Opinion ID: 2831831
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Willey’s Complaint

Text: This summary of the relevant factual background we draw principally from the allegations in Willey’s complaint, because, as we will explore further, the defendants’ motion for summary judgment rested entirely on the legal sufficiency of the allegations of the complaint and not on any evidence. Willey, pro se, filed his original typewritten complaint on August 31, 2007, and filed his handwritten amended complaint on April 7, 2010. Because they are substantively identical, with one exception discussed below, this recitation cites to allegations in the original complaint, all of which appear also in the amended complaint. Compare Compl., J.A. 17–36, with Am. Compl., J.A. 158–172. Beginning at age 18, Willey was incarcerated at the Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, New York, from April 2004 until October 2006, although during this period he was housed for five months at the Central New York Psychiatric Facility. The events giving rise to this suit all occurred at Wende, and the defendants are Wende corrections officers, hearing officers, and their supervisors who were employed there during Willey’s incarceration. Willey alleges that, on 5 October 15, 2005, he was approached on his way to evening recreation by Sergeant Scott Lambert, who stopped Willey and requested identification. Corrections officer Taylor Roberts then performed a pat frisk of Willey, which uncovered nothing unusual. Nevertheless, Roberts handcuffed Willey and escorted him “into a room with no cameras or witnesses present.” J.A. 20. In this room, Willey alleges, the following took place: I was questioned by defendant LAMBERT about another prisoner who was supposedly smuggling drugs into the prison. I explained that I had no knowledge or recollection of involvement with this person, nor did I even know who this person was. Defendant LAMBERT then opened a desk drawer and pulled out what appeared to be a weapon or piece of metal. Defendant LAMBERT placed this piece of metal on the desk between us, and threatened me by stating, “Either you work with us as an informant or you are going to be charged with a weapon.” At this time I stopped talking completely, to which defendant LAMBERT responded, “Have it your way.” Corrections officers then took me to the WCF special housing unit (solitary confinement) where I was in fact falsely imprisoned. Id. 1 In this and subsequent quotations from Willey’s complaint, the 1 defendants’ motion for summary judgment, and the district court decision, we have taken the liberty of correcting typographical errors for clarity’s sake. 6 Two days later, on October 17, Willey “was issued a false misbehavior report alleging false charges that [he] was in possession of a weapon/contraband.” Id. At a hearing held on October 19, Willey was adjudged guilty of the shank‐ possession charge, but he alleges that he was never told that the hearing was to occur nor provided with the opportunity to attend or to present witnesses or evidence. Willey appealed internally to the statewide Special Housing Unit director in Albany, Donald Selsky, who reversed the finding of guilt and ordered a new hearing. At the new hearing, Willey was allowed to appear, but the hearing officer Martain Kerney allegedly threatened to beat Willey and called him a “young punk.” Id. at 22. Kerney eventually ejected Willey and found him guilty in absentia, sentencing him on December 28, 2005, principally to 180 days of solitary confinement (also known as Special Housing Unit or the “S.H.U.”). Willey filed another appeal with Selsky. With his appeal pending, Willey remained in solitary confinement. Willey alleges that he was “continuously harassed psychologically, emotionally, verbally, and sexually by corrections officers but particularly by defendant A. ALLESSANDRO.” Id. at 28. This conduct included, while watching Willey 7 shower, Sergeant Allessandro “licking his lips and blowing kisses toward [Willey].” Id. Just over a month into his time in solitary confinement, on November 26, 2005, Willey alleges that he was escorted by Allessandro and corrections officer M. Sztuk to the shower, and upon Willey’s return found his cell “trashed, i.e., toilet flooded, water all over; legal paperwork, books, personal letters scattered all over and out of their original places.” Id. at 23. That evening, Willey asked Sztuk for a search contraband slip to document what happened, to which Sztuk responded by threatening Willey with worse punishments if he persisted. Willey also allegedly learned from other inmates confined near his cell that they had seen Sztuk removing Willey’s “rolled up legal paperwork.” Id. at 24. Willey then shouted that he wanted to speak to a supervisor, to which Allessandro replied that Willey should give it a rest or he would soon be moved to the restricted side of solitary. “I’m not giving it a rest—you people stole my legal paperwork,” answered Willey. Id. Sztuk then responded, “What’s that Willey, you said you are going to ‘shit us down’?,” prison argot for throwing feces or urine at a corrections officer. Id. Willey denied having made the threat. 8 Because Allessandro and Sztuk said that Willey made this threat against them, he was moved to the restricted side of solitary, and a Plexiglas cell shield was placed over the bars, preventing air circulation. In Willey’s complaint, he alleges: For the entire duration of time I was behind the cell shields, defendant A. ALLESSANDRO subjected me to various forms of harassment including turning off my toilet water pressure, so that I couldn’t flush my toilet, thereby forcing me to stay in a cell with restricted air circulation and breathe in urine/feces odors. At all times mentioned defendant JEFF JESZORSKI was the acting sergeant supervising defendants A. ALLESSANDRO, M. SZTUK, and M. OVERHUFF, and allowed them to harass plaintiff, and abdicated his legal duty to stop and prevent above‐listed defendants from harassing plaintiff; defendant JEFF JESZORSKI also participated in harassing plaintiff. Id. at 25 (citation omitted). Sztuk issued Willey an allegedly false misbehavior report, on November 28, 2005, which stated that Sztuk had read Willey’s lips and that Willey had mouthed a threat to throw his waste at Sztuk. After a hearing at which Willey testified and cross‐examined Sztuk, Willey was found guilty and sentenced principally to 90 days of solitary confinement. Willey once again filed an appeal with Selsky. 9 On December 18, 2005, corrections officer M. Overhuff approached Willey’s cell after dinner. Willey alleges: I placed my cups, tray, and utensils on the feed‐up port so defendant OVERHUFF could see I was turning everything in (this was my usual practice). However, defendant M. OVERHUFF purposely with intent to harass and annoy plaintiff refused to take my garbage. On December 19, 2005, I was issued a false misbehavior report written by defendant M. OVERHUFF alleging I refused to turn in my garbage on December 18, 2005. Id. at 26–27. For the week before the hearing on this misbehavior report, Deputy Superintendent of Security M. Monahan placed Willey on a pre‐hearing restricted diet that, Willey alleges, was “most definitely cruel and unusual punishment as per it consists of nothing more than a loaf of bread (usually stale) and dried‐up cabbage.” Id. at 27. At the hearing for this misbehavior report on January 3, 2006, hearing officer Tom Schoellkopfl allegedly refused to permit Willey to question a witness and then removed Willey from the hearing. Schoellkopfl then allegedly told Willey, “You are going to die in the S.H.U.—you young punk.” Id. at 28. Schoellkopfl found Willey guilty and sentenced him on January 10, 2006, 10 principally to 30 days of solitary confinement. As he had with each previous finding of guilt, Willey filed an administrative appeal with Selsky. Willey left solitary confinement on February 9, 2006: All of the above‐noted harassments that I was being subjected to resulted in my becoming severely depressed and attempting suicide by swallowing numerous ibuprofen pills. . . . I was taken via ambulance to Erie County Medical Center. While inside the ambulance, I was strapped down to a gurney, handcuffed, and shackled. Someone inserted a needle into my arm and someone placed a gas mask over my face. From this point forward I don’t remember anything until I woke up strapped to a bed in ECMC. Id. at 29. Willey alleges that, before suffering the cruelty of Wende’s officers, he “had no significant mental‐health issues and was not taking any mental‐health medication.” Id. He attributes to the officers’ conduct “a significant amount” of his mental‐health problems. Id. When Willey returned from the hospital to Wende, he was placed “into a mental‐health observation cell that was extremely filthy and smelled of urine/feces.” Id. Willey remained “naked in the observation cell for 14 days” before he was transferred to the Central New York State Psychiatric Center for about five months. Id. When he returned to Wende, on July 28, 2006, Willey was once again placed “into an extremely dirty observation cell,” which “had urine 11 stains on the floor and fecal stains on the walls and mattress. The smell in the cell was extremely bad.” Id. at 30. Willey remained there until August 24, 2006, when he was sent back to solitary confinement. The final misbehavior report issued to Willey was served the next day and alleged that he had “kicked a corrections officer while in handcuffs and feet restraints on February 10, 2006,” while he was being returned to Wende from the hospital. Id. Following a hearing, Schoellkopfl found Willey guilty and sentenced him principally to 180 days of solitary confinement. Willey once again appealed to Selsky. Willey sent a letter to Wende Superintendent Robert A. Kirkpatrick on September 17, 2006, which related Willey’s belief that he had been falsely charged and unfairly sentenced to solitary confinement and also requested his release to the general population within Wende. By letter dated October 4, 2006, Kirkpatrick declined to take action. Willey also filed with the Attorney General of the State of New York a Notice of Intention to File a Claim, see N.Y. Ct. Cl. Act § 10, concerning Willey’s treatment in custody. Finally, on October 19, 2006, Willey was transferred from Wende to the Attica Correctional Facility. 12 Many of the administrative appeals that Willey filed with Selsky met with success. In addition to his first appeal, already mentioned, which prevailed on procedural grounds, Willey’s appeal from his conviction for possession of the shank was also successful—Selsky reversed that conviction on February 28, 2006. That same day, Selsky also reversed the conviction related to dinner‐tray collection. These decisions arrived a few weeks after Willey’s attempted suicide. Selsky did affirm, on February 17, 2006, the conviction for Willey’s threatening to throw feces or urine at Sztuk. Selsky also affirmed, on December 5, 2006, the conviction for Willey’s kicking an officer, although Selsky halved the sentence from six months of punishment to three months. Willey served this sentence at Attica. Willey learned, on November 28, 2006, after his transfer to Attica, that he had been criminally charged in Alden Town Court for the same alleged conduct—possessing a shank—for which he was originally punished with solitary confinement and on which he prevailed in his first two administrative appeals. The criminal charge was allegedly supported by a deposition from Roberts attesting that Willey had possessed the shank at Wende. Willey again 13 denied having ever possessed a shank, both in person and in a lengthy letter to the presiding judge, Justice LaDuca, who dismissed the criminal charges on April 3, 2007.