Von Ryburn v. Williams et al

Filing 68

MEMORANDUM Order: Defense counsel Assistant Attorney General Lutzke is given until July 30, 2015 to provide the information referred to in the Order of July 9, 2015, failing which defendant Stephen Williams' affirmative defenses will be forfeited. Signed by the Honorable Milton I. Shadur on 7/23/2015:Mailed notice(clw, )

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
EASTERN DIVISION

THOMAS V. RYBURN,
Plaintiff,
v.
OFFICER WILLIAMS, etc., et al.,
Defendants.

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Case No. 14 C 4308

MEMORANDUM ORDER
Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Lutzke has just filed the Answer of codefendant
Stephen Williams to the First Amended Complaint brought against that defendant and others by
Thomas Ryburn ("Ryburn"). This Court's brief July 9, 2015 memorandum order ("Order") had
referred to the confusion credited by the earlier responsive pleading filed by attorney Lutzke that
had referred to "defendants" without differentiation in a case that has two defendants named
"Williams": both correctional officer Stephen Williams and Stateville Correctional Center
Warden Tarry Williams (see Order n.2). Unsurprisingly the current Answer by Officer Stephen
Williams has also raised as an affirmative defense ("AD") Ryburn's asserted noncompliance with
the exhaustion-of-administrative-remedies requirement established by 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a).
That subject was addressed by this Court in this fashion in the final paragraph of the
Order:
As for AD 2, it asserts Ryburn's failure to exhaust his administrative remedies as
required by 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a). That too poses factual issues, normally dealt
with in a so-called Pavey hearing. But before this Court orders such an
evidentiary hearing, defense counsel needs to flesh out that contention by
providing chapter-and-verse documentation (coupled with whatever brief
description may be needed for a full understanding) of the Department's records

on that score. Defense counsel is given until July 30, 2015 to do so, failing which
AD 2 will be deemed to have been forfeited.
Because Assistant Attorney General Lutzke, who represents Stephen Williams, has already been
well aware of that position through her representation of the other two state defendants in the
case (Warden Williams and Officer Jairo Perdomo), what was said in the Order applies here as
well. Hence the Assistant Attorney General is given until the same July 30 date to provide the
information referred to in the Order, failing which Stephen Williams' AD will be forfeited as
well.

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Milton I. Shadur
Senior United States District Judge
Date: July 23, 2015

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