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Warden not liable in inmate assault, fed court says Thursday, Jun 21, 2007 By Rob Moritz Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that a state prison warden should not have been found liable in a civil rights suit filed by a state inmate. The ruling by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis reversed a federal district court magistrate in Arkansas who found Dale Reed's actions exhibited deliberate indifference in the way he supervised prisoners and disciplined correction officers. Reed and two former state prison guards had been ordered to pay nearly $55,000 in compensatory damages, attorneys' fees and court costs to the inmate. "The district court's criticism of Warden Reed's disciplinary choices does not support a finding of deliberate indifference by Warden Reed," the appeals court panel said. "Federal courts are in no position to so finely tune a warden's supervision and discipline of officers in a state prison, such as the district conducts here." Reed was warden at the Cummins Unit in 1998 when several correctional officers were accused of dousing inmate Michael David Lenz with pepper spray, handcuffing him and taking him into a private room and beating him and shocking him with a shock stick. Lenz, serving a 30-year sentence on a first-degree murder conviction in Faulkner County, suffered a broken jaw and broken rib. Kenneth Bell, the lieutenant who was supervisor of the shift, and Charles Wade Jr. later pleaded guilty to federal charges for their role in the assault. Several other officers also pleaded guilty or were convicted of assaulting other inmates. Lenz filed a civil lawsuit against Bell, Wade, Reed and state Prison Director Larry Norris. He alleged Reed knew the officers had previously been accused of mistreating inmates and did not take appropriate action. After a trial, U.S. Magistrate Henry L. Jones Jr. concluded Wade and Bell inflicted cruel and unusual punishment on Lenz, and that Reed's actions exhibited deliberate indifference. The magistrate found that Norris' actions did not exhibit deliberate indifference. Along with awarding Lenz $55,000 in compensatory damages, attorney fees and court costs, the magistrate also awarded Lenz $10,000 in punitive damages, to be split between Wade and Bell. Bell and Wade did not appeal the magistrate's decision, but Reed did, arguing the judge erred by finding him liable. The appeals court agreed, saying Reed, now warden at the Ouachita River Unit at Malvern, reviewed the previous complaints against Bell and Wade and took appropriate action when necessary, including suspending Wade for a week after a 1996 incident. "A single substantiated incident involving excessive force in Officer Wade's seven-year career does not indicate the officer was an obvious risk to harm the inmates," the Judge William Jay Riley wrote in Wednesday's decision. Joining Riley were Judges Kermit Bye and Duane Benton. |
