Opinion ID: 767398
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Prison Attack

Text: 3 At approximately 9:00 a.m., on the morning of December 19, 1992, King, an inmate at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana (USP-Terre Haute), was attacked by two other inmates while asleep in his bed. The attackers stabbed King three times in his chest and neck with homemade prison shanks. 1 After initial emergency treatment in the prison infirmary, King was transferred to the Terre Haute Regional Hospital, and returned to USP-Terre Haute the following day. Following an investigation by the Special Investigative Services unit of the prison, King's attackers, Martin Vargas and Frank Munoz, were charged with and found guilty of attempted murder. 4 On October 19, 1994, King filed a pro se action in the Southern District of Indiana against one unknown federal correctional officer. 2 King sought damages under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents, 403 U.S. 388 (1971), alleging that on the morning of his attack, an unknown federal correctional officer stationed near King's cell exhibited deliberate indifference in failing to protect King from his attackers. King alleged that this deliberate indifference constituted a violation of his Eighth Amendment rights. See Billman v. Indiana Dep't of Corrections, 56 F.3d 785, 788 (7th Cir. 1995). On November 4, 1994, King amended his complaint in an attempt to delineate how the unknown officer created a substantial risk of bodily harm to King. King explained that one of his attackers, Munoz, was an inmate in J-unit while King was an inmate in D-unit. King alleges that the unknown defendant correctional officer was deliberately indifferent in both allowing Munoz to enter D-unit unchecked for weapons and furthermore for failing to respond to King's screams during the attack. 5