Opinion ID: 1463726
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Nunez's Attempts to Exhaust His Administrative Remedies

Text: The strip search to which Nunez objected took place on May 13, 2002. Nunez filed an informal complaint using a BP-8 the next day, alleging that Duncan had violated his Fourth Amendment rights in conducting a raffle strip search. After describing the strip search, Nunez wrote: The interest in human dignity and privacy which the Fourth Amendment protects forbid any searches involving intrusions beyond the body's surface on the mere chance of a lottery amusement; in the absence of a clear indication that the inmates had any contact with an outsider, nor any clear indication that in fact any evidence will be found. These fundamental human interests require Officer Dunkin [sic] to suffer the risk to be liable in his personal capacity under Bivens Act; and, because Officer Dunkin [sic] claimed to be following superior order, his superiors would also be liable in their personal capacities. Nunez also wrote that he was requesting which law or statutory rule [Correctional Officer Duncan] was acting under when he conducted the search. On May 16, Correctional Counselor Gary Angus denied Nunez's BP-8. He wrote: Inmates who pass through the lobby are subject to pat searches and random visual (strip) search[e]s. This is in the Post Orders for all officers who work this post to follow. [Duncan] choose [sic] to make it fair to the inmates present to select random numbers so all there would share a chance at being searched. On May 23, Nunez filed a follow-on BP-9 with the Warden. Nunez wrote: [I]nmate Nunez filed a BP-8 requesting proper notice of the law and BOP's regulations under which Sheridan's Lieutenants enforce strip searches without violating the constitutional limits. The BP-8's response is out of the subject matter of inmate Nunez's request. One more time, inmate Nunez wants the staff's proper notification under which law or statutory rule officers Duncan, Gendreau were acting under while performing strip searches under color of federal law. The Warden responded on June 7. He characterized Nunez's BP-9 as merely a request for a citation to the regulation under which Duncan had been acting, even though the prison was clearly on notice that Nunez was also questioning the constitutionality of the search under the Fourth Amendment. The Warden wrote: Sheridan staff are following Bureau of Prisons policy as outlined in Program Statement 5500.09, chapter 6, page 5, paragraph D. This policy mandates searching inmates entering or leaving the front entrance of institutions. This policy also mandates that visual searches be conducted periodically. At the bottom of the form on which the Warden responded was printed a notice informing Nunez that, If dissatisfied with this response, you may appeal to the Regional Director. The government concedes that the Warden cited the wrong BOP Program Statement. Program Statement 5500.09, cited by the Warden, is unrelated to strip searches and is unavailable to inmates. Program Statement 5521.05 governs searches of inmates. Not knowing of the Warden's mistake, Nunez attempted to obtain Program Statement 5500.09, to which he had been referred by the Warden. On June 11, four days after the Warden's response, Nunez filed a BP-8 requesting a copy of Program Statement 5500.09. He wrote: I received the response of my BP-9. However I went to the law library and I do not find Program Sta[te]ment 5500.09, Chapter 6, page 5, paragraph D. Would you please supply me with a copy for me to read. FPC administrator Mike Sandels denied this request on June 13, writing that Program Statement 5500.09 was restricted and not available to inmates. Sandels did not indicate to Nunez that the Warden had cited the wrong Program Statement. On June 25, Nunez filed another BP-8 requesting a copy of Program Statement 5500.09. On August 13, Nunez filed yet another BP-8, this time requesting a response to his June 25 BP-8. Correctional Counselor Angus responded on August 15, writing that Nunez would need to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to obtain Program Statement 5500.09. Angus did not indicate in his response that the Program Statement was unavailable to inmates. Nor did Angus provide the number of the Program Statement relevant to strip searches. Five days later, on August 20, Nunez made a request for Program Statement 5500.09 to the FOIA office of the BOP, as Angus had suggested. On September 4, the FOIA office denied Nunez's request, stating that this Program Statement relates to internal security practices of the agency and that its release could risk circumvention of agency regulations. On October 14, Nunez wrote a letter to the Department of Justice's Office of Information and Privacy (OIP) appealing the BOP's denial of his FOIA request. On November 13, OIP notified Nunez that it had a substantial backlog of pending appeals received prior to his letter. After not hearing anything further from OIP, Nunez sent another letter to OIP on January 26, 2003. After receiving no reply, he sent yet another letter to OIP on February 13. After receiving no reply to either his January 26 or February 13 letter, he sent a final letter to OIP on April 8, stating I consider my appeal as denied. On March 27, just before he sent his letter to the OIP stating that he considered his FOIA appeal denied, Nunez filed a BP-10 with the Regional Director. He wrote: After the Bureau of Prisons grant inmate Nunez BP-9's, inmate Nunez has exhausting his administrative remedies regarding the copy of the PS 5500.09 Chapter 6, Page 5, Paragraph D. (SEE ATTACHED). Before Nunez file his [B]ivens act. The Regional Director rejected Nunez's BP-10 the next day on the ground that it was untimely. He wrote that a BP-10 appealing a Warden's adverse decision on a BP-9 must be received within 20 days of the Warden's decision. As recounted above, the Warden's response to Nunez's BP-9 (in which he had cited the wrong Program Statement) had been signed on June 7, 2002. On April 22, 2003, Nunez filed a BP-11 appealing the Regional Director's denial of his March 27 BP-10 to the Central Office. The Central Office denied Nunez's BP-11 on April 30, on the ground that his BP-10 had been untimely. The Central Office wrote that Nunez had had 20 days from June 10, 2002, to submit his BP-10, and that he had not done so within that time period. (The Central Office erred in citing June 10 rather than June 7.) Finally, on August 19, 2003, OIP sent Nunez a letter denying his FOIA request for Program Statement 5500.09. OIP attached Program Statement 5521.05 to its letter. This was the Program Statement that the Warden should have cited, but did not, in his June 7, 2002 response to Nunez's BP-9 filed on May 23, 2002. This was the first time Nunez was informed that Program Statement 5500.09 had nothing to do with strip searches.
On June 6, Nunez was transferred from his orderly job at the FCI to a job on the FPC food service crew. Nunez filed a BP-8 on the same day, alleging that he was fired from his FCI orderly job because he had filed complaints about the strip search. Nunez requested that he be assigned to his previous job in the recreation department or to an FPC administration or orderly crew. He stated that to [b]e placed in the kitchen would be considered a punishment. Nunez never received a response to this BP-8, and he did not pursue the claim further. On June 10, Nunez filed a sensitive BP-9 with the Regional Director. Nunez wrote on the form: On May 30 at 7:20 AM Nunez was called by lieutenant Johnson who requested clarification over the legal language used in Nunez BP-9 form. At that time, Nunez was verbally notified that the BP-9 was denied, and that Nunez was fired from my orderly job. Later, the same day, at 7:35 AM, Nunez was called again by Captain M. Smith who contradicted lieutenant's assertion over the denial of Nunez BP-9. The Captain stated, that if Nunez wanted the BP-9 answered, that Nunez better be clean. Nunez stated that Smith's statements on May 30 were meant to intimidate him and indicated potential retaliation. He also stated that he was fired from his orderly job as retaliation for not withdrawing his earlier BP-9. The Regional Director rejected the sensitive BP-9 the next day, stating that it was not in fact sensitive and that Nunez should file a request or appeal at the appropriate level via regular procedures. Nunez did not appeal the Regional Director's adverse decision.