Opinion ID: 8704897
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Sergeant Jefferson’s Motion for Summary Judgment

Text: Robert Jefferson is a sergeant at the D.C. Department of Corrections. Ms. Konah complains that he “aided in the assault and battery” of Ms. Konah by the SW1 inmates with conduct that was “intentional, reckless, and in deliberate disregard of a high degree of probability that emotional distress would result to [Ms. Konah].” Compl. ¶¶ 63-68. Sgt. Jefferson moves for summary judgment.
Ms. Konah entered the sally port at 1:51:43 p.m. and left at 2:06:30 p.m., as shown by video of the front gate to the sally port. See SW 1 Videos from Aug. 5, 2009. The video footage shows that the front gate opened and closed on five occasions while Ms. Konah was in the sally port, including at 2:06:30, when she exited. Id.; see also Konah Dep. at 205 (“Q. And in that video the gate from the main hall into the sally port opened numerous times, didn’t it? A. It did.”). 10 At one of those times, the gate remained open for almost four minutes. Video footage also shows that Sgt. Jefferson opened and closed the bubble gate four times while Ms. Konah was in the sally port, allowing inmates to come and go from the sally port to the cell block despite the fact that Ms. Konah was without an escort.' Although Ms. Konah contests the point, Sgt. Jefferson testified that he was the only officer in the bubble and could not open the front gate until another officer was present because the inmates already in the sally port could have moved out of confinement. Sgt. Jefferson also contends that Ms. Konah administered medication to numerous inmates without incident while she was in the sally port, as the video shows. Jefferson Dep. at 51-52. Ms. Konah agrees that she has no reason to dispute the videos, Konah Dep. at 201 (“Q .... do you have any reason to dispute the video contents? A. I don’t have any reason, no.”), 11 and her accounts of whether she distributed medication are inconsistent, compare id. at 102-04 (“I did not administer any medication.”), with Konah DCDC-1 at Bates UNITY225-26 (“I was at the sally port on SW1 passing medication to an inmate.”), and Konah Disciplinary Report at Bates UNITY228-29 (“[A]fter the completion of distributing medication in housing unit SW-1, I was standing at the front gate to exit the unit.”). Her recollections of August 5, 2009, are otherwise inconsistent. She first testified that she went to the bubble and had her back to the front gate so that she could not see it open or close. Konah Dep. at 196 (“Q. [T]he door at the main gate, was that opening and closing? A. I can’t recall because I was backing — my back is turned to the main gate and I’m facing the bubble. So there is no way I can actually figure as to whether the gate is opening or closing.”). She then testified that she did, in fact, look at the gates, but did not see the gates opening and closing. Id. at 200 (“I kept looking back and forth to see whether the gate is open for me to go out and I did not see it open.”). Despite these statements, she later admitted that she “saw the gate opening closing several times.” Id. at 203. The video shows that Sgt. Jefferson opened the front gate multiple times; whether Ms. Konah saw the gate open is unclear. Sgt. Jefferson argues that the Court can and should disregard those parts of Ms. Konah’s testimony that are disputed by the evidence on the video recordings. Mem. P. & A. Supp. Jefferson Mot. Summ. J. (Jefferson MSJ Mem.) [Dkt. 76] at 8-11 (citing Scott v. Harris, 550 U.S. 372, 380, 127 S.Ct. 1769, 167 L.Ed.2d 686 (2007) (holding that where the nonmoving party’s evidence at summary judgment is “blatantly contradicted by the record, so that no reasonable jury could believe it, a court should not adopt that version of the facts for purposes of summary judgment”) & White v. United States, 863 F.Supp.2d 41, 49 (D.D.C.2012) (granting defendant’s motion for summary judgment where video evidence contradicted assertion that decedent “had both hands raised in a gesture of surrender”)). Sgt. Jefferson contends that the videos clearly reveal that Ms. Konah was not held against her will and that, more to the point, he did not aid the alleged assault and battery by the inmates or intentionally inflict emotional distress on Ms. Konah. Ms. Konah responds that, at best, Sgt. Jefferson admitted that he told her that he could not let her out until another officer was with him. PI. Mem. P. & A. Opp. Jefferson MSJ (PI. Jefferson Opp.) [Dkt. 84-1], at 6-7; see also Jefferson Dep. at 52-54 (“She was asking to get out the gate, I couldn’t open the gate — •... I told her I had to bring an officer — we had inmates in the sally port. So, I informed her, let me get an officer so I can let her out.”). However, she insists that Sgt. Jefferson really said nothing to her but merely stood and stared, refusing to assist as she cried out for help. She maintains that the full facts, including the involvement of Dr. Kargbo, demonstrate that she was held against her will and that Sgt. Jefferson failed to free her. 12
In briefing the instant motion for summary judgment, both Sgt. Jefferson and Ms. Konah contest whether he violated her constitutional rights. The Third Amended Complaint does not make any such claim against Sgt. Jefferson. Compare Complaint [Dkt. 1] ¶¶ 31-33 (alleging Sgt. Jefferson acted with reckless disregard of Fourth Amendment rights), and Am. Compl. [Dkt. 8] ¶¶ 33-35 (same), and Second Am. Compl. [Dkt. 25] ¶¶ 41-M5 (same for Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights), with Third Am. Compl. [Dkt. 64] ¶¶ 54-62 (alleging only that Sgt. Jefferson and others acted under color of state law (¶ 55) and that the District violated constitutional rights). While the parties’ arguments repeat earlier briefing, the Third Amended Complaint, modified by counsel for the fourth time, has dropped them. What is now pled against Sgt. Jefferson are only the common law torts of assauli/battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Third Am. Compl. ¶¶ 62-68. The Court will address the common law claims presented in the Third Amended Complaint before it. For clarity’s sake, however, in case the issue is raised on appeal, the Court notes that if there were remaining constitutional claims against Sgt. Jefferson, it would find that he is entitled to qualified immunity. Qualified immunity is “a defense that shields officials from suit if their conduct ‘d[id] not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.’ ” Ortiz v. Jordan, — U.S. —, 131 S.Ct. 884, 888, 178 L.Ed.2d 703 (2011) (quoting Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982)). Courts employ a two-step inquiry to determine whether qualified immunity applies, looking (1) at whether a constitutional right was violated and (2) whether that right was clearly established. See Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 201, 121 S.Ct. 2151, 150 L.Ed.2d 272 (2001); Johnson v. District of Columbia, 528 F.3d 969, 973 (D.C.Cir.2008). These two steps may be analyzed in either order. Pearson v. Callahan, 555 U.S. 223, 236, 129 S.Ct. 808, 172 L.Ed.2d 565 (2009). Ms. Konah entered the sally port at 1:51:43 p.m. and left at 2:06:30 p.m. The video shows that Sgt. Jefferson opened the front gate multiple times while Ms. Konah was in the sally port. She does not challenge the video. Her constitutional claims — whether interpreted as false imprisonment, unreasonable seizure, lack of due process, or equal protection — all reduce to the argument that Sgt. Jefferson should have sounded an emergency call or “code” to bring other guards running and extricate her sooner. E.g., PI. Jefferson Opp. at 11 (“[Sgt. Jefferson] neither sounded an alarm [n]or placed a call on his radio to other officers standing outside the gate, he stood and just look at Plaintiff [sic]____”). Ms. Konah fails completely to demonstrate that a reasonable corrections officer in Sgt. Jefferson’s position would or should have known that failure to open the front gate more frequently or to sound an alarm would have violated her constitutional rights. See Ortiz, 131 S.Ct. at 888. He is entitled to qualified immunity and cannot be sued. 13
Ms. Konah brings claims under District of Columbia law against Sgt. Jefferson: Count V, assault and battery — two distinct causes of action, see Jackson v. District of Columbia, 412 A.2d 948, 955 (D.C.1980)— and Count VI, intentional infliction of emotional distress. Judge Urbina, in his opinion denying in part the District and Sgt. Jefferson’s motion to dismiss, exercised supplemental jurisdiction over the state law claims because those claims and Ms. Konah’s federal claims arose from a “common nucleus of operative fact.” Konah, 815 F.Supp.2d at 78-79 (citing 28 U.S.C. § 1367(a)). The Court will retain supplemental jurisdiction at this juncture, given the clarity of the applicable law and the developed nature of the record. District of Columbia law on these three common law torts is clear, and it is clear in a way fatal to Ms. Konah’s claims: all three torts require proof of intent on the part of Sgt. Jefferson. “An assault is an intentional and unlawful attempt or threat, either by words or acts, to do physical harm to the plaintiff.” Smith v. District of Columbia, 882 A.2d 778, 787 (D.C. 2005) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted; emphasis added). “A battery is an intentional act that causes a harmful or offensive bodily contact.” Id. (internal quotation marks and citations omitted; emphasis added). Intentional infliction of emotional distress requires “extreme and outrageous conduct on the part of the defendant which intentionally or recklessly causes the plaintiff severe emotional distress.” Kotsch v. District of Columbia, 924 A.2d 1040, 1045 (D.C.2007) (internal quotations and numbering of elements omitted; emphasis added). Ms. Konah simply has not adduced any credible evidence tending to show that Sgt. Jefferson delayed opening the gate intending that Ms. Konah suffer an assault, a battery, or emotional distress. Her best argument on this point is that “Defendant Jefferson caused the offensive contact on Plaintiff because he refused to open the back gate for her to exit, ultimately causing unwanted contact at the hands of the inmates.” PI. Jefferson Opp. at 23. Likewise, her best evidence on the point is her own deposition testimony: Q: So other than ... not opening the gate upon your request before the inmate touched you, what did the District of Columbia or — and/or Robert Jefferson do that caused you the injury that you are claiming? A: He did not open the gate to let me out as I asked him before the inmate came and touched me. Q: What else — what else did the District of Columbia or Robert Jefferson do other than not opening the gate? A: He just did not open the gate. That’s all he did. He stood there, look at me. Konah Dep. at 227-28. The trouble is that there is nothing in the record — even in Ms. Konah’s sometimes self-serving deposition testimony— suggesting that Sgt. Jefferson delayed opening the gate with the intention that Ms. Konah suffer an assault, a battery, or emotional distress. See Restatement (Second) of Torts § 18, cmt. e (“It is not enough to make the act intentional that the actor realize that it involves any degree of probability of a harmful or offensive contact or an apprehension of such contact, less than a substantial certainty that it will so result.”). That deficit might not be fatal to Ms. Konah’s claims if the case were in a different posture; “subjective intent can rarely be proven directly” and often “must be inferred.” See Waldon v. Covington, 415 A.2d 1070, 1077 (D.C.1980). However, the record is not bare, and the pending motion is for summary judgment, not to dismiss. The time for Ms. Konah to provide circumstantial evidence of intent is now. Even her deposition, viewed in the light most favorable to her and setting aside the many inconsistencies and memory gaps, does not tend to show that Sgt. Jefferson “just did not open the gate” for any reason other than that there were inmates in the sally port who would have been able to escape confinement. The record also includes Sgt. Jefferson’s deposition, Dr. Kargbo’s deposition, the video recordings, and a plethora of documentary evidence, all demonstrating that Sgt. Jefferson delayed opening the front gate for Ms. Konah due to security reasons, not because he wished to see harm befall her. See Jefferson Dep. at 93-101 (“I was waiting for an officer to come, because I had inmates inside the sally port.”); Kargbo Dep. at 18. On the basis of this evidence, there is no genuine dispute of material fact, because the evidence does not suggest that Sgt. Jefferson acted intentionally, that he acted recklessly, or that his actions were otherwise “so outrageous in character, and so extreme in degree, as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency.” 14 Paul v. Howard Univ., 754 A.2d 297, 308 (D.C.2000) (quoting Jackson, 412 A.2d at 957); see also Restatement (Second) of Torts § 32(1) (“The actor must have intended to inflict a harmful or offensive contact upon the other or to have put the other in apprehension of such contact.”). The Court will, therefore, grant summary judgment in favor of Sgt. Jefferson on Ms. Konah’s claims of assault, battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. 15