DEBORAH K. CHASANOW, District Judge.
Presently pending and ready for resolution in this prisoner civil rights case is the motion for summary judgment filed by Defendants Donald Gallagher, Melvin Harris, and Brent Sharp. (ECF No. 55). The issues have been fully briefed, and the court now rules, no hearing being deemed necessary. Local Rule 105.6. Defendants' motion will be denied.
Plaintiff, an inmate housed at Eastern Correctional Institution ("ECI") of the Maryland Division of Correction, alleges that he was subject to a beating at the hands of Defendants Gallagher, Harris, and Sharp ("Defendants" or "the Officers"). (ECF No. 21). On April 5, 2011, while Plaintiff was escorted from a "sick call" to his cell, Plaintiff and Defendant Sharp had a disagreement about the lunch Plaintiff was to receive that day. Plaintiff alleges that in the course of the disagreement, Sharp and Harris held him by his arms, and Gallagher punched him in the back of the head. (Id. at 4). Plaintiff alleges that Gallagher then grabbed him by the hair to drag him into his cell. While Plaintiff lay on the ground, Gallagher and Harris kneed, punched, and choked Plaintiff, even after Plaintiff was handcuffed and subdued. Plaintiff was then stripped naked, forced to his knees, and examined by a nurse, while "Gallagher maintained a wrist bending technique on the Plaintiff throughout the entire assessment."
Defendants offer a starkly different version of the facts, asserting that when Plaintiff refused to obey Gallagher's order to enter his cell, Plaintiff slipped his handcuffs and actively resisted. (ECF No. 8-1, at 1-2). They further assert that Plaintiff was never attacked, punched, "slammed on the hand," or choked. (Id.).
Plaintiff filed a request for administrative remedy ("ARP") with the warden on April 22, 2011. (ECF No. 26-2). The warden dismissed the ARP, because "[i]nmates may not seek relief through the Administrative Remedy Procedure regarding disciplinary hearing procedures and decisions." Plaintiff then untimely filed an administrative appeal of this decision. (ECF No. 12-1).
A motion for summary judgment will be granted only if there exists no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(a); Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986); Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 250, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). The moving party bears the burden of showing that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact. However, no genuine dispute of material fact exists if the nonmoving party fails to make a sufficient showing on an essential element of his or her case as to which he or she would have the burden of proof. Celotex, 477 U.S. at 322-23, 106 S.Ct. 2548. Therefore, on those issues on which the nonmoving party has the burden of proof, it is his or her responsibility to confront the summary judgment motion with an affidavit or other similar evidence showing that there is a genuine dispute for trial.
Summary judgment is appropriate under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure Rule 56(a) when there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact, and the moving party is plainly entitled to judgment in its favor as a matter of law. In Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., the Supreme Court of the United States explained that, in considering a motion for summary judgment, the "judge's function is not himself to weigh the evidence and determine the truth of
In undertaking this inquiry, a court must view the facts and the reasonable inferences drawn therefrom "in the light most favorable to the party opposing the motion." Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. Ltd. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986) (quoting United States v. Diebold, Inc., 369 U.S. 654, 655, 82 S.Ct. 993, 8 L.Ed.2d 176 (1962)); see also E.E.O.C. v. Navy Fed. Credit Union, 424 F.3d 397, 405 (4th Cir.2005). The mere existence of a "scintilla" of evidence in support of the non-moving party's case is not sufficient to preclude an order granting summary judgment. See Anderson, 477 U.S. at 252, 106 S.Ct. 2505.
A "party cannot create a genuine dispute of material fact through mere speculation or compilation of inferences." Shin v. Shalala, 166 F.Supp.2d 373, 375 (D.Md. 2001) (citation omitted). Indeed, this court has an affirmative obligation to prevent factually unsupported claims and defenses from going to trial. See Drewitt v. Pratt, 999 F.2d 774, 778-79 (4th Cir.1993) (quoting Felty v. Graves-Humphreys Co., 818 F.2d 1126, 1128 (4th Cir.1987)).
The Prison Litigation Reform Act ("PLRA") generally requires a prisoner plaintiff to exhaust administrative remedies before filing suit in federal court. 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a) provides that "[n]o action shall be brought with respect to prison conditions under § 1983 of this title, or any other Federal law by a prisoner confined in any jail, prison, or other correctional facility until such administrative remedies as are available are exhausted." (Emphasis added). The Supreme Court has interpreted the language of this provision broadly, holding that the phrase "prison conditions" encompasses "all inmate suits about prison life, whether they involve general circumstances or particular episodes, and whether they allege excessive force or some other wrong." Porter v. Nussle, 534 U.S. 516, 532, 122 S.Ct. 983, 152 L.Ed.2d 12 (2002). Thus, the exhaustion provision plainly extends to Plaintiff's allegations. Under the PLRA, Defendants must raise lack of exhaustion as an affirmative defense, and they bear the burden of proof on this issue. Jones v. Bock, 549 U.S. 199, 211-13, 127 S.Ct. 910, 166 L.Ed.2d 798 (2007).
In Maryland, filing an administrative remedy ("ARP") with the warden of the prison in which one is incarcerated is typically the first of three steps in the Administrative Remedy Procedure process provided by the Division of Correction to its prisoners. If this request is denied, the prisoner has ten calendar days to file an appeal with the Commissioner of Correction. If this appeal is denied, the prisoner has thirty days in which to file an appeal to the Executive Director of the Inmate Grievance Office ("IGO"). See Md.Code Ann., Corr. Servs. §§ 10-206, 10-210; Md. Code Regs. 12.07.01.03.
Plaintiff filed an ARP which was dismissed because the warden concluded that Plaintiff was using the process to challenge
In their current motion, Defendants request the court to reconsider that conclusion because there was in fact a remedy available to the Plaintiff that offered the possibility of relief: filing the grievance directly to the IGO, which was available regardless of the availability of the ARP remedy. The IGO statute provides that if a prisoner has a grievance against an official or employee of the Division of Correction, the prisoner may submit a complaint to the IGO within the time and in the manner required by regulation adopted by the IGO. Md.Code Ann., Corr. Servs. § 10-206(a). The usual three-step ARP process stems from subsection (b) of this law: "[i]f the Division of Correction has a grievance procedure applicable to the particular grievance" of a prisoner, then the IGO may require by regulation that the procedure be exhausted before submission of a complaint to the IGO. Division of Correction regulations provide that the ARP may not be used for issues of disciplinary hearing procedures and decisions, but instead prisoners may appeal those decisions under a wholly separate procedure in accordance with regulation. The ARP may be used for issues having to do with the use of force, however. (ECF No. 55-3 § VI.A-C (Division of Correction Directive 185-002, effective Aug. 27, 2008)). The IGO's regulations provide that where the ARP remedy procedure applies, a prisoner shall properly exhaust that procedure before filing a grievance with the IGO. Md.Code Regs. 12.07.01.02(D). Defendants argue that because Plaintiff's complaint challenges a disciplinary proceeding — which the ARP procedures do not apply to — Plaintiff's proper course was to file his grievance directly with the IGO. Failure to do so means that Plaintiff has not exhausted administratively his claims. While Defendants acknowledge that they carry the burden on this issue, Jones, 549 U.S. at 211-13, 127 S.Ct. 910, they contend that Plaintiff has failed to demonstrate that the IGO procedure was not available by showing that "he was prevented, through no fault of his own, from availing himself of that procedure." Graham v. Gentry, 413 Fed.Appx. 660, 663 (4th Cir. 2011) (citing Moore v. Bennette, 517 F.3d 717, 725 (4th Cir.2008)).
This argument is unconvincing. Plaintiff was prevented from availing himself of the IGO procedure seemingly through the fault of the Division of Correction. Plaintiff's ARP was dismissed because it was determined that he was challenging the results of a disciplinary proceeding; regulations state that this must be done through the IGO, not the ARP. At a glance this determination seems completely incorrect: Plaintiff was not challenging a disciplinary proceeding. Instead he was plainly challenging Defendants' use of force against him, a type of grievance that the regulations explicitly permit be brought
Defendants' appeal to Blake v. Maynard, No. 8:09-cv-02367-AW, 2012 WL 1664107 (D.Md. May 10, 2012), is unavailing. That case involved a cleaner set of facts: prisoner's situation prompted an internal affairs investigation. Per the applicable regulations, a prisoner whose case is subject to an internal affairs investigation cannot proceed via the ARP grievance process. Consequently, he could proceed directly to the IGO. The prisoner admitted that he failed to pursue either the ARP or IGO grievance process and, consequently, Judge Williams held that he failed to exhaust administratively his claims. Id. at *5-6. But in Blake, the prisoner had both forks of the road open to him with no direction from the authorities — right or wrong — as to either. He failed to take either road and was appropriately deemed to have failed to exhaust. Here, by contrast, Plaintiff attempted to take the correct path, was erroneously told he took a wrong turn, and now Defendants are arguing that his failure to take the other route is fatal to his claim, despite the fact that — according to a plain reading of the regulations — were he to go down that road, he would be summarily dismissed because a direct appeal to the IGO was not available. Prisoners should not be punished for failing to file grievances that are not permitted by the authority's own regulations. Defendants' motion for summary judgment on exhaustion grounds will be denied.
Plaintiff asserts that Defendants stripping him naked, forcing him to his knees, and subjecting him to a medical exam at the hands of a nurse constitutes a violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. The undersigned previously stated that "[s]trip searches of convicted persons do not amount to a violation of privacy rights, as long as the genitals of the persons being searched are not involuntarily and unjustifiably exposed to members of the opposite sex." (ECF No. 34, at 17); Coley, 2013 WL 210724, at *7. Defendants seize on this statement and contend that while Plaintiff alleges that he was completely unclothed in front of the female nurse, the video documenting the incident shows that the nurse inspected him while he was fully clothed and that the strip search occurred only after the nurse completed her assessment and left the cell. Plaintiff, in response, acknowledges that he never saw the nurse, but he did hear her and smell her as the strip search began.
The parties' focus on to whom Plaintiff's genitals were exposed is understandable given the undersigned's previous statement, but it was incorrect to suggest that all strip searches of prisoners are permissible under the Fourth Amendment, no matter the time, place, manner, or justification,
Plaintiff alleges that the Defendants each acted "negligently, wantonly, recklessly, and with deliberate indifference, failed to properly supervise and failed to intervene therein to prevent the aforesaid violations of the Plaintiff's clearly established and then existing rights under the laws and Constitution of the United States and other rights, and failed to prevent harm to the Plaintiff." (ECF No. 21 ¶ 43). Defendants construe this as a negligence claim and contend that under the Maryland Tort Claims Act ("MTCA") they, as state employees, enjoy statutory immunity. Md.Code Ann., State Gov't § 12-104; Md. Code Ann., Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 5-522. Plaintiff replies by discussing the standards for qualified immunity. The undersigned
For the foregoing reasons, the motion for summary judgment filed by Defendants will be denied. A separate order will follow.