Opinion ID: 1350127
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: j.d.w.

Text: At the time the petition for relief was filed with this Court on March 9, 1984, the relator J.D.W. was a 17 year-old male in the custody of the juvenile correctional facility. In 1982, J.D.W. had been convicted as an adult in the Circuit Court of Kanawha County for aggravated robbery and was serving a sentence of ten years. The facts that give rise to the present action are disputed by the parties. The relator alleges that shortly before midnight on February 11, 1984, he was asleep in a security room when a correctional officer at the facility entered the room and kicked him in the chest. The relator further alleges that after he rose to his feet the same correctional officer then struck him in the left eye opening a wound that later required 11 stitches and then kicked his feet out from under him knocking him to the floor. The respondent admits that the correctional officer struck the relator and kicked his feet out from under him during the altercation. The respondent maintains, however, that the officer's conduct was not malicious and was done instinctively by the officer in self-defense after J.D.W. first struck the officer on the left side of the face. The respondent claims that J.D.W. had been placed in the security room between 6:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. on the day in question for breaking two window panes with his hand. At midnight on that same day, he was being moved by force to a maximum security room when the altercation between J.D.W. and the correctional officer occurred. The relator asserts that an investigation of the incident by his counsel uncovered evidence of a number of similar assaults upon other residents of the juvenile correctional facility. This information was reported to the West Virginia Department of Corrections which then conducted its own investigation. The Department of Corrections dismissed the correctional officer involved in the altercation with J.D.W. for use of excessive force. The Department of Corrections took further disciplinary action against two other correctional officers who were subsequently reinstated to their positions with back pay. As a result of reporting the above-described incident and the investigations that followed, the relator contends that he was the subject of harassment by the other correctional officers at the facility. Such harassment was in the form of repeated searches of his person and possessions. The relator further alleges that the trauma of the incident has produced both physical and psychological problems, including fear of sleeping, nightmares and headaches. The relator argues that the violent incident with the correctional officer and the fearful environment within which he was forced to live constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the provisions of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and Article III, Section 5 of the Constitution of West Virginia. He prays for release from the juvenile correctional facility into the custody of his parents. [3]