CLINT EDWARDS v. CHRISTOPHER AROCHO, Correction Officer
Docket No. 22-585-pr
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
December 30, 2024
August Term, 2023
(Argued: September 11, 2023 Decided: December 30, 2024)
CLINT EDWARDS,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
CHRISTOPHER AROCHO, Correction Officer,
Defendant-Appellee,
WESTCHESTER COUNTY, DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, ERIC MIDDLETON, Assistant Warden, Correction Captain CHRISTOPHER ROBERTS, NATASHA VANLIEROP, Captain, C.O. Sergeant KEVIN GRANT, C.O. Sergeant IVAN LOPEZ,
Defendants.*
Before: RAGGI, LOHIER, and CARNEY, Circuit Judges.
VACATED AND REMANDED.
MICHAEL ANTZOULIS, NATHAN VERRILLI (Jonathan Romberg, Carmen I. Abrazado, Elisabeth Neylan, on the brief), Seton Hall University School of Law, Newark, NJ for Plaintiff-Appellant.1
SHAWNA C. MACLEOD, for John M. Nonna, Westchester County Attorney, White Plains, NY (David H. Chen, Bleakley Platt & Schmidt, LLP, White Plains, NY, on the brief) for Defendant-Appellee.
LOHIER, Circuit Judge:
Clint Edwards filed this pro se lawsuit under
The District Court (Briccetti, J.) dismissed Edwards’s conditions of confinement and procedural due process claims at the motion to dismiss stage for failure to state a claim. After discovery, the District Court granted summary judgment in Arocho’s favor on Edwards’s remaining failure to protect claim on the ground that Edwards failed to exhaust his administrative remedies with respect to that claim.
We VACATE the judgment of the District Court and REMAND for further proceedings.
BACKGROUND
This appeal arises from Clint Edwards’s detention in WCDOC’s Old Jail in 2017 and 2018 while awaiting trial on charges that included engaging in certain sexual conduct with persons deemed incapable of consent, in violation of
Two events in the Old Jail spurred this litigation.2
First, on May 25, 2018, at around 3:00 p.m., Officer Christopher Arocho informed Edwards that he was scheduled to review materials in his federal criminal case. Edwards was eating and refused to rise to accompany Arocho until he had finished his meal. Edwards complained to a sergeant, who permitted him to finish his meal first. Edwards alleges that as he left to review the materials, Arocho told him that he [Arocho] got something for me when I get back. Joint App’x 228. Arocho’s revenge, Edwards asserts, came swiftly. Later that evening at around 7:00 p.m., another detainee, Paul Small, assaulted Edwards without apparent provocation. According to Edwards, Arocho had instigated the attack by telling Small that Arocho was charged with sex offenses. A third detainee, known to Edwards only by his nickname, Ice, confirmed to Edwards that Arocho had disclosed Edwards’s charged offenses to Small. Ice also informed Edwards that a fourth detainee, Kentrell Hill, had called someone outside of the jail shortly before the assault to verify that Edwards was charged with a sex offense.
In the course of this litigation, Edwards would obtain recordings of two phone calls that Hill made in the hour before the
The second event relates to the conditions of Edwards’s confinement, and to places as much as to people. It begins with Edwards’s removal from the general population and placement on June 26, 2018 in 3-East Witness Room #1 (3-East), a wing of the Old Jail, allegedly on Assistant Warden Eric Middleton’s orders. Middleton informed Edwards that the move had been prompted by security concerns and that a confidential source had alleged that Edwards was extorting pre-trial detainees, hoarding the television remote control from pre-trial detainees, commandeering the telephone from pre-trial detainees, secreting the housing unit board games from pre-trial detainees,[] and controlling the housing unit fan pre-trial detainees were accustomed to using. Joint App’x 97. Edwards disputed the confidential source’s allegations and claimed they could be disproved by the video recordings. But Edwards asserts that Middleton brushed me off without any regard to what my responses were . . . and . . . stated to me that I will now suffer in this 3-East Witness Room #1 until I leave and I should know how to get off of this. Joint App’x 98.
Edwards alleges that he was then immediately placed on administrative segregation and that, the next day, June 27, 2018, an unidentified WCDOC block officer told him that Captain Natasha VanLierop had imposed the restrictions on his movement in a posted memorandum. Three days later, VanLierop allegedly confirmed to Edwards that she had authorized the restrictions based on a higher ranking WCDOC officer’s orders that Edwards be placed in administrative segregation in 3-East. But Edwards elsewhere alleges that WCDOC failed to properly notify him that he would be placed on administrative segregation in 3-East until approximately two months later, on August 29, 2018.
Edwards alleges that conditions in 3-East were, to say the least, poor. Among other deficiencies, Edwards’s cell lacked hot water, was extremely hot without a fan or centralized air conditioning, lacked a working ventilation system, was infested with bugs and mice, and was covered in black mold. The toilet leaked when flushed. Edwards says that he complained about these deplorable conditions to officers making their rounds, medical and mental health staff, among others. Joint App’x 104. But, he claims, no one did anything to help except telling me to keep crying like a spoiled baby to . . . [Defendants] Middleton and . . . VanLierop who, in turn, personally knew what all I was being subjected to while in that disgusting 3-East Witness Room #1. Joint App’x 104.
Both of the alleged events described above — the physical assault and placement in 3-East — prompted Edwards to submit several grievances to WCDOC. First, on the day of the assault, May 25, 2018, Edwards submitted an incident report asserting under oath that his assailant, Small, said during the assault that Small had heard from a corrections officer
Edwards filed his second grievance related to the May 25 assault with Sergeant Hollis on June 28, 2018, two days after Edwards was placed in 3-East. The June 28 grievance complained about both the physical restrictions on Edwards as well as his placement in 3-East. Edwards insists that Sergeant Hollis never returned this grievance.3 Only weeks later did Edwards learn that the June 28 grievance was denied as overly broad.
On July 8, Edwards submitted a third grievance focusing on the conditions in 3-East and his resulting health problems. This grievance was substantially denied by Sergeant Lopez. On July 27, Edwards submitted three additional grievances in an attempt to fix the overbreadth deficiency identified with respect to his June 28 grievance. Most relevant here, one of the July 27 grievances specifically mentioned Arocho’s alleged role in the May 25 assault on Edwards,
as follows: On 5-25, I got ass[a]ulted by an i[n]mate while on GP because C.O. Arocho told another inmate a lie of why I was here. Joint App’x 60.
All three of the July 27 grievances were denied as untimely because they were submitted more than two days after the June 28 grievance had been denied. Edwards appealed the denials without success. He then filed another grievance on July 30 complaining about a physical restriction. That grievance was also denied. On August 7 Edwards filed yet another grievance based on the denial of his three July 27 grievances, claiming that Sergeant Hollis’s failure to return his June 28 grievance should excuse his untimely filings of July 27. The August 7 grievance was likewise denied.
Edwards then appealed that denial. On appeal, his grievance was denied in part on the ground that Edwards failed to resubmit the June 28 grievance within the required timeframe. Joint App’x 78. His grievance was upheld in part on the ground that WCDOC employees did not properly process the grievance which would have provided for documented tracking. Joint App’x 78. The appeal decision acknowledged that Edwards should have been provided with written notification of his [Administrative Segregation] conditions or restrictions and advised, [t]hat has been corrected. Joint App’x 78.
On February 11, 2019, Edwards filed a pro se complaint against Westchester County, WCDOC, Middleton, VanLierop, Arocho, and Captain Christopher Roberts. The District Court sua sponte dismissed WCDOC as a Defendant, and the remaining
The Defendants moved to dismiss the amended complaint for failure to exhaust administrative remedies and, under
The parties proceeded to discovery on the remaining failure to protect claim against Arocho. Edwards, still pro se,4 obtained, among other evidence, redacted versions of video footage related to the assault, as well as recordings of the two prison telephone calls during which detainee Hill discussed Edwards’s charges. At the close of discovery, Edwards and Arocho each moved for summary judgment, with Edwards relying especially on various unsworn statements to oppose Arocho’s motion. The District Court granted summary judgment in favor of Arocho after concluding that Edwards failed to exhaust administrative remedies as to the failure to protect claim. Having dismissed that claim as unexhausted, the District Court declined to address the merits. Edwards v. Arocho, No. 19-CV-1362, 2022 WL 294067, at *5 & n.6 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 1, 2022).
This appeal followed.
DISCUSSION
I
We begin with the District Court’s grant of summary judgment dismissing Edwards’s failure to protect claim against Arocho.
Summary judgment is proper only when there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Doyle v. U.S. Dep’t of Homeland Security, 959 F.3d 72, 76 (2d Cir. 2020) (quotation marks omitted). We review de novo the [D]istrict [C]ourt’s grant of summary judgment, construing the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party and drawing all reasonable inferences in [his] favor. Williams v. N.Y.C. Hous. Auth., 61 F.4th 55, 68 (2d Cir. 2023) (quotation marks omitted).
We conclude that genuine disputes of material fact preclude summary judgment in Arocho’s favor on exhaustion grounds. We also decline Arocho’s invitation to affirm the judgment on the merits.
A
The Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) extends to a claim that a correctional facility failed to protect an inmate. See Johnson v. Killian, 680 F.3d 234, 238 (2d Cir. 2012); Amador v. Andrews, 655 F.3d 89, 104 (2d Cir. 2011). The
But it is also true that the exhaustion requirement hinges on the ‘availab[ility]’ of administrative remedies: An inmate, that is, must exhaust available remedies, but need not exhaust unavailable ones. Id. at 642 (emphasis added). [T]he test for deciding whether the ordinary grievance procedures were available is an objective one: that is, would a similarly situated individual of ordinary firmness have deemed them available. Lucente v. County of Suffolk, 980 F.3d 284, 311–12 (2d Cir. 2020) (quotation marks omitted). A grievance procedure is not available if it operates as a simple dead end, as when officers are unable or consistently unwilling to provide any relief to aggrieved inmates, prison administrators thwart inmates from taking advantage of a grievance process through machination, misrepresentation, or intimidation, or the procedure itself is so opaque that it becomes, practically speaking, incapable of use. Ross, 578 U.S. at 643–44. To be clear, a grievance process requires only ‘the possibility of some relief’ in order [t]o constitute an ‘available’ remedy. Green Haven Prison Preparative Meeting of Religious Soc’y of Friends v. N.Y. State Dep’t of Corr. & Cmty. Supervision, 16 F.4th 67, 82 (2d Cir. 2021) (quoting Ross, 578 U.S. at 643). For this reason, we have explained, [t]he bar for the availability of remedies . . . is low. Id.
Under New York law, county jails (including the WCDOC jail) must permit detainees to file a grievance and, if the grievance is denied, to appeal the denial first to the chief administrative officer of the facility and then to the Citizens’ Policy and Complaint Review Council (CPCRC) of the New York State Commission of Correction.
The PLRA provides the answer: a grievance need only alert[] the prison to the nature of the wrong for which redress is sought. Johnson v. Testman, 380 F.3d 691, 697 (2d Cir. 2004) (quotation marks omitted). A grievance is thus similar to notice pleading in that it need only object intelligibly to some asserted shortcoming, id. (quotation marks omitted), and adequately describe[] the alleged misconduct, Espinal v. Goord, 558 F.3d 119, 128 (2d Cir. 2009). The grievant is under no obligation to lay out the facts, articulate legal theories, or demand particular relief. Johnson, 380 F.3d at 697 (quotation marks omitted).
As for timing,
In resolving the summary judgment motion, the District Court accepted as true Edwards’s unsworn statement, in his pro se summary judgment brief, that an unnamed WCDOC sergeant informed Edwards that he could not pursue his grievance and avail himself of the process due to the ongoing investigation. We will not disturb the District Court’s decision to consider and accept as true Edwards’s unsworn statement under these circumstances. This is especially appropriate because the District Court apparently did not consider Edwards’s declaration, submitted with his pro se summary judgment brief and docketed on July 9, 2021, in which he declared under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct and wrote, I make this declaration in support of my [opposition to] summary judgment. Dist. Ct. Dkt. No. 124 (signed and dated July 7, 2021).5
On appeal, the parties likewise do not reference this declaration even though it complied with
Accepting Edwards’s statement as true, we think that a similarly situated individual of ordinary firmness who is informed by a corrections officer that a grievance procedure or potential remedy is unavailable would reasonably deem the procedure to be unavailable. Lucente, 980 F.3d at 311–12 (quotation marks omitted). We therefore conclude that Edwards has at least placed in genuine dispute whether the grievance procedure was unavailable during the relevant five-day period and thus whether he was excused from the PLRA’s requirement that he exhaust administrative remedies during that period.
In opposing summary judgment, Edwards asserted that he first learned that his June 28 grievance had been denied as overbroad approximately a month after submitting it, and that he then refile[d] an amended grievance immediately thereafter, on July 27, 2018. Joint App’x 231. Because Edwards declared under penalty of perjury, in compliance with
There remains the separate question whether Edwards’s July 27 grievance relating to Arocho’s conduct provided enough information to permit the conclusion that he exhausted his remedies under the PLRA. Recall that the July 27 grievance refers only once to Arocho’s alleged incitement of an attack against Edwards: On 5-25 I got ass[a]ulted by an i[n]mate while on GP because C.O. Arocho told another inmate a lie of why I was here. Joint App’x 60. To be sure, the July 27 grievance included other information unrelated to Arocho. But this single sentence relating to Arocho provides a specific date, Espinal, 558 F.3d at 127, and describes a violent assault caused by a corrections officer’s deliberate actions that, if true, would constitute a grave form of official misconduct, see Amador, 655 F.3d at 104 (explaining that a failure to protect is so serious that it may suggest[] the need for policy and procedural reform). It is reasonable to conclude that the sentence thus put WCDOC on notice that it should investigate Edwards’s allegation.
Arocho responds that the July 27 grievance is unexhausted because Edwards failed to take his final administrative appeal from the denial of that grievance to the CPCRC. Instead, Arocho claims, Edwards appealed to the Chief Administrative Officer of the Old Jail and the Central Office Review Committee (“CORC“), which reviews appeals of grievances from State-run facilities. We are not persuaded. In his motion for in forma pauperis status in this Court, Edwards for the first time presented evidence of his appeal of the denial of his July 27 grievance to the CPCRC, as required under New York law. We conclude that evidence of Edwards‘s appeal to the CPCRC is material to this appeal but was mistakenly omitted from the original record. We therefore direct that the appellate record be supplemented to include that evidence. See
B
Having concluded that Edwards‘s failure to protect claim faltered on exhaustion grounds, the District Court understandably declined to address the merits of that claim. Arocho nevertheless argues that we may affirm on the merits because Edwards failed to adduce admissible evidence that his assault was anything other than a random, unpredictable incident of violence by a fellow prisoner. We recognize our authority to “affirm summary judgment on any ground supported by the record, even if it is not one on which the district court relied.” McElwee v. County of Orange, 700 F.3d 635, 640 (2d Cir. 2012). But here, we conclude that an affirmance of summary judgment on the merits is unwarranted. After Arocho moved for summary judgment, Edwards filed a letter dated June 8, 2021, with the District Court, asserting that the Defendants “violate[d] discovery rules” because they never disclosed Ice‘s full name to him.6
Dist. Ct. Dkt. No. 120. Their failure to do so, the letter claimed, deprived Edwards of the ability to ask Ice for an affidavit that corroborated his allegations. Given Edwards‘s pro se status and his incarceration at the time, the District Court should have liberally construed Edwards‘s letter as an affidavit or declaration under
Accordingly, we vacate the District Court‘s grant of summary judgment in favor of Arocho on Edwards‘s failure to protect claim, and remand for reconsideration of whether Edwards can make the requisite showing if his
II
We turn next to the District Court‘s dismissal of Edwards‘s conditions of confinement claims. We review a dismissal under
A state “pretrial detainee‘s claims of unconstitutional conditions of confinement are governed by the Due Process Clause of the
must satisfy two prongs . . . , an objective prong showing that the challenged conditions were sufficiently serious to
constitute objective deprivations of the right to due process, and a subjective prong — perhaps better classified as a mens rea prong or mental element prong — showing that the officer acted with at least deliberate indifference to the challenged conditions.
Id. (quotation marks omitted).
The subjective or mental element prong “roughly means ‘recklessness.‘” Id. A plaintiff must show, “at a minimum, culpable recklessness, i.e., an act or a failure to act that evinces a conscious disregard of a substantial risk of serious harm.” Darby v. Greenman, 14 F.4th 124, 128 (2d Cir. 2021) (quotation marks omitted). In turn, “recklessness can be defined subjectively (what a person actually knew, and disregarded), or objectively (what a reasonable person knew, or should have known).” Darnell, 849 F.3d at 29 (quotation marks omitted).
First, we conclude that Edwards has satisfied the test‘s objective prong. The amended complaint alleges that Edwards‘s cell from June 26 until October 2, 2018, was unbearably hot, without running hot water, covered in black mold “all over,” and with a toilet that “constantly leak[ed].” Joint App‘x 103. The complaint also describes a hole in the cell wall, and “roaming bugs . . . no matter which way I turn[ed] my head.” Joint App‘x 103–04. The complaint further alleges that Edwards‘s cell had no furniture, compelling him to eat and write on the floor. These conditions, if confirmed, are sufficiently serious to constitute objective deprivations of the right to due process. See Gaston v. Coughlin, 249 F.3d 156, 161, 165–66 (2d Cir. 2001) (holding that freezing temperatures, the constant presence of mice, and “human feces, urine, and sewage water” directly outside of a cell met the stricter
In concluding otherwise, the District Court explained that Edwards did not allege that “the conditions . . . pose an unreasonable risk of serious damage to his health.” Edwards v. Middleton, No. 19-CV-1362, 2020 WL 4474682, at *6 (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 3, 2020) (quotation marks omitted). The District Court pointed out, “[f]or instance, [that Edwards] does not allege how long his symptoms lasted, or if he received medical attention for such symptoms.” Id. Insofar as the District Court required an allegation of actual injury, it misconceived the requirements of the objective prong. As we have explained, “the proper lens through which to analyze allegedly unconstitutional unsanitary conditions of confinement is with reference to their severity and duration, not the detainee‘s resulting injury.” Darnell, 849 F.3d at 30. Even then the inquiry is not “subject to a bright-line durational or severity threshold.” Id. 32. We have made clear elsewhere that “serious injury is unequivocally not a necessary element of” even the stricter
With that in mind, we conclude that the allegations that Edwards was compelled to live in a prison cell coated in black mold and overrun by vermin are enough to establish an objective deprivation that posed a serious health risk, which is all that Edwards was required to allege under the objective prong of the constitutional test. But the grievance attached to Edwards‘s complaint, to which the District Court did not refer, goes even further. It reports that Edwards suffered actual damage to his health — including “trouble breathing, chest pain, dizziness, blurry vision, . . . problems sleeping” — and that his “mental state [was] being put in jeopardy by being in” the cell. Joint App‘x 80, 104. Assuming the truth of these assertions,
We turn to the subjective prong of the
The Defendants counter that Edwards‘s grievance “paints a very different picture of his housing conditions” than the complaint to which it is attached. Appellee‘s Br. 43. The complaint, they assert, does not specifically allege that they knew or should have known about the prison cell conditions Edwards details. But as explained above, the grievance and the amended complaint both describe a similar set of conditions and problems in Edwards‘s cell, and both assert that Edwards complained about those conditions to the Defendants to no effect.
Because we conclude that Edwards has adequately pleaded conditions of confinement claims under the
III
Edwards next challenges the District Court‘s dismissal of his procedural due process claim arising from his administrative segregation designation and placement in 3-East.7 The District Court dismissed this claim for two reasons. First, the court concluded, Edwards failed to “plausibly allege[] he was transferred to administrative segregation or protective custody for punitive reasons rather than the legitimate purpose of maintaining institutional security.” Edwards, 2020 WL 4474682, at *7. Second, Edwards failed to “identify any state statute, regulation, or rule that arguably creates a liberty interest in his housing classification.” Id. We respectfully disagree.
“In evaluating the constitutionality of conditions or restrictions of pretrial detention that implicate only the protection against deprivation of liberty without due process of law, . . . the proper inquiry is whether those conditions
Edwards has also adequately alleged the other due process requirements — a lack of notice, an opportunity to be heard, and meaningful periodic review of Edwards‘s status relating to his continued placement in 3-East. See Proctor v. LeClaire, 846 F.3d 597, 610–11 (2d Cir. 2017). In particular, Edwards alleges, Assistant Warden Middleton informed him that he would be relocated to 3-East for engaging in misconduct; when Edwards responded that the misconduct charge would be disproven by video recordings, Middleton “brushed [Edwards] off . . . and . . . stated to [Edwards] that [he] will now suffer in this 3-East Witness Room #1 until [he] leave[s] and [he] should know how to get off of this.” Joint App‘x 98. This allegation supports the reasonable inference that Edwards was not given notice of or a meaningful opportunity to challenge the misconduct charge against him.
We also conclude that the complaint, when read liberally, adequately alleges the absence of any meaningful periodic review of his continued detention in 3-East. Although the correctional facility may use an “informal” procedure to conduct such reviews for a pretrial detainee, the reviews must still “consider new relevant evidence as it becomes available.” Proctor, 846 F.3d at 609, 611 (quotation marks omitted). It is “not sufficient for officials to go through the motions of nominally conducting a review meeting when they have developed a pre-review conclusion that the inmate will be confined . . . no matter what the evidence shows. Review with a pre-ordained outcome is tantamount to no review at all.” Id. at 610.
Here, Edwards alleges that Middleton ignored the video recordings and decided to keep Edwards in 3-East no matter what the recordings or other evidence showed. The allegation finds support in Middleton‘s alleged statement that Edwards “will now suffer in this 3-East Witness Room #1 until [he] leave[s].” Joint App‘x 98. A fair reading of these allegations, then, is that Middleton “developed a pre-review conclusion that [Edwards] will be confined” in 3-East for the duration of his detention. Proctor, 846 F.3d at 610.
Measured against the standards of due process, Edwards has plausibly alleged that he failed to receive all the process that was due at “a meaningful time and in a meaningful manner.” Id. at 609 (quoting Armstrong v. Manzo, 380 U.S. 545, 552 (1965)). For these reasons, we vacate the District Court‘s judgment insofar as it dismissed Edwards‘s procedural due process claim, and we remand for further proceedings as to that claim.
IV
Finally, Edwards challenges the sua sponte dismissal of his claims against WCDOC. The District Court justified the dismissal of those claims based on its understanding that “municipal agencies or departments do not have the capacity to be sued under New York law.” Joint App‘x 87. But the established standard in this Circuit is materially narrower. A plaintiff cannot bring a claim against a municipal agency that does not have the capacity to be sued under its municipal charter. See Jenkins v. City of New York, 478 F.3d 76, 93 n.19 (2d Cir. 2007); Ximines v. George Washington High Sch., 516 F.3d 156, 160 (2d Cir. 2008). With the correct standard in mind, we conclude that WCDOC can be sued under section 194.61 of the Westchester County Charter, which provides:
All notices of claim, processes and papers for the commencement of actions and legal proceedings against the County of Westchester or any commission, department or bureau thereof shall be served as provided by law and all actions or proceedings wherein the County of Westchester or any agency, commission, department or bureau thereof is a party shall be brought and maintained in the County of Westchester.
Westchester County Charter § 194.61 (emphases added).
In opposition, the Defendants assert that the dismissal of WCDOC has no practical consequence as long as Westchester County remains a Defendant. Because the District Court did not rely on the distinction between WCDOC and Westchester County in dismissing the complaint against WCDOC, we decline to address this argument in the first instance. We therefore vacate and remand the District Court‘s dismissal of Edwards‘s claim against WCDOC, so that it can consider the claim in light of the correct standard of municipal agency liability.
CONCLUSION
We have considered the Defendants’ remaining arguments on appeal, and we conclude that they are without merit. For the foregoing reasons, we VACATE the judgment of the District Court and REMAND for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.8