Opinion ID: 800677
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Warden Mary Berghuis

Text: The district court's findings with respect to Warden Berghuis are somewhat unclear, but the record is again not disputed with respect to what acts she took. Warden Berghuis took two actions that King argues implicate her in the increase in King's security level. First, she signed the transfer order executed by Chaffee stating Prisoner manipulates other prisoners to be disruptive, which led to his transfer to the higher security level facility. R. 130-3, Ex. 26 (Transfer Order). Second, she also instructed Chaffee to create the new screen in June of 2000. R. 130-3, Ex. 20 (Zamiara/Berghuis Email); R. 171 (Trial Tr. I at 149:7-11) (Chaffee testimony). As an initial matter, we must evaluate Warden Berghuis under the theory of supervisory liability under § 1983. Liability will not lie absent active unconstitutional behavior; failure to act or passive behavior is insufficient. Salehpour v. Univ. of Tenn., 159 F.3d 199, 206 (6th Cir.1998), cert. denied, 526 U.S. 1115, 119 S.Ct. 1763, 143 L.Ed.2d 793 (1999). Warden Berghuis will be liable for the unconstitutional acts of her subordinates only if she actively participated in the unlawful conduct, such as if she `implicitly authorized, approved or knowingly acquiesced in the unconstitutional conduct of the offending subordinate.' Taylor v. Mich. Dep't of Corr., 69 F.3d 76, 81 (6th Cir.1995) (quoting Bellamy v. Bradley, 729 F.2d 416, 421 (6th Cir.1984)) (emphasis omitted). The evidence presented a trial demonstrated that Berghuis at a minimum had knowledge of King's protected conduct. Berghuis testified at trial that she was not aware that King was involved in Cain, R. 172 (Trial Tr. II at 228:13-16), but she did not deny receiving a letter from King, the subject of which was Retaliation/Cain v. MDOC, id. at 228:1-6. Berghuis further admitted that the Cain case was a problematic case for the department. Id. at 228:7-16. She was also aware of King's participation in the Warden's Forum and his assistance to other inmates in filing grievances. Id. at 229:24-230:5. She testified at trial that [n]othing he did in terms of the grievance contacts stood out in my mind ever as being abnormal, unusual. In the forum it didn't either. Id. at 236:10-12. Her distaste for King was evidenced by her statements that King has a huge ego and was a very difficult to manage prisoner who superimposes his will over the will of the department, but, even if she acted out of distaste for a prisoner, that is not the same as unconstitutional retaliation. R. 172 (Trial Tr. II at 135:10-17; 237:2-238:2). Despite Berghuis's knowledge of King's protected conduct, nothing about the transfer order she signed suggested any potential constitutional violation or retaliation was afoot. The record does not demonstrate any knowledge of the Wells Memo or Chaffee's email to Central Office. Nor did Berghuis speak with anyone at Central Office. Although Berghuis was aware of the protected conduct, she also was aware of the transfer order to Brooks that described King as organizing a protest. R. 130, Ex. 31 (Transfer Order). Without some level of knowledge of the underlying constitutional violationthat the increase was related to his participation in protected conductBerghuis cannot be liable for the acts of her subordinates. Siggers, 652 F.3d at 695 (granting summary judgment for warden who merely approved notices filed against the inmate). By June of 2000, however, Berghuis received additional information that could have made her aware that the decision to increase King's security level was for impermissible purposes. On June 14, 2000, Berghuis received an email from Zamiara expressing concerns over a claim of retaliation. R. 130, Ex. 20 (Zamiara/Berghuis Email). Zamiara also included a copy of the original screen that would have shown the markings from Chaffee that the prisoner had no major misconducts and was manageable in Level II. Rather than causing Berghuis to question the increase in security level, she chewed out Chaffee and instructed him to fix the screen. R. 171 (Trial Tr. I at 133:11-19; 147:24-148:3; 149:7-11). Although this was hardly an exemplary course of conduct, the record does not establish that this fix was necessary to maintain King's security status at the higher level, or had any impact on his security level. As a result, we cannot say that Warden Berghuis's actions constituted active participation in maintaining a constitutional violation. See Taylor, 69 F.3d at 81 (holding triable issue of whether supervisor could be liable for abandoning duties despite actual knowledge of breakdown in proper procedures by department) (citing Hill v. Marshall, 962 F.2d 1209 (6th Cir.1992)). We therefore affirm the district court's judgment in favor of Berghuis.