United States District Court, W.D. Arkansas, Texarkana Division
ORDER
SUSAN
O. HICKEY UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
This is
a civil rights action filed pro se by Plaintiff,
Ronnie Deon Foots, under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Currently
before the Court are Motions for Summary Judgment filed by
Defendants City of Lewisville, Arkansas, and Chief Jason
Tomlin (ECF No. 30) and Defendants Victor C. Rose, Theartice
Early, Dr. Antoon, Officer Clark, and Officer Cox (ECF No.
36). Plaintiff has filed a response. (ECF No. 42). Defendants
City of Lewisville and Tomlin filed a Reply to
Plaintiff's Response. (ECF No. 43). The Court finds this
matter ripe for consideration.
I.
BACKGROUND
Plaintiff
filed his original Complaint on May 6, 2016, against
Defendants Victor Rose, Theartice Early, Chief Tomlin, Dr.
Antoon, and Officer Cox.[1] (ECF No. 1). On May 25, 2016, Plaintiff
filed an Amended Complaint naming Officer Clark as a
Defendant. (ECF No. 6). Plaintiff alleges claims for
excessive force, denial of adequate medical care, and
unconstitutional conditions of confinement. (ECF No. 6). At
the time of the events in question, Defendant Tomlin was the
Chief of Police for the City of Lewisville, Arkansas;
Defendant Rose was the Sheriff of Lafayette County, Arkansas;
Defendant Antoon was under contract to provide healthcare
services to inmates in the Lafayette County Detention Center
(“LCDC”); and Defendants Early, Cox, and Clark
were employees of the Lafayette County Sheriff's
Department.[2] Plaintiff is suing Defendants in both
their official and individual capacities. (ECF No. 6).
Plaintiff is no longer incarcerated.
In
2007, Plaintiff suffered a gunshot wound to the head and as a
result suffers from periodic seizures. Plaintiff takes the
medication Dilantin to control the seizures. Plaintiff also
states he has extreme difficulty standing, walking, and
keeping his balance. He uses a cane and wheelchair. (ECF No.
6).
On
December 10, 2012, Defendants Clark, Cox, and Tomlin arrived
at Plaintiff's residence with a warrant for his arrest
for delivery of a controlled substance. Plaintiff claims he
told the Defendants to come in and then informed them he had
cocaine in his sock. (ECF No. 42, p. 2). Plaintiff states
that Defendant Tomlin instructed him to get down on the floor
but claims he could not immediately do so because of his
physical disabilities. Plaintiff alleges Defendant Tomlin was
aware of his physical limitations prior to his arrest due to
Plaintiff's previous interactions with Defendant Tomlin.
(ECF No. 32-1, pp. 13, 11-24).
Plaintiff
alleges that during the course of his arrest Defendant Tomlin
used excessive force when he “turned me upside down by
my feet and hit my head[, ]” causing Plaintiff to
suffer a seizure which lasted two to three minutes. (ECF No.
32-1, pp. 13, 11-24). Plaintiff also claims
Defendants Cox and Clark used excessive force against him
when they “ignored the facts I was disabled and
couldn't walk without my wheelchair and that I had
seizures[, ]” claiming “their response was to
drag me, literally, out of my house.” (ECF No. 6, p.
4). Plaintiff claims he asked for his seizure medication and
wheelchair and Defendant Tomlin told him “they will
take care of you at the county jail.” (ECF No. 32-1,
pp. 20, 14-23). Plaintiff was subsequently transported by
Defendant Cox to the LCDC.
Plaintiff
alleges that once he was booked into the LCDC he was placed
in A-Pod. Plaintiff claims he then informed Ms. Cooper, an
LCDC employee not named in this lawsuit, that:
I needed my seizure medication and my wheelchair . . . I
repeatedly told them that my medication was at my house,
along with my wheelchair, and that my grandmother would bring
them both to me. The jailers said, once again, that they
would have to run it by Lt. Theartice [Early]. As the days
passed on, I received no help or relief regarding my meds and
my wheelchair. I continuously spoke to deputies through the
intercom and I asked them to speak to Sheriff Rose. The
deputies told me that Sheriff Rose was aware of me, but had
not given them orders or permission to do anything. Sheriff
Rose, along with Lt. Theartice [Early] simply ignored the
fact that I needed my wheelchair and seizure medication.
(ECF No. 6, pp. 4-5).
Several
days later, Plaintiff asked for a handicap accessible shower
with a seat because APod did not have handicap accessible
shower facilities. According to Plaintiff, when he complained
about not having a handicap accessible shower “they
ignored my situation, and only gave me a small tub to bathe
with that would only hold about two (2) gallons of
water.” (ECF No. 6, p. 5). Plaintiff claims he tried to
use the shower in A-Pod without a shower seat because
“the small tub of water was ineffective in cleaning
myself.” (ECF No. 6, p. 8). He alleges he lost
his balance, fell, and hit his head. Plaintiff claims that
his head was bleeding and that he had a “slight”
seizure. Plaintiff states that instead of calling for an
ambulance, the jailers contacted Defendant Early. Plaintiff
alleges that he was then put into a wheelchair and taken to
“isolation, with my head still bleeding, and me being
dizzy” in accordance with orders from Defendant Early.
(ECF No. 6, p. 6). Plaintiff claims he was not examined by
medical personnel, but that Defendants Rose and Early:
saw that my head was busted and bleeding, and their solution
to that was to put me in isolation. In fact; it became clear
to me that Sheriff Rose and Lt. Theartice [Early] had ordered
their deputies to put me in isolation for the purpose of
hiding me from the inmate population, who had witnessed my
busted head from falling in the shower. They left me in
isolation for a whole week without medical attention, and
without my seizure meds.
(ECF No. 6, p. 6).
Plaintiff
claims that Defendants Rose and Early intentionally housed
him in a pod without handicap accessible shower facilities
knowing that he could not stand for an extended amount of
time. Plaintiff states he had previously been housed in
D-Pod, where there is a shower with a seat for people who are
disabled. Plaintiff states that at some point “Sgt.
Cooper[3] began allowing me to take showers in the
intake because they had a handicapped seat in the shower
stalls” but that he “still had to hobble back and
forth to my Pod with great difficulty and pain.” (ECF
No. 6, p. 8).
Plaintiff
further claims that on another occasion he stood up and his
“legs gave out.” (ECF No. 6, p. 6). Plaintiff
states that he fell, hit his head, and began to have a
seizure. (ECF No. 6, p. 6). An ambulance was called and
Plaintiff was taken to the hospital. He claims the nurse told
him his “Dilantin level in his blood was low.”
Plaintiff then requested a MRI and an x-ray because of his
recent falls. According to Plaintiff, the nurse informed him
they could not conduct those scans without permission from
the LCDC. Plaintiff states that his Dilantin dosage was
increased and he was given pain medication while in the
hospital.
Once he
returned to the LCDC, Plaintiff claims he was:
finally seen by the Jail's doctor. Dr. Antune prescribed
a generic medication for epilepsy, and some type of muscle
relaxer. I asked Dr. Antune what he was prescribing, because
it was not Dilantin. Dr. Antune's response was; ‘It
is something new for 2012, and that Dilantin had played
out.' That night, or the next night, after taking that
medication, I had another seizure.
(ECF No. 6, p. 7). Plaintiff claims Defendant Early once
again did nothing to assist him. Plaintiff further alleges
that after he started taking the medication prescribed by
Defendant Antune he began to lose weight, started sleeping a
great deal, and felt weak.
On
another occasion, Plaintiff claims he “blacked
out” and Defendant Early advised the jailers “to
just leave me in my cell when situations such as this arose,
as if ignoring them, (my medical issues)[.]” (ECF No.
6, p. 8). Plaintiff claims he was left on the floor until
other inmates helped him back onto his bed. Plaintiff
acknowledges that after this incident he was allowed to use a
wheelchair at the jail but claims “they continued to
make me use that small tub of water to bathe with.”
(ECF No. 6, p. 8).
Plaintiff
also claims that at some point during his incarceration in
the LCDC he noticed blood in his urine. He states that he
informed jail staff but that:
Their only response was to say; “We'll run it by
the Lt. [Early].” There was no immediate response to
this critical occurrence. Days passed and I stopped seeing
blood in my urine, but then, one day I noticed blood in my
boxer shorts.
(ECF No. 6, p. 8). Plaintiff was then taken to the hospital.
He claims the nurse at the hospital told him there was not
any blood present in his urine and that he “would have
to come right away” when he saw blood in his urine so
medical staff could determine where it came from
“rather than waiting three days to be checked out,
which had just occurred.” (ECF No. 6, p. 8).
Plaintiff alleges that the hospital doctor concluded he was
probably passing kidney stones.
Plaintiff
further alleges there was another incident at the LCDC where
he again noticed blood in his urine and passed out in the
bathroom. He claims another inmate came to check on him and
found him on the bathroom floor. Plaintiff alleges he once
again informed the deputies at the LCDC that the nurse at the
hospital had told him he needed to be taken to the hospital
as soon as he noticed blood in his urine “but nothing
was done to help me.” (ECF No. 6, p. 9).
Plaintiff
claims that a few weeks later he “felt light headed,
and passed out while trying to use the rest room.” (ECF
No. 6, p. 9). According to Plaintiff, this time he was taken
to the hospital. He again asked for an x-ray or MRI but
instead was given pain medication and sent back to the LCDC.
Plaintiff claims the nurse at the hospital checked his blood
and said there was no medication in his system. Based on this
information, Plaintiff claims Dr. Antoon had been giving him
“fake medication.” (ECF No. 6, p. 10). Plaintiff
claims that sometime after this last visit to the hospital,
Defendant Early “approved for them to change my housing
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