Court Reverses Denial of Jail’s Qualified Immunity Defense
Court Reverses Denial of Jail’s Qualified Immunity Defense
On December 23, 2013, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held for appellants, the supervisory defendants, in a 42 U.S.C. §1983 suit raised by plaintiff/appellee Cindy Laine Franklin asserting violation of her constitutional rights at the hands of a jail guard and the guard’s supervisors. The district court denied supervisory defendants’ motion to dismiss under qualified immunity and the defendant appealed.
During booking procedures at the Shelby County, Alabama jail on October 19, 2010, plaintiff Franklin was verbally harassed by a jail guard, Michael Keith Gay, in a sexually aggressive manner. Franklin warned Gay that he would get in trouble, to which Gay replied, “There’s nothing you can do.” Later, as Gay took Franklin’s fingerprints, he forced her hand onto his genitals, and later that night, Gay forced plaintiff to perform oral sex on him. Franklin told her boyfriend and her parole officer, and learned from other prisoners that Gay had previously had both forced and consensual sex with other prisoners. The jail and the Alabama Bureau of Investigation looked into the matter; Gay resigned.
Franklin filed suit against Gay, the county sheriff, and five other supervisory personnel. The six officials, absent Gay, appealed the district court’s denial of their motion to dismiss. At issue before the Court of Appeals is whether Franklin’s claims fall within the parameters of deliberate indifference, sufficient to defeat a qualified immunity defense. The Court of Appeals reversed the district court’s decision, finding two errors in the lower court’s analysis. First, the district court applied the incorrect legal standard to the plaintiff’s claim – “on notice” versus “actually knew” – and also that the district court failed to differentiate between allegations and triable facts in its holding.
The Court of Appeals held for the appellants and granted qualified immunity. See: Franklin v. Curry, 738 F.3d 1246 (11th Cir. Ala. 2013).
Related legal case
Franklin v. Curry
| Year | 2013 |
|---|---|
| Cite | 738 F.3d 1246 (11th Cir. Ala. 2013) |
| Level | Court of Appeals |