Opinion ID: 4230179
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Lieutenant Fox & Sergeant Frank

Text: Upon arriving at Limon, Mr. Wilson was initially assigned to Unit 1, where he lived for less than a week before moving on to Unit 3. Mr. Fox was the Intake Lieutenant and supervisor of Units 1, 5, and 6. Mr. Frank worked in Unit 1, under Mr. Fox’s 9 supervision. Both men stated in sworn affidavits that they have no recollection of Mr. Wilson or any of the allegations made in the Second Amended Complaint. Mr. Wilson, meanwhile, testified that he spoke with Mr. Fox and Mr. Frank “immediately after” Ms. Falk advised him to speak with a lieutenant: . . . I remember specifically talking to a Fox, Mr. Fox, CO Fox, but I just don’t recall what he looks like. I only met him one time. I was in Unit 1 for about a day. So the time I talked to him was immediately after meeting with the warden. That’s when I talked to Fox and that’s when I talked to Frank. That’s the only time I ever talked. That’s when they moved Chris Green somewhere else. I told them the whole problem. The Surenos were after me. Chris Green had already went to them. He told them this same story, that I was trying—that I was a threat to them, they was trying to kill me in county. I don’t know what he said, but they cuffed him up and moved him upstairs. That’s the only time I ever talked—even seen these people. Aplt. App’x 84–85.Mr. Wilson’s deposition testimony is partly corroborated by a declaration from fellow inmate Edward Drake. Mr. Drake says that in June 2012 he was housed in Unit 1, “where all the new arrivals come in.” Id. at 140. One day after he first met Mr. Wilson, Mr. Drake asserts that he saw Mr. Wilson talking to Mr. Fox and Mr. Frank: The next day I was coming back from lunch and notice [sic] Inmate Wilson talking to Sgt. Frank and Lt. Fox in the hall-way explaining his situation. I heard him tell them that some guys was making threats towards his life and said that they home-boys was going to get him. He asked them not to move him to Unit 2–3 or 4. The next day he was moved to Unit 3 where a lot of those guys are at. Id. at 140–41.The district court found that, even assuming the conversation took place as alleged, Mr. Wilson’s “vague and non-specific reference to ‘some guys . . . making threats towards his life’ is insufficient to support a finding that Defendants Frank 10 and Fox were aware of facts from which the inference could be drawn that a substantial risk of serious harm existed and that Defendants Frank and Fox did, in fact, draw that conclusion.” Id. at 196. We disagree. At his deposition, Mr. Wilson testified he told Mr. Fox and Mr. Frank “the whole problem,” i.e. that “the Surenos were after” him. His story is corroborated by Mr. Drake, who says he heard Mr. Wilson tell Mr. Fox and Mr. Frank he had received death threats and “that they home-boys,” meaning the Surenos, “was going to get him.” Viewing that evidence in the light most favorable to Mr. Wilson, a reasonable jury could find that Mr. Fox and Mr. Frank were subjectively aware of a substantial risk of serious harm to Mr. Wilson. On appeal, the Colorado Attorney General hints at an alternative basis for affirming, arguing that Mr. Fox and Mr. Frank took proactive steps to separate Mr. Wilson and Mr. Green, and thus they were not deliberately indifferent to his plight. Perhaps it is possible Mr. Fox and Mr. Frank acted reasonably, but the district court reached no conclusion on that score, and we decline to affirm on an alternative ground neither passed on below nor cultivated on appeal. See, e.g., Perry v. Woodward, 199 F.3d 1126, 1141 n.13 (10th Cir. 1999) (declining to address an alternative basis for affirming the district court’s dismissal where appellees did not adequately develop an argument). Instead, we express no opinion on this issue and leave it for the district court’s consideration on remand.