Opinion ID: 800677
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Deputy Warden Sharon Wells

Text: Wells took numerous actions in this case, none of which are really in dispute. Of greatest relevance are the two acts that may give rise to liability against her: (1) Wells sent a memo to Deputy Warden Shirlee Harry on April 20, 2000 (Wells Memo), to complain about King's behavior, and (2) following communication from Central Office, Wells signed the initial security screen that increased King to a Level III. Wells would be liable for the first action if she intended to punish King for his protected conduct and the security increase was a reasonably foreseeable consequence of her memo. Siggers-El, 412 F.3d at 702. She would be liable for the latter action if, as a subordinate, she knew or should have known that she was implementing an order motivated by a desire to retaliate for participation in protected conduct, Thaddeus-X, 175 F.3d at 393, or as a superior if her signature constituted active participation in the unconstitutional act of increasing his security level for retaliatory purposes, Shehee, 199 F.3d at 300.
The Wells Memo was the initial step in a chain of communications that undeniably resulted in King's security increase and transfer to Chippewa. After receiving the Wells Memo, Deputy Warden Harry instructed a subordinate, Chaffee, to email Central Office and request a transfer. There is no evidence on the record of any other information in the possession of Harry or Chaffee that could have motivated their communications to Central Office. Harry testified at trial that aside from the two examples listed in Chaffee's email, the filing of grievances and the complaints to the Warden's Forum, she was not aware of King causing any other problems during his tenure at Brooks. R. 171 (Trial Tr. I at 120:23-121:1). Chaffee testified that he had no personal knowledge of King's behavior and was told to initiate the transfer because King was instigating other prisoners to file grievances. Id. at 139:9-13. The substance of the complaint in Chaffee's email is also the same as the Wells MemoKing has gained influence over other prisoners and is having them file numerous grievances. Zamiara from Central Office, after being confronted with his own deposition testimony, admitted at trial to having no other information outside of what was in Chaffee's email that could have motivated the decision to increase King's security level. See R. 172 (Trial Tr. II at 166:19-167:20). The only reasonable conclusion from the record is that the Wells Memo was a but for cause of the increase in King's security. The Wells Memo was also a proximate cause of the adverse action, because an adverse action, such as increasing King's security, was a reasonably foreseeable consequence of sending the memo. In Siggers-El, we held that a prison guard who fills out a security screen cannot disentangle herself from the resulting adverse action even though it was approved and ordered by other people. Siggers-El, 412 F.3d at 702. Although unforeseeable consequences would not give rise to liability, such as an attack on the prisoner following the transfer, the guard could not absolve herself of liability by arguing that she did not take part in or have control over the adverse action. Id. Here, there are admittedly more steps between Wells's actions and the resulting harm than there were for the defendant in Siggers-El. The Wells Memo was not sent directly to Central Office, but traveled first to Wells's Deputy Warden. Wells nominally asked for a transfer. However, an adverse action was nonetheless a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the allegations in her Memo. [11] Wells's actions are not so attenuated as to absolve her of their reasonably foreseeable consequences. The district court, faced with the same facts, found that Wells was not involved in the increase in King's security level based on the fact that she did not ask specifically for an increase and had no involvement in the decision to increase his security level. King IV, 2009 WL 3424221, at . As already discussed, however, this applies the wrong legal standard. On de novo review, we conclude that the adverse action taken against King was proximately caused by the Wells Memo. We turn now to whether Wells was motivated by a desire to punish King for his protected conduct. The district court found that Wells was motivated only by concerns over King's power over other prisoners and ability to create unrest through his abuse of the grievance process. King IV, 2009 WL 3424221, at  (To the extent that Defendants were motivated in transferring King based upon his manipulation of other prisoners to file grievances to achieve King's own goals, they did not retaliate against him on the basis of any protected conduct.). Embedded in this conclusion is both a legal error and a factual one. The legal problem is that the district court, following analysis from this court, already concluded as a matter of law that King's assistance to other prisoners in using the grievance system was protected conduct. R. 153 (Dist. Ct. Mem. Op. & Order at 14). Abusive or manipulative use of a grievance system would not be protected conduct. See Hill v. Lappin, 630 F.3d 468, 472 (6th Cir.2010) (holding no First Amendment right to file frivolous grievances). Therefore, to conclude now that King was in fact manipulating the grievance system would require reversing the prior holdings in the case, which we will not do. That brings us to the factual error. Subjective motivation requires asking whether the individual in question believed the defendant to be abusing the system to create unrest. The district court credited Wells's statements in her Memo that King was becoming increasingly powerful over the prisoners and was therefore a security risk. King IV, 2009 WL 3424221, at . [T]he preponderance of the evidence demonstrates that King's behavior did not stop [with protected conduct], but also involved agitating other prisoners and attempting to disrupt the delicate balance of authority the MDOC must retain over prisoners in its charge. Id. at . The district court found collectively that none of the defendants, including Wells, had any animus against King or the exercise of his protected conduct. We afford this fact determination substantial deference, but on review we deem this finding to be clear error. The record is void of any evidencelet alone a preponderanceto support Wells's claim that she subjectively believed King was abusing the grievance system or was otherwise disruptive or manipulative in any way that would entitle her to initiate punitive action against him. King was undeniably the litigious type. Aside from his participation in the Cain litigation, he was also involved in the filing of numerous grievances, both his own and assisting others. [12] He was also a member of the Warden's Forum. As a result, King undoubtedly had a certain level of respect and influence among the prisoners. This conductprotected conductmay undoubtedly create disruptions or problems for prison officials. But when that happens, the prison is not restricted from taking any action against the prisoner to minimize the disruption, it just must not take an adverse action against the prisoner. Ward v. Dyke, 58 F.3d 271, 274 (6th Cir.) (holding no constitutional violation for taking action against prisoner whose numerous grievances were disruptive because chosen action did not deter him from exercising his rights), cert. denied, 516 U.S. 991, 116 S.Ct. 524, 133 L.Ed.2d 431 (1995). Prison officials are clearly free to punish inmate conduct that threatens the orderly administration of the prison. But . . . prison rules are not [to be] used as a backdoor means of punishing inmates for exercising their right[s]. Brown v. Crowley, 312 F.3d 782, 791 (6th Cir.2002), cert. denied, 540 U.S. 823, 124 S.Ct. 154, 157 L.Ed.2d 44 (2003) (internal quotation marks omitted). Nor was there any support for Wells's statements that King posed a security risk or was responsible for or even at risk of creating any disturbances or manipulating the other prisoners in any way. The testimony of the disinterested witnesses consistently established the contrary. The Wells Memo references examples of threats by King and purportedly attaches examples, but no such examples are attached. Nor was Deputy Warden Harry, the recipient of the Wells Memo, able to confirm the existence of any problems with King. R. 171 (Trial Tr. I at 120:23 (testimony that Harry was not aware of King causing any problems other than what he was doing in connection with grievances and complaints to the Warden's Forum)). Warden Berghuis testified 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 not even she could identify any specific manipulative or disruptive behavior. R. 172 (Trial Tr. II at 135:10-17; 237:2-238:2). None of the witnesses could identify specific examples, and many even testified that they had no knowledge of King ever manipulating others to create unrest among the other prisoners. See R. 171 (Trial Tr. I at 127:14-17) (Harry testimony); id. at 147:10-23 (Chaffee testimony); R. 172 (Trial Tr. II at 198:6-15) (Naves testimony); id. at 207:23-25 (Lewis testimony). [13] We do not deny the general need of corrections officers to maintain order in a prison, which may require acting preemptively based on concerns that have not yet materialized. And had the testimony stopped here, a retaliatory motive would have been difficult to substantiate. But the evidence did not stop here. Although the record is silent as to disruptive behavior by King, the record speaks volumes as to repeated attempts by Wells to punish King following his arrival at Brooks as a known participant in the Cain litigation:  Sandra Naves, a corrections officer at Brooks with no incentive to lie, testified that she had no personal knowledge of King ever inciting a demonstration in September 1999, and despite her concerns, was told by Wells to issue King a NOI and what to put in it. No other inmate supposedly involved in that incident was written up. R. 172 (Trial Tr. II at 197:8-199:5).  In February, Wells herself placed King on toplock, and shortly thereafter he was cited for being in violation of the toplock, despite having no notice that it would start before midnight on the day in question. This ticket was also ultimately thrown out. R. 1-5, Ex. D (Misconduct Hr'g Report).  Bonnie Lewis, another fellow officer at Brooks, issued King a ticket for being disruptive, despite later admitting that he was not disruptive, and conceded that Wells had asked her to write the statement. R. 172 (Trial Tr. II at 206:1-4). No other prisoners from the supposed group of seven were cited for that incident. Deputy Warden Singleton spoke to Officer Lewis and thereafter conveyed to the hearing officer that she had retracted her statements. R. 130, Ex. 29 (Misconduct Hr'g Report). The hearing officer determined that Lewis's report was not credible and found King not guilty of the ticket. Id.  Three days after Lewis's ticket was thrown out, Wells formally complained to the Deputy Warden for the first time regarding King's behavior, referencing allegations by unnamed officers and purportedly attaching examples that do not appear to have been attached. R. 11-2, Ex. F (Wells Memo). The district court made no mention of any of the above testimony of Sandra Naves, Michael Singleton, and Bonnie Lewis with respect to the purported disturbances created by King, nor did the district court indicate why it found their statements not credible. All three of these witnesses were MDOC employees, two of whom were not defendants when they testified at trial, and at no point was their credibility ever challenged or questioned. The district court also ignored the timing of when Wells sent her Memo to Harrythree days after the ticket Wells had asked Lewis to write was thrown outwhich is also highly suggestive of an intent to retaliate against King. See Paige, 614 F.3d at 283; Muhammad, 379 F.3d at 417-18. Instead, the district court relied on Wells's unsupported assertions at trial and in her Memo that unnamed officials had reported various degrees of unrest and violence by King and her general denial of ever taking action against King in order to retaliate against him. Wells's inability to remember at trial several years later the events in support of her Memo is hardly proof that these events did not happen, but it also does not explain why those officers were never identified in the first place. [14] The district court concluded that Wells was a very credible witness, King IV, 2009 WL 3424221, at  6, and we do not overturn that finding lightly. Credibility assessments by the finder of fact in particular are owed even greater deference under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 52(a). Anderson, 470 U.S. at 575, 105 S.Ct. 1504. At the same time, a district court cannot insulate his findings from review by denominating them credibility determinations, because whether a witness is believable depends on more than just her demeanor on the stand. Id. Where [d]ocuments or objective evidence. . . contradict the witness' story; or the story itself [is] so internally inconsistent or implausible on its face that a reasonable factfinder would not credit it[,] . . . the court of appeals may well find clear error even in a finding purportedly based on a credibility determination. Id. The district court here committed clear error when it concluded that the preponderance of the evidence supported Wells's claim that she was motivated by King's disruptiveness despite no substantiation for such disruptiveness and despite repeated contradictory testimony by other MDOC officers that Wells instructed them to write King up for incidents later found not credible by neutral parties. Rare is the case where a defendant testifies on the record that she intended to retaliate against a prisoner for exercising his constitutional rights. Here, however, the district court's finding regarding Wells's motivation was wholly unsupported by the record evidence; more problematically, this finding was specifically contradicted by uncontested documents and testimony from neutral parties establishing Wells's retaliatory motive. We are left with the firm impression that on this evidence the district court committed clear error in finding that Wells's actions were not motivated at least in part by King's protected conduct.
Wells was also involved in the implementation of the adverse action against King. Upon receiving the instructions from Central Office to increase King's security, Chaffee edited the initial screen by hand to replace the II with a III and Wells signed the screen. The only relevant question for this act of implementing the order is whether Wells knew or should she have known that implementing Central Office's orders would violate King's rights. See Thaddeus-X, 175 F.3d at 393. Because Wells was the one who put in motion the adverse action in the first place out of a desire to punish King, we have no difficulty concluding that she helped execute the order with knowledge that it was intended to retaliate. We therefore find it unnecessary to consider whether Wells should alternatively be viewed as a superior for this action.
The judgment in favor of Wells must be reversed because the district court committed both an error of law and a clear error of fact. The district court first erred in applying the wrong legal standard to the issue of whether Wells caused the adverse action against King in this case. When the correct legal standard is applied to the facts as determined by the district court, Wells's Memo was the actual and proximate cause of the increase in King's security level. Although we afford the district court's findings substantial deference, we cannot affirm the district court's finding that Wells was not motivated at least in part by King's protected conduct when sending this Memo. This finding is unsupported by the record evidence and directly contradicted by the undisputed record and testimony by neutral parties demonstrating her animus against King's protected activities. See Perkins v. Am. Elec. Power Fuel Supply, Inc., 246 F.3d 593, 601 (6th Cir.) (reversing as clear error finding of fact following bench trial that was unsupported by the record when contradictory evidence was offered in support of the opposite conclusion), cert. denied, 534 U.S. 994, 122 S.Ct. 462, 151 L.Ed.2d 379 (2001). We do not hesitate to conclude that the district court committed clear error with respect to Wells. The district court's judgment in favor of Wells is vacated, and we remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.