Kennedy v. White County, Arkansas et al
Filing
36
ORDER dismissing defendants McIntosh, John Doe Health Services Administrator, Hale, Brown, Booth, and Wyatt from this suit; Kennedy's claims against White County, Miller, Edwards, Gossett, Rainwater, King, Cameron, and WCDC Doe Nurses will proce ed as specified; directing White County's attorney of record to provide the Court (under seal) a valid service address for Nurse Cameron as well as the names and addresses of nurses on duty during Kennedy's detention. After the service addr esses are received the Clerk must issue summonses for Nurse Cameron and the identified Doe Nurses and deliver them along with a copy of the second amended complaint and this Order to the U.S. Marshal for service without prepayment of fees and costs o r security. A Final Scheduling Order will issue now. Signed by Judge D. P. Marshall Jr. on 10/24/2024. (jak)Notice: The terminated party will no longer receive filing notifications through CM/ECF. To continue receivin g filing notifications, email the Clerk of Court and request reinstatement. Please refer to the CM/ECF Administrative Policies and Procedures for Civil Filings for information about when a terminated party must be served.
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
EASTERN DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS
CENTRAL DIVISION
JEREMY KENNEDY
ADC #093061
v.
PLAINTIFF
No. 4:24-cv-219-DPM
WHITE COUNTY, ARKANSAS;
PHILLIP MILLER; CLAYTON
EDWARDS; PAUL MCINTOSH;
JOSEPH GOSSETT; CHAD HALE;
JOHN DOE, Health Services Administrator;
KENNETH BOOTH, Detective, White
County Sheriff's Office; MATTHEW
RAINWATER, Jailer, White County
Detention Center; BROWN, Officer,
Bald Knob Police Department; JAMES
WYATT, Criminal Defense Attorney,
Public Defender; LESLIE KING, Medical
Director, White County Detention Center;
DOES, WCDC Nurses; and NURSE CAMERON
DEFENDANTS
ORDER
Kennedy was arrested for several theft-related cnmes in the
summer of 2022. He was in custody for about a month before bonding
out.
He was under a suspended sentence, which was eventually
revoked. He also pleaded guilty to new charges. He has sued many
folks involved in his arrest and detention, making many federal and
state claims.
The Court must screen his case. 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(a). The press
of other business, and Kennedy's several amendments to his complaint,
have delayed that screening. Two preliminary matters. Kennedy's
recent (and respectful) request for screening, Doc. 35, is granted. So is
his motion, Doc. 34, to correct a scrivener's error by substituting page
seventeen of his second amended complaint.
As corrected, this
pleading- Doc. 31- is comprehensive. The Court will therefore screen
it as the live complaint.
Kennedy has abandoned his claims against Paul McIntosh and
John Doe, the Health Services Administrator. The Court directs the
Clerk of Court to remove those named defendants from the docket.
Kennedy has sued White County Sheriff Phillip Miller and White
County Sheriff's Department Captain Clayton Edwards in their official
and individual capacities. He has sued all other defendants solely in
their individual capacities. Doc. 31 at 2-3.
*
In July 2022, Kennedy cut a hole in Wallace Electric' s chain-link
fence and tried to steal a catalytic converter from one of its work vans.
Doc. 31 at 64. In August 2022, he stole Chadd Avey' s truck and tried to
use Avey's credit card to send himself money on Cash App. Avey
declined the cash transfer to "Jeremy Kenned" and, the following day,
confronted Kennedy at his home. Police officers eventually arrived and
took Kennedy into custody. He sat handcuffed in the back of Judsonia
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Assistant Police Chief Joseph Gossett' s squad car while officers
searched the home's curtilage. Kennedy claims that he was subjected
to excessive force because he was left in a hot car for almost two hours,
struggling to breathe, and eventually passing out due to the extreme
heat.
For the Wallace Electric crimes, Kennedy was charged with
breaking or entering and criminal mischief.
State v. Kennedy,
73CR-22-627 (White County) (Docket Sheet). And for the Avey crimes,
Kennedy was charged with fraudulent use of a debit or credit card and
theft of property.
State v. Kennedy, 73CR-22-660 (White County)
(Docket Sheet). Because Kennedy was on a suspended sentence at the
time of his arrests, his parole officer, Chad Hale, was notified. Hale
placed a parole hold on Kennedy. Kennedy claims that he suffered
various due process violations arising from Hale's hold, as well as from
the timing and nature of his first appearances.
Doc. 31 at 24- 25.
Kennedy also suggests that, because he was unsuccessful in using
Avey' s stolen credit card, Assistant Chief Gossett had no probable
cause to arrest him for that crime.
When he took Kennedy into custody, Assistant Chief Gossett
seized Kennedy's two cell phones and prescription medicine. Kennedy
explains that he takes the seized medication every day to control a
chronic liver disease. Kennedy says no medicines were offered to him
at pill call at the White County Detention Center. Kennedy explained
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to an unidentified nurse that Assistant Chief Gossett had his medicine.
The nurse told Kennedy that she would look into the matter. He
repeatedly asked for his medicine. But, the nurse told him a week later
that her supervisor, Medical Director Leslie King, had told her that "we
don't treat liver disease." Doc. 31 at 9. Kennedy filed a grievance about
this with the White County Jail Administrator Clayton Edwards, but no
action was taken. Kennedy also says that Nurse Cameron negligently
transcribed his birth date on a U AMS release form, resulting in U AMS
being unable to verify the prescription's validity. Doc. 31 at 12. After
thirty-three days without medicine, Kennedy was released on bond.
His $900 prescription was not returned to him. Doc. 31 at 13.
After a bench trial, the circuit court revoked Kennedy's
suspended sentence and sentenced him to ninety-six months'
imprisonment in the ADC.
State v. Kennedy, 34CR-18-195 Gackson
County) (Sentencing Order).
Then, in May 2023 as part of a plea
agreement, Kennedy was convicted on each of the new charges and
sentenced to forty-eight months' imprisonment to run concurrently
with his other prison sentence. State v. Kennedy, 73CR-22-627 (White
County) (Sentencing Order);
State v. Kennedy, 73CR-22-660 (White
County) (Sentencing Order).
*
Some of Kennedy's claims go forward. Others do not.
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• Many of Kennedy's claims for damages are Heck-barred.
Any ruling in his favor would necessarily call into question
both his state-court convictions and his revocation. He
hasn't alleged that his convictions have been reversed,
expunged, or invalidated. He hasn't alleged that his
revocation has been set aside in some way, either. Heck v.
Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477, 486-87 (1994). Kennedy's challenges
to the validity of his arrest and detention are foreclosed by
his guilty pleas. Williams v. Schario, 93 F.3d 527, 528-29
(8th Cir. 1996).
• Kennedy's individual capacity claim that Assistant Chief
Gossett maliciously charged him with theft, despite
knowing that Kennedy had been unsuccessful in using
Avey' s credit card, survives screening. Bagby v. Brondhaver,
98 F.3d 1096, 1098 (8th Cir. 1996).
• Kennedy's due process and denied-counsel allegations
against Chad Hale, Captain Edwards, and White County are
factually and legally unrelated to his allegations of excessive
force and deliberate indifference claims about medical care
against the other defendants. These claims and these
defendants are dismissed without prejudice as improperly
joined. Fed. R. Civ. P. 21.
• Kennedy's ineffective assistance claims against his public
defender James Wyatt fail. He wasn't acting under color of
state law when representing Kennedy in the criminal
proceedings. Polk County v. Dodson, 454 U.S. 321,325 (1981).
• Kennedy has sufficiently pleaded an individual capacity
excessive force claim against Assistant Chief Gossett based
on his allegation that he was kept in a hot squad car without
-5-
sufficient air.
396-97 (2015).
Kingsley v. Hendrickson, 576 U.S. 389,
• Some of Kennedy's deliberate indifference claims based on
his liver medication survive screening. His individual
capacity claims against Jailer Rainwater, Nurse Cameron,
Medical Director King, Jail Administrator Edwards, and
WCDC Doe Nurses go forward because Kennedy pleads
that he made these individuals aware of his need for the
daily medication. Kennedy's individual capacity claims
against Sheriff Miller fail as a matter of law. The Sheriff can't
be held vicariously liable for the actions of his employees.
Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 676 (2009). But because
Kennedy alleges that his official capacity claims arose from
an official policy not to treat liver disease, those claims
against Sheriff Miller and Jail Administrator Edwards
survive screening. Jackson v. Stair, 944 F.3d 704,709 (8th Cir.
2019). His claim against White County about this policy,
though duplicative, can proceed, too.
• Finally, because some of Kennedy's federal claims go
forward, the Court will exercise supplemental jurisdiction
over Kennedy's state law claims related to excessive force
and deliberate indifference. 28 U.S.C. § 1367(c)(3).
*
Defendants McIntosh, John Doe Health Services Administrator,
Hale, Brown, Booth, and Wyatt are dismissed from this suit. Kennedy's
claims against White County, Miller, Edwards, Gossett, Rainwater,
King, Cameron, and WCDC Doe Nurses will proceed as specified. To
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keep Kennedy's many claims, the many parties, and the Court's rulings
straight, the Court has created the attached Appendix.
Only Nurse Cameron and the Doe Nurses have not been served.
The Court directs White County's attorney of record to provide the
Court (under seal) a valid service address for Nurse Cameron as well
as the
names and address of nurses on duty during Kennedy's
detention. After those valid service addresses are received, the Clerk
must issue summonses for Nurse Cameron and the identified Doe
Nurses and deliver them, along with a copy of the second amended
complaint (with substituted page seventeen) and this Order, to the
United States Marshal for service. The Marshal must serve these papers
on Nurse Cameron and the WCDC Doe Nurses by restricted delivery,
return receipt requested. Kennedy does not have to prepay the fees and
costs or security.
Because this case has been pending for seven months, and service
on Nurse Cameron and the other Doe Nurses should occur promptly,
a Final Scheduling Order will issue now.
So Ordered.
(I
D.P. Marshall Jr.
United States District Judge
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APPENDIX
Party
White County
Phillip Miller, Sheriff
Clayton Edwards,
Captain
Claim
§ 1983 Deliberate
Indifference,
Municipal Liability
Negligence,
Municipal Liability
Due Process
§1983, Illegal
Detention, Official
and Individual
Capacities
§ 1983 Deliberate
Indifference, Official
Capacity
§ 1983 Deliberate
Indifference,
Individual Capacity
Negligence, Official
Capacity
Negligence,
Individual Capacity
§1983, Due Process,
Official and
Individual Capacities
§ 1983, Illegal
Detention, Official
and Individual
Capacities
-Al-
Disposition
Proceeds
Proceeds
Dismissed without
prejudice,
improperly joined
Dismissed with
prejudice (Heck)
Proceeds
Dismissed with
prejudice
Proceeds
Dismissed with
prejudice
Dismissed without
prejudice,
improperly joined
Dismissed with
prejudice (Heck)
Joseph Gossett, Asst.
Chief
§ 1983 Deliberate
Indifference, Official
and Individual
Capacities
State Torts, Official
and Individual
Capacities
§1983, Illegal Arrest
§1983, Illegal
Detention
Due Process
Brown, Officer
§ 1983, Malicious
Prosecution
§1983, Excessive
Force
Negligence
Conversion
§ 1983, Illegal Arrest
Chad Hale, Probation §1983, Due Process
Officer
§ 1983, Illegal
Detention
State Torts
Matthew Rainwater,
Jailer
§ 1983 Deliberate
Indifference
Negligence
Conversion
-A2-
Proceeds
Proceeds
Dismissed with
prejudice (Heck)
Dismissed with
prejudice (Heck)
Dismissed with
prejudice (Heck)
Proceeds
Proceeds
Proceeds
Proceeds
Dismissed with
prejudice (Heck)
Dismissed without
prejudice,
improperly joined
Dismissed without
prejudice,
improperly joined
Dismissed without
prejudice,
improperly joined
Proceeds
Proceeds
Proceeds
Kenneth Booth,
Detective
§ 1983, Malicious
Prosecution
§ 1983, Illegal Arrest
James Wyatt,
Attorney
Leslie King, Medical
Director
§1983, Ineffective
Assistance
§ 1983 Deliberate
Indifference
Negligence
§ 1983 Deliberate
Indifference
Negligence
§ 1983 Deliberate
Indifference
Negligence
Cameron, Nurse
DOES, WCDC
Nurses
-A3-
Dismissed with
prejudice (Heck)
Dismissed with
prejudice (Heck)
Dismissed with
prejudice
Proceeds
Proceeds
Proceeds
Proceeds
Proceeds
Proceeds
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