Judge favors Fayette County Prison wardens in assault lawsuit
A federal judge has granted a motion for summary judgment, dismissing a 2015 lawsuit filed by a former food service worker at the Fayette County Prison.
U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer filed an order and opinion closing the suit filed by Juliann Puckett against the former warden of the Fayette County Prison, Brian Miller, and the prison’s two deputy wardens, Michael Zavada and Barry A. Croftcheck.
Puckett contended a guard at the prison assaulted her in 2013 after telling other guards to close a gate between a control room and the kitchen and that the other guards egged on the guard in the attack.
Puckett’s suit also contended she filed complaints against the guard prior to the assault and asked that the guard be assigned to a different area to keep them separated, but those steps were not taken by the prison officials, adding that their actions violated her constitutional rights.
Fisher wrote in her opinion that Puckett needed to establish that the wardens knew the harm to Puckett was foreseeable, that they acted with a degree of culpability that shocks the conscience, that Puckett was a foreseeable victim of the wardens’ acts and that the wardens used their authority to create a danger or make Puckett vulnerable to danger than if they didn’t act at all.
Fisher wrote that Puckett failed to refute the defendants’ evidence that shows that the shift commander had scheduled Puckett to work with the guard, and Puckett herself admitted in her deposition that she didn’t know how the guard came to be in the control room with her that day.
“Hence, this allegation against the wardens cannot stand, as it is based on subjective speculation,” Fisher states.
Fisher went on to state there was no evidence offer by Puckett that the wardens concealed the guard’s intent to attack Puckett from the shift commanders or misused their authority in a way that created a danger for Puckett, nor was their conduct a departure from the status quo.
“Under the circumstances, the wardens’ conduct in this case, at most, amounts to negligence,” Fisher wrote, adding that negligence alone does not violate someone’s constitutional rights.