The opinion
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA
James C. McNeill, )
)
Plaintiffs, )
)
v. ) 1:18CV786
)
Cameron Gaddy, et al., )
)
Defendants. )
)
)
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER
LORETTA C. BIGGS, District Judge.
The above-captioned matter came on for jury trial on January 9, 2023, and at the close
of Plaintiff’s evidence, counsel for Defendant Monica Bond made an oral motion for
Judgment as a Matter of Law pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50(a). After hearing
arguments from the parties, the Court reserved ruling and allowed Defendant to put on her
evidence. Defendant then orally renewed her Rule 50 motion which this Court granted from
the bench stating that a written Order was forthcoming. (Minute Entry 1/10/2023.) A
Judgment in favor of Defendant will be filed simultaneously with this Order.
I. STANDARD OF REVIEW
Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50(a), “[after] a party has been fully heard on
an issue during a jury trial,” a party may make a motion asking the court to enter judgment as
a matter of law. This motion is made before a case is submitted to the jury and, to grant the
motion, requires a finding that no reasonable jury could find for the opposing party. Fed. R.
Civ. P. 50(a)(2). “Judgment as a matter of law is only appropriate if, viewing the evidence in
the light most favorable to the non-moving party, the court concludes that ‘a reasonable trier
of fact could draw only one conclusion from the evidence.’” Corti v. Storage Tech. Corp., 304
F.3d 336, 341 (4th Cir. 2002) (quoting Brown v. CSX Transp., Inc., 18 F.3d 245, 248 (4th Cir.
1994)). “[I]f the nonmoving party [has] failed to make a showing on an essential element of
his case with respect to which he had the burden of proof,” judgment as a matter of law should
be granted. Wheatley v. Wicomico County, 390 F.3d 328, 332 (4th Cir. 2004) (quoting Singer v.
Dungan, 45 F.3d 823, 827 (4th Cir. 1995)).
II. DISCUSSION
A. Procedural Background
Pro se Plaintiff James C. McNeill, an inmate in the North Carolina prison system,
originally brought this suit against several state employees alleging multiple claims under 42
U.S.C. § 1983. (ECF No. 2 at 3, 13.) At the time of trial, however, all but one of Plaintiff’s
claims had been resolved in Defendants’ favor by an order of the Court. (ECF No. 97.) The
sole claim at issue when trial commenced was the claim that Defendant Monica Bond, the
Chief Disciplinary Hearing Officer for the North Carolina Department of Public Safety,
deprived Plaintiff of due process during a prison disciplinary proceeding for the offense of
possession of gang-related material. (ECF Nos. 91 at 29; 97 at 2.)
B. Due Process
To prevail on a procedural or substantive due process claim, a prisoner must first
demonstrate that he was deprived of “life, liberty, or property” by governmental action. See
Plyler v. Moore, 100 F.3d 365, 374 (4th Cir. 1996). A prisoner “may have a state-created liberty
interest in certain prison confinement conditions,” Prieto v. Clarke, 780 F.3d 245, 248 (4th Cir.
impose[] atypical and significant hardship on the inmate in relation to the ordinary incidents
of prison life,” id. at 249 (citation omitted). What constitutes “ordinary incidents of prison
life” for a particular inmate is a fact-specific inquiry and depends on the inmate’s normative
baseline. Incumaa v. Stirling, 791 F.3d 517, 527 (4th Cir. 2015). “Then, with the baseline
established, [the factfinder must] determine whether the prison conditions impose atypical and
substantial hardship in relation to that norm.” Id.
If an inmate’s liberty interest is implicated, due process requires that he receive “(1)
advance written notice of the disciplinary charges; (2) an opportunity, when consistent with
institutional safety and correctional goals, to call witnesses and present documentary evidence
in his defense; and (3) a written statement by the factfinder of the evidence relied on and the
reasons for the disciplinary action.” Superintendent, Mass. Corr. Inst., Walpole v. Hill, 472 U.S.
445, 454 (1985) (citing Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 563–67 (1974)). Additionally, there
must be “some evidence” in the record to support the findings of the prison disciplinary board
“from which the conclusion of the administrative tribunal could be deduced . . . .” Id. at 455
(quoting United States ex rel. Vajatauer v. Comm’r of Immigr., 273 U.S. 103, 106 (1927)). For a jury
to find a defendant liable for depriving a plaintiff of due process, the jury must make its finding
based a preponderance of the evidence. See Howard v. Dowdy, No. 17-CV-477, 2022 WL
1720156, at *10 (M.D.N.C. May 27, 2022) (using preponderance of the evidence standard in
jury instructions).
C. Evidence Presented at Trial
During Plaintiff’s case-in-chief, he called three witnesses to testify: himself, Defendant,
and Defendant’s supervisor. (ECF No. 187 (Exhibit and Witness List).)1 Plaintiff also
submitted copies of two prison policies into evidence.2 (ECF No. 187; Plaintiff’s Exhibit B
(Conditions of Confinement Policy and Procedure); Plaintiff’s Exhibit C (Inmate Disciplinary
Procedures).)
At the time the Court granted Defendant’s Rule 50 motion, the Court found that there
was some evidence presented during plaintiff’s case-in-chief from which a jury could
determine that there was a liberty interest at stake in the disciplinary proceeding of which
Plaintiff complains. However, at no point during trial did Plaintiff put on any evidence
regarding the ordinary incidents of his prison life.3 Nor did Plaintiff put on any evidence
showing what sanctions he received from the disciplinary proceeding at issue.4 Ultimately, by
the time both parties had rested, while Defendant had filled the evidentiary gaps regarding
what sanctions Plaintiff received—30 days of restrictive housing, loss of 40 days of credit time,
50 hours of extra duties, and temporary loss of certain privileges—there was still no evidence
in the record establishing what Plaintiff’s baseline ordinary incidents of prison life were.
Opinion and Order, the Court relied on its recollection of the trial as well as an uncertified rough
transcript.
2 Plaintiff also submitted copies of motions that he had made that this Court had previously denied,
(Plaintiff’s Exhibit A), as well as copies of mail related to this litigation that he has received in prison.
(Plaintiff’s Exhibits D; E; F; G). Although the Court received these exhibits, they are not related to
the issue that was tried; instead, they are related to Plaintiff’s repeated attempts to convert his trial into
a motions hearing involving a series of unrelated grievances.
3 Plaintiff asserted during his testimony that the ordinary incidents of prison life required that he be
in general population. However, he did not elaborate on this conclusory statement by providing, for
example, a description of how frequently he personally is in general population. Indeed, although
Plaintiff also asserted during his opening statement that he had been in general population prior to
being written up for possession of the gang-related material at issue in this case, he never made that
assertion while testifying under oath. Thus, there was no evidence in the record that Plaintiff’s
ordinary prison life is spent in general population.
4 While Plaintiff mentioned repeatedly during trial that he spent six months in isolation, there was no
Without a baseline to compare the sanctions to, no reasonable juror could find by a
preponderance of the evidence that Plaintiff had been subjected to an “atypical and significant
hardship.” See Incumaa, 791 F.3d at 527.
Additionally, no reasonable juror could find that Defendant deprived Plaintiff of due
process. Plaintiff presented no evidence that he did not receive advance written notice of the
disciplinary charge, that he did not have an opportunity to present evidence in his defense, or
that the disciplinary hearing officer who found him guilty of possession of gang-related
material did not provide him with a written statement of the evidence and reasoning that the
officer relied on. (To be clear, the disciplinary hearing officer who found Plaintiff guilty and
imposed sanctions was not Defendant in this trial; as discussed later in this opinion, Defendant
did not become involved in Plaintiff’s case until after he was found guilty.)
Rather than present evidence that might show he was deprived of procedural due
process, Plaintiff focused his case on a collaterally attacking the guilt determination that arose
out of his disciplinary proceedings. His testimony included, among other things, that the
material he was found to have wrongfully possessed was not a gang chart, rather it was a drug
chart that he obtained from a magazine; that he had been allowed to have that chart at other
prison sites; and that he believed the charge against him was fabricated as part of a scheme to
retaliate against him for filing an earlier lawsuit against the prison. Additionally, when Plaintiff
called Defendant and her supervisor as witnesses during his-case-in chief, most of his
questions went to Defendant’s qualifications and training, and whether she personally reviews
all documents that pass through her office. None of this testimony was probative of the issue
being tried.
By the close of trial, the only evidence in the record about the due process issues central
to this case came from Defendant, and that evidence favored Defendant. When Defendant
presented her evidence, she gave testimony explaining her limited involvement with Plaintiff’s
disciplinary charge. Pursuant to her duties as the Chief Disciplinary Hearing Officer, she
adjudicated an appeal of that charge by reviewing the disciplinary package for the charge at
issue (i.e., the complete administrative record for the disciplinary proceeding) to determine if
any of Plaintiff’s rights had been violated during the prison’s investigation of the charge.
Defendant moved a copy of the disciplinary package that she reviewed for Plaintiff’s case into
evidence as a business record, (Defendant’s Exhibit 1), and she gave extensive testimony
identifying the different parts of the disciplinary package that recorded how every step of the
standard disciplinary process for a the charge of possession of gang-related material—starting
with a writeup, proceeding through an investigation, going to a disciplinary officer hearing,
and then being appealed to Defendant—was carried out in Plaintiff’s case. According to
Defendant’s testimony, she reviewed every page of Plaintiff’s disciplinary package for the
possession gang-related material charge when she considered Defendant’s appeal, and she did
not find any violation of any of his rights. Therefore, according to Defendant, she affirmed
the finding of guilt and the sanctions imposed.
Against the foregoing, Plaintiff did not present any evidence that Defendant did not
review his entire disciplinary package. Nor did Plaintiff present any evidence that Defendant
failed to follow any applicable policy or procedure when she conducted her review and
affirmed the finding of guilt. While Plaintiff testified that his investigating officer did not
follow procedures insofar as Plaintiff had requested the officer check a prison mail log and
the investigator did not do this, such request was not reflected in the disciplinary record and
therefore not a part of Defendant’s review. The Court concludes that even if that request had
been reflected in the record, its inclusion would not have affected whether Defendant
provided Plaintiff due process because the contents of the mail log were not probative of
whether Plaintiff was guilty of the charge at issue—possession of gang-related material.5
As Plaintiff presented no evidence relevant to whether Defendant afforded him due
process, a factfinder can look only to Defendant’s evidence, and that evidence meticulously
details Plaintiff’s receipt of procedural protections at all stages of the disciplinary charge
process that went beyond the minimum that case law requires. It shows too that there was
ample evidence before Defendant during her limited personal involvement with Plaintiff’s case
from which her conclusion—that there was no violation of Plaintiff’s rights during the
disciplinary investigation and hearing that required setting aside the finding of guilt and
dismissing the charge—could be deduced.
Accordingly, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to Plaintiff, the Court
concludes as a matter of law that no reasonable juror could have found in Plaintiff’s favor
based on the evidence presented at trial. For foregoing reasons, the Court enters the following:
ORDER
IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that Defendant’s Motion for Judgment as a
Matter of Law is GRANTED and this action is DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE. A
5 While cross-examining Defendant, Plaintiff also argued there was a procedural violation because the
officer assigned to investigate his case did not question certain witnesses that Plaintiff requested be
questioned. However, Plaintiff apparently requested these witnesses be questioned for the purpose of
investigating his allegation that there was a scheme to retaliate against him for being litigious, and
because these witnesses were involved with a dispute regarding Plaintiff’s medical records. Defendant
testified that the officer assigned to investigate the charge that Plaintiff had possessed gang-related
material did not question these witnesses because the officer concluded the allegations of retaliation,
judgment dismissing this action will be entered contemporaneously with this Memorandum
Opinion and Order.
This, the 9th day of February 2023.
/s/ Loretta C. Biggs
United States District Judge