prove
a violation of his constitutional rights. Scott v. Moore,
114 F.3d
51, 54 (5th Cir.1997) (en banc). To succeed in holding a
municipality accountable for such a violation, the detainee must
show that the municipal employee (1) violated his clearly
established constitutional rights with subjective deliberate
indifference and (2) the violation resulted from a municipal policy
or custom adopted or maintained with objective deliberate
indifference.
Id., citing Farmer v. Brennan,
511 U.S. 825,
114
S. Ct. 1970,
128 L. Ed. 2d 811 (1994).
Hare, an episodic act or omission case, concerned a jail
suicide much like the one here. The question remanded to the
district court in that case was whether the defendants had actual
knowledge of the substantial risk of suicide and responded with
deliberate indifference.
Hare, 74 F.3d at 650. The en banc court
recently applied Hare to a pretrial detainee claim based on a rape
by a jailer. Scott v. Moore,
114 F.3d 51 (5th Cir.1997). Although
the plaintiff in Scott pleaded the case as a "conditions" case for
failure to adequately staff, the en banc court held that it, too,
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was an "episodic act or omission" case.
The plaintiffs here have attempted to plead both an
"episodic" case (based on Ingram's acts and omissions) and a
"conditions" case (based on training and staffing policies in
Hardeman County). However, it is clear after Hare and Scott that
this is an episodic act or omission case. We must therefore first
apply the subjective standard to the claims involving Ingram's acts
and omissions. Only if we determine that Ingram violated Flores's
constitutional rights do we go on to consider whether Hardeman
County is liable for that violation.
SHERIFF'S LIABILITY
A detainee's right to adequate protection from known suicidal
tendencies was clearly established when Flores committed suicide in
January 1990. See Hare v. City of Corinth,
74 F.3d 633, 644 (5th
Cir.1996). We will also assume, based on our holding in a previous
appeal in this case, that Ingram had knowledge of Flores's
condition. See Flores v. County of Hardeman, No. 93-9175 at 5,
1995 WL 295848 (5th Cir., April 17, 1995) (unpublished) ("[W]e
conclude that a genuine issue of material fact exists as to
Ingram's knowledge of Flores' condition."). However, the summary
judgment evidence does not raise a genuine issue of material fact
concerning whether Ingram acted with subjective deliberate
indifference in providing Flores his constitutionally mandated
protection. Sheriff Ingram in fact took appropriate action to
protect Flores. He set up special procedures including periodic
checks at thirty minute intervals, a special security cell, and
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prohibited the issue of inmate supplies that Flores could use to
harm himself. The protective procedures were kept in effect for
twelve hours. Ingram then exercised his judgment that the risk had
passed and removed the special procedures. During the twelve hour
protection period, Flores talked to various jailers, an inmate, a
judge and his father. He did not hint to any of these people that
he was contemplating suicide. While it is easy in hindsight to
conclude that Ingram's decision to discontinue the protective
measures after twelve hours was ill advised, it was not, as a
matter of law, deliberately indifferent. Because the summary
judgment evidence does not raise a genuine issue of material fact
concerning whether Ingram was deliberately indifferent to Flores's
suicidal tendencies, we affirm the summary judgment for Ingram.
HARDEMAN COUNTY LIABILITY
Plaintiffs claim that Hardeman County has a policy or practice
of inadequate suicide detection, intervention, and prevention,
inadequate training and staffing, and unacceptably dangerous inmate
supplies, i.e. a blanket with holes in it, that was torn into
strips and used by Flores to hang himself.
To prove an underlying constitutional violation in an episodic
act or omission case such as this one, a pretrial detainee must
first establish that an official acted with subjective deliberate
indifference. Scott v. Moore,
114 F.3d 51, 54 (5th Cir.1997).
Only then may he hold a municipality accountable for that due
process violation.
Id. Because we have held that plaintiffs' §
1983 claims against Ingram fail, those claims against Hardeman
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County necessarily fail as well.
Likewise, plaintiffs' Eighth Amendment claims are without
merit. The seriousness of Flores's alleged crimes support the
decision to set bail at $225,000. See United States v. Bosquez-
Villarreal,
868 F.2d 1388, 1389 (5th Cir.1989). Further, summary
judgment evidence establishes that there was probable cause to
bring criminal charges against Flores.
TEXAS TORT CLAIMS ACT
The district court dismissed plaintiffs' Texas Tort Claims
Act claims on jurisdictional grounds without prejudice pursuant to
Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6). In a footnote, the district
court stated that even if it had maintained supplemental
jurisdiction over the pendent claim, it would still have dismissed
the claim pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1376(c) since all other federal
claims in the lawsuit were dismissed. Section 1376(c) states,
"[t]he district courts may decline to exercise supplemental
jurisdiction over a claim ... if the district court has dismissed
all claims over which it has original jurisdiction...." We
conclude that the district court's decision to dismiss plaintiff's
claims without prejudice was not error.
CONCLUSION
Based on the foregoing, we affirm the district court's
judgment for the defendants.
AFFIRMED.
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