Williams v. Vannoy

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

MIDDLE DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA

ROBERT WILLIAMS CIVIL ACTION

VERSUS

NO. 21-00139-BAJ-EWD

DARREL VANNOY, ET AL.

RULING AND ORDER

Plaintiff Robert Williams, an inmate incarcerated at the Louisiana State

Penitentiary (LSP), pursues constitutional claims of excessive force and deliberate

indifference to his medical needs—and related state law claims—against the

Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections (DPSC) and multiple LSP

Corrections Officers, arising from an altercation on March 3, 2020. Now, the

remaining Defendants—DPSC, LSP Lieutenant Colonel Vincent Knight, and LSP

Captain Eric Turner—move for summary judgment. For reasons below, Defendants’

motion will be granted in part, leaving for trial only Plaintiff’s individual capacity

excessive force claims against Lt. Col. Knight and Capt. Turner.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Summary Judgment Evidence

The facts set forth below are drawn from the competent summary judgment

evidence submitted in support of the parties’ pleadings.

On March 3, 2020, Plaintiff, a prisoner at LSP, was housed in LSP dorm Falcon

1. (Doc. 43-3, hereinafter “Williams Depo.,” at 11:24). Plaintiff “suffer[s] with

addiction,” (id. at 16:10-13), and admits that on this date he was “intoxicated,” (id. at

12:15), due to having “smoked … synthetic marijuana,” (id. at 17:19-21).

About an hour after getting high, (see id. at 17:19-21), Plaintiff confronted non-

party Sgt. “K. Donaldson” to address “something weird” she allegedly told another

prisoner housed in Falcon 1, (id. at 12:8). In Plaintiff’s words:

I just attempted to, like, get her attention to speak to her and find out

what was going on. And she just hit the beeper and ran out of the dorm,

you know. I kind of went behind her to stop her. But everything was

turned around, you know, like I, you know, had just -- I was, like,

intoxicated and chased out of the dorm.

(Id. at 12:9-15).

By “hitting the beeper,” Sgt. Donaldson summoned Defendants Lt. Col. Knight

and Capt. Turner to Falcon 1. What happened next is the subject of dispute between

the parties.

Lt. Col. Knight and Capt. Turner each offer virtually identical declarations

stating that upon their arrival, Plaintiff “appeared to be high/intoxicated,” and “was

acting erratically,” prompting them to immediately “place [him] in handcuffs for

officer safety.” (Doc. 43-6, hereinafter “Turner Decl.,” ¶¶ 5-6; Doc. 43-7, hereinafter

“Knight Decl.,” ¶¶ 5-6). Thereafter, by their own accounts, Knight and Turner

attempted to escort Plaintiff from Falcon 1 to the medical center, at which point

Plaintiff “became combative and resistant. He was yelling, and he was trying to kick,

bite, and spit on the officers present.” (Turner Decl. ¶¶ 7-8; Knight Decl., ¶¶ 7-8).

According to Knight and Turner, Plaintiff’s continued belligerence required an

escalating response: first they “shackled” Plaintiff’s feet; then, when Plaintiff still

refused “several direct verbal orders to stop acting out and resisting,” they “were

forced to take [Plaintiff] to the ground,” and “hold him down until medical arrived.”

(Turner Decl. ¶¶ 9-11; Knight Decl., ¶¶ 9-11). Knight and Turner state that after

“medical arrived,” Plaintiff was transported by ambulance to the medical treatment

center. Each insist that their use of force was consistent with LSP policy, and

“necessary to gain and maintain control of [Plaintiff].” (Turner Decl. ¶¶ 12-14; Knight

Decl., ¶¶ 12-14).

Not surprisingly, Plaintiff offers a divergent view of his March 3 encounter

with Lt. Col. Knight and Capt. Turner, insisting at his deposition that Knight and

Turner attacked him without provocation, continued beating him even after he was

cuffed and shackled, and stopped only after they “tossed” him into the back of the

ambulance:

So when [Lt. Col. Knight and Capt. Turner] responded to the call and

entered the dorm, you know, I just tried -- I just tried to talk to them.

And they just grabbed me, threw me down on the floor and, like, tortured

me. I mean, tortured. I kind of, like, blacked out about, like, two times.

And then after that, you know, they kind of put their handcuffs on me.

We exited Falcon 1. I still attempted to talk to them, and that's when I

all I felt was punches. You know, I still got this cut up under my eye,

you know, and you can see it, you know.

And some things from that night I don't remember, you know, because

of what I was going through, you know, I -- I blacked out, man, several

times, you know, but I just remember just being thrown in the medical

van.

And I don't know -- I don't even remember the whole walk, where the --

the whole escort to the sally port and to the medical van, you know. I

must have -- I must have blacked out. … It's just I remember being, like,

tossed in a van. And that's, like, when my consciousness had come back.

(Williams Depo. at 12:16-13:15).

When asked to explain what he meant by “tortured,” Plaintiff responded:

I mean, I mean, it was about three or four of them, man. They was on

top of me, man, pushing my body like they was trying to push the life

out me, you know.

And if you get the footage, you'll see me laying down face first

unconscious. Twisting my fingers, my arms, my elbows. And when you

review this footage, wherever they land their elbow at, they apply

pressure. Wherever they put their knee at, they apply pressure.

You know, it may not look like it, but zoom in and look at it, man, they

was out to really hurt me. I hadn't done anything, man, anything, you

know. And like I said, I blacked out one time down there, man.

(Williams Depo. at 22:9-23).

Plaintiff suffered multiple lacerations to his face (among other injuries) as a

result of the March 3 altercation, including one near his eye that required staples to

close. (Doc. 43-4).

B. Procedural History

Plaintiff initiated this action on March 3, 2021, alleging constitutional claims

of excessive force and deliberate indifference to his medical needs, and tag-along state

law claims of negligence, battery, and employer liability. (Doc. 1).

Now, remaining Defendants DPSC, Lt. Col. Knight, and Captain Turner move

for summary judgment,1 arguing that Plaintiff’s claims against DPSC are barred by

the Eleventh Amendment; that qualified immunity shields Lt. Col. Knight and Capt.

Turner from Plaintiff’s constitutional claims; that Plaintiff has not produced

sufficient evidence to sustain his claims of battery and negligence; and that, in any

event, Knight and Turner are “immune from state law claims of battery and

negligence based upon the discretionary immunity doctrine.” (Doc. 43).

Plaintiff opposes Defendants’ motion in part, expressly conceding to dismissal

1 Previously, Plaintiff stipulated to dismissal of original named Defendants LSP Warden

Darrel Vannoy and DPSC Secretary James LeBlanc. (See Doc. 35).

of all claims against DPSC, and all official capacity claims against Knight and

Turner, (Doc. 63 at 1), and offering no argument to support (and therefore

abandoning2) his medical indifference, negligence, and battery claims against Knight

and Turner, (see generally id.). By contrast, Plaintiff argues that a material dispute

precludes summary disposition of his individual capacity excessive force claims

against Lt. Col. Knight and Capt. Turner.

II. LAW AND ANALYSIS

A. Standard

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (“Rule”) 56(a) provides that the Court may

grant summary judgment only “if the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute

as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.”

Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a).

In considering a motion for summary judgment, the district court must

view the evidence through the prism of the substantive evidentiary

burden. All justifiable inferences to be drawn from the underlying facts

must be viewed in the light most favorable to the party opposing the

motion. If the record, viewed in this light, could not lead a rational trier

of fact to find for the nonmovant, summary judgment is proper. On the

other hand, if the factfinder could reasonably find in the nonmovant’s

2 Generally speaking, a party waives an issue by failing to brief it. See United States v.

Martinez, 263 F.3d 436, 438 (5th Cir. 2001). Moreover, the Local Civil Rules require that

parties support their arguments with “a concise statement of reasons ... and citations of

authorities,” M.D. La. LR 7(d), and this Court has repeatedly admonished that it will not

speculate on arguments that have not been advanced, or attempt to develop arguments on a

party's behalf. See Doe v. Bd. of Supervisors of Univ. of Louisiana Sys., 650 F. Supp. 3d 452,

477 n.13 (M.D. La. 2023) (Jackson, J.) (citing authorities). Pursuant to the Court's Local

Rules, and consistent with the general rule that a party's failure to brief an issue acts as a

waiver, the Court determines that Plaintiff has abandoned his medical indifference claims

and his state law negligence and battery claims against Lt. Col. Knight and Capt. Turner.

E.g., Clark v. LeBlanc, No. 19-cv-00512-BAJ-SDJ, 2023 WL 2655725, at *7 n.4 (M.D. La. Mar.

27, 2023) (ruling that plaintiff abandoned claims not addressed in opposition to defendants’

motion for summary judgment).

favor, then summary judgment is improper.

Finally, even if the standards of Rule 56 are met, a court has discretion

to deny a motion for summary judgment if it believes that a better course

would be to proceed to a full trial.

Kunin v. Feofanov, 69 F.3d 59, 61–62 (5th Cir. 1995) (quotation marks, alterations,

and citations omitted); see also Firman v. Life Ins. Co. of N. Am., 684 F.3d 533, 538

(5th Cir. 2012) (same); accord Black v. J.I. Case Co., 22 F.3d 568, 572 (5th Cir. 1994)

(“The Supreme Court has recognized that, even in the absence of a factual dispute, a

district court has the power to ‘deny summary judgment in a case where there is

reason to believe that the better course would be to proceed to a full trial.’” (quoting

Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 255 (1986)).

Importantly, when conducting the summary judgment analysis, the Court is

prohibited from evaluating the credibility of the witnesses, weighing the evidence, or

resolving factual disputes. Guzman v. Allstate Assurance Co., 18 F.4th 157, 160 (5th

Cir. 2021). Put differently, the Court may not credit certain witnesses’ testimony over

other evidence: “By choosing which testimony to credit and which to discard, a court

improperly weighs the evidence and resolves disputed issues in favor of the moving

party. Doing so is tantamount to making a credibility determination, and—at this

summary judgment stage—a court may make no credibility determinations.”

Heinsohn v. Carabin & Shaw, P.C., 832 F.3d 224, 245 (5th Cir. 2016) (quotation

marks, alterations, and citations omitted).

B. Analysis

After Plaintiff’s concessions, the only claims left to decide are his individual

capacity excessive force claims against Lt. Col. Knight and Capt. Turner. Knight and

Turner seek dismissal of these claims solely on the basis of qualified immunity. (Doc.

43-1 at 9-17).

The qualified immunity doctrine turns the traditional summary judgment

burden on its head, requiring Plaintiff—the non-moving party—to “demonstrate the

inapplicability of the defense.”3 Rogers v. Jarrett, 63 F.4th 971, 975 (5th Cir. 2023)

(quotation marks omitted). To meet his burden, Plaintiff must “(1) raise a fact dispute

on whether his constitutional rights were violated by the defendants’ individual

conduct, and (2) show those rights were clearly established at the time of the

violation.” Id. (quotation marks omitted). Still, even when conducting a qualified

immunity analysis, the Court views all evidence and makes all reasonable inferences

in the light most favorable to Plaintiff. Tolan v. Cotton, 572 U.S. 650, 657 (2014).

a. Plaintiff has raised a fact dispute on whether his

constitutional rights were violated

The Eighth Amendment protects prisoners from excessive force at the hand of

corrections officers. Cowart v. Erwin, 837 F.3d 444, 452 (5th Cir. 2016).

3 The qualified immunity defense remains “the law of the land.” Jamison v. McClendon, 476

F. Supp. 3d 386, 409 (S.D. Miss. 2020) (Reeves, J.) (reviewing the history and expansion of

the qualified immunity doctrine, and calling for its elimination). But for how long? Scholars

and at least one jurist of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit have recently called

for its ouster because the doctrine is founded on a legal fiction derived from a reconstruction-

era scrivener’s error that removed a determinative 16-word clause from the published version

of 42 U.S.C. § 1983. See Alexander A. Reinert, Qualified Immunity’s Flawed Foundation, 111

CAL. L. REV. 201 (2023). Restored to its proper place, this clause “unequivocally negate[s] the

original interpretive premise for qualified immunity.” See Rogers v. Jarrett, 63 F.4th 971, 979

(5th Cir. 2023) (Willett, J., concurring). It is not this Court’s role to cast aside qualified

immunity here, particularly absent any argument from the parties. Indeed, only the Supreme

Court can definitively “overrule” the defense. Id. at 981. For now, the undersigned commends

Professor Reinert’s scholarship, and joins Judge Willett’s call for the Supreme Court to

“definitively grapple with § 1983’s enacted text and decide whether it means what it says—

and what, if anything, that means for § 1983 immunity jurisprudence.” Id.

In evaluating excessive force claims under the Eighth Amendment, the

core judicial inquiry is whether force was applied in a good-faith effort

to maintain or restore discipline, or maliciously and sadistically to cause

harm. Though the focus of this standard is on the detention facility

official's subjective intent to punish, intent is determined by reference

to the well-known Hudson factors—the extent of injury suffered, the

need for application of force, the relationship between that need and the

amount of force used, the threat reasonably perceived by the responsible

officials, and any efforts made to temper the severity of a forceful

response. The amount of force used must be more than de minimis,

provided that the use of force is not of a sort repugnant to the conscience

of mankind. A plaintiff need not show significant injury, although the

extent of the injury may supply insight as to the amount of force applied.

Id. at 452–53 (quotation marks, alterations and footnotes omitted). Applying these

principles, it is well-established in the Fifth Circuit that force used against a passive

and non-threatening inmate is excessive. E.g., id.at 449 (corrections officers’ force

was excessive where “at no point did [the prisoner plaintiff] physically threaten the

officers or fight back”); Gomez v. Chandler, 163 F.3d 921, 922 (5th Cir. 1999)

(reversing summary judgment dismissing prisoner plaintiff’s excessive force claim

and remanding for trial where plaintiff’s declaration established a basis to conclude

that corrections officers “attacked him without provocation”). Further, “courts have

frequently found constitutional violations in cases where a restrained or subdued

person is subjected to the use of force.” Cowart, 837 F.3d at 454 (quoting Kitchen v.

Dall. Cty., 759 F.3d 468, 479 (5th Cir. 2014)).

Here, applying the Hudson factors, Plaintiff has plainly produced sufficient

evidence to establish a fact dispute regarding whether Lt. Col. Knight and Capt.

Turner used excessive force against him on March 3, 2020. First, Plaintiff has

produced medical records establishing that, among other injuries, he suffered

multiple lacerations to his face, including one that required staples. These injuries

easily overcome the Fifth Circuit’s de minimus threshold. See Comeaux v. Sutton, 496

F. App'x 368, 371 (5th Cir. 2012) (minor injuries such as “abrasions” or a “bruised lip”

are sufficient to defeat summary judgment and sustain an actionable excessive force

claim (discussing authorities)).

Second, a dispute plainly exists regarding the need for force. Knight and

Turner state that when they approached Plaintiff to remove him to the medical

center, he appeared intoxicated and was “acting erratically,” prompting them to put

him in handcuffs, at which point Plaintiff became “combative,” requiring escalated

force. Plaintiff admits that he was intoxicated, but claims that he was compliant and

that Knight and Turner immediately “grabbed me, threw me down on the floor and,

like, tortured me,” and that it only got worse from there. At this stage, the Court is

not permitted to decide which of these competing accounts is true. Heinsohn, 832 F.3d

at 245; e.g., Comeaux, 496 Fed. Appx. at 373-74 (rejecting defendants’ qualified

immunity defense at summary judgment where plaintiff prisoner’s testimony

established a basis to conclude “that he did not resist the defendants, leaving the

defendants no reason to use force”); Brown v. Lippard, 472 F.3d 384, 386-87 (5th Cir.

2006) (same, where summary judgment evidence established a basis to conclude that

at the time of the alleged attack, the plaintiff prisoner’s “behavior [w]as cooperative

and unthreatening”).

Essentially the same evidence establishes a genuine dispute as to the third and

fourth Hudson factors—the relationship between the need and the amount of force

used, and the threat reasonably perceived by Knight and Turner, respectively.

Crediting Plaintiff’s account, he merely tried to talk to Knight and Turner when they

arrived at Falcon 1, and posed no threat, but was immediately thrown to the ground

and thereafter suffered repeated body blows and other assaults even after he was

handcuffed and shackled. True, Plaintiff admits he was “intoxicated” at the time,

which may ultimately support a finding that Knight and Turner reasonably perceived

at least some threat when they arrived at Falcon 1. But the mere fact of Plaintiff’s

intoxication does not defeat his excessive force claim, because even in his intoxicated

state Plaintiff unquestionably was entitled to constitutional protection from more

force than was necessary to “maintain or restore discipline.” Cowart, 837 F.3d at 452;

e.g., Geils v. Patin, 941 F. Supp. 2d 722, 729 (N.D. Tex. 2012) (Boyle, J.) (sustaining

detainee’s Eighth Amendment excessive force claim, and rejecting defendant’s

qualified immunity defense at summary judgment, despite defendant’s testimony

that he employed force in response to plaintiff’s “alcohol-induced lack of body control,”

intoxication, and belligerence, where plaintiff’s evidence established that he “did not

attempt to flee or engage in physical contact with [defendant] at any time”). Here,

again, accepting Plaintiff’s testimony at face value, a basis exists to conclude that he

was passive and compliant, but was nonetheless thrown to the ground, punched,

pressed, dragged, and contorted, even after he was cuffed and shackled.

Finally, at the fifth Hudson factor, Plaintiff’s testimony establishes a basis to

conclude that Knight and Turner made no attempt whatsoever to temper the severity

of their forceful response. To the contrary, according the Plaintiff, Knight and Turner

immediately threw him to the ground and thereafter escalated their assault, even

when Plaintiff was restrained in handcuffs and shackles.

In sum, Plaintiff and Defendants offer wildly divergent accounts of their March

3 encounter, each supported by their own summary judgment evidence. “This case

quite literally presents a quintessential example of the classic ‘he said, [they] said’

swearing match, making it obvious that [Knight’s and Turner’s] summary judgment

motion turns entirely on a genuine issue of fact that clearly is material.” See

Faulkenbery v. Lee, 307 F. App'x 813, 814 (5th Cir. 2009) (rejecting defendant’s

qualified immunity defense at summary judgment). The result, for present purposes,

is a genuine dispute as to whether Lt. Col. Knight and Capt. Turner deployed

excessive force against Plaintiff on March 3, 2020. Plaintiff has carried his burden at

the first step of the qualified immunity analysis. E.g., supra, Cowart, 837 F.3d at 454;

Comeaux, 496 Fed. Appx. at 373-74; Brown, 472 F.3d at 386-87.

b. Plaintiff’s constitutional rights were clearly

established at the time of the alleged violation

This much is clear: when they encountered Plaintiff, Lt. Col. Knight and Capt.

Turner unquestionably had “fair warning” that permissible force was limited to that

which was necessary “to maintain or restore discipline,” and that they were

prohibited from using force “maliciously and sadistically to cause harm.” Cowart, 837

F.3d at 452 (quotation marks omitted). Moreover, Knight and Turner would have

known that it was objectively unreasonable to use force against a passive and non-

threatening inmate, particularly after that inmate is “restrained or subdued.” Id. at

454 (quoting Kitchen, 759 F.3d at 479). As above, the circumstances of the March 3

encounter—and particularly whether Plaintiff’s interaction with Knight and Turner

was passive or resistant—requires a credibility determination regarding competing

accounts of what occurred in the Falcon 1 dorm. Again, the Court is not permitted to

make such findings at summary judgment. Heinsohn, 832 F.3d at 245. Plaintiff has

also carried his burden to show that the law was clearly established at the time Lt.

Col. Knight and Capt. Turner deployed force against Plaintiff, and their qualified

immunity defense fails at this stage. Plaintiff’s excessive force claim will be submitted

to the jury.

III. CONCLUSION

Accordingly,

IT IS ORDERED that the remaining Defendants’ Motion For Summary

Judgment (Doc. 43) be and is hereby GRANTED IN PART consistent with the

relief set forth herein, leaving for trial only Plaintiff’s individual capacity excessive

force claims against Defendants Knight and Turner.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Defendant Louisiana Department of

Public Safety and Corrections and all remaining “Doe” defendants be and are hereby

DISMISSED AND TERMINATED as parties to this action.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana, this 19th day of December, 2023

______________________________________

JUDGE BRIAN A. JACKSON

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

MIDDLE DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA