County asks dismissal of U. S. lawsuit over jails
Collins says suit is based on hearsay
The Collins administration wants a federal judge to dismiss the U. S. Justice Department lawsuit against Erie County’s jails.
County Attorney Cheryl A. Green, in court papers filed this week, moved to dismiss the lawsuit, which alleges that the Holding Center in downtown Buffalo and Correctional Facility in Alden — through abuse and poor management — fail to protect the constitutional rights of inmates.
“The county’s motion to dismiss highlights the weaknesses in the [Justice Department’s] case,” County Executive Chris Collins said. “This lawsuit is nothing more than hearsay and fictionalized events passed off as reality, and it does not meet the standards under the law.”
U. S. District Judge William M. Skretny is expected to hear Green’s arguments in December, after the Justice Department responds in writing to Green’s motion.
The Justice Department indicated it will proceed with the case. “The department stands by the allegations in our complaint, and we are prepared to prove them in court,” Justice Department spokesman Alejandro Miyar said Thursday. “We plan to file a response opposing the county’s motion to dismiss in due course.”
In her motion, Green makes three broad contentions, all connected to the law the Justice Department seeks to enforce, the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act:
• While the law targets a “pattern or practice” that denies constitutional rights, Green wrote, the Justice Department has alleged only isolated events at the jails, not a pattern or practice of wrongdoing.
She said the congressional debate over the law in 1979 cited jails where “cattle prods were used to keep inmates moving,” or where inmates were “confined naked for up to three days without hygienic materials, heat or adequate food.” She said Congress did not expect that “minor or isolated acts” would trigger a lawsuit under the federal law.
• Green said the Justice Department has not shown that Erie County government condones abuse or mistreatment of prisoners, nor has it specified wrongdoing by any of the county officials listed in the suit.
In a 50-page report on Erie County’s jails, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division cited examples of guards egging on inmates to fight, using inmates to mete out discipline and beating inmates or failing to intervene as inmates fought. It cited a report of a rape by a guard that went uninvestigated.
• Green said the Justice Department is using the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act to reach into local affairs when the law was intended to give states the primary duty to correct conditions through negotiation with federal officials.
Green said she tried to open talks on the rough outlines of a “consent decree” in which Erie County might agree to certain improvements. But she said the Justice Department lawyers she met with Aug. 10 in Washington, D. C., insisted their investigators first be allowed inside the jails for an examination and to conduct interviews. She again refused.
The Justice Department began its investigation in 2007, when Joel A. Giambra was county executive, and his administration generally cooperated. But when Green became county attorney in 2008, she got in the way of the federal probe.
She said that if the Justice Department investigators wanted access to the jails, they could either agree to have a county attorney present during interviews with inmates or sue for court-supervised access. The Justice Department sued in late September, based largely on its 50-page report.
With Green blocking the investigators, the Justice Department gained access to certain inmates by having them moved to other facilities. With those interviews and through other means, including information gathered by the State Commission of Correction, the department concluded that the jails fail to protect constitutionally guaranteed rights.
The department’s report described these incidents:
•A Correctional Facility inmate died of a stroke in March 2007 after officers forced his head against a wall and personnel ignored his request for medical help. The inmate has been identified as Joseph Balbuzoski, who was awaiting trial on charges of burglary and grand larceny. Green has said an autopsy showed the inmate died of preexisting conditions.
• An inmate shouting and yelling at the arrival of the new year in January 2008 was punched, kicked and had a sheet tied around his neck with the threat to hang him. He was then shackled and punched again while in an isolation cell.
• A pregnant inmate was thrown to the floor and kicked while being booked. Green said that incident could not have occurred because there is no record of such an inmate receiving medical attention, even though she supposedly lost teeth in the attack.
• Deputies beat inmates in an old Holding Center elevator that had no security camera.
• In February 2007, an inmate stabbed another inmate with a broken broom handle. The deputy on duty said he did not see the assault.
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division concluded that jail oversight has been “woefully inadequate and has resulted in a pattern of serious harm to inmates, including death.” It faulted the county on suicide prevention, mental health care, medical care, protection from harm, and safe and sanitary environmental conditions.
Meanwhile, sources inside the Holding Center said it has undergone a serious cleaning in recent weeks, with new carpeting installed in some areas and new furniture and desks for deputies.
Both Sheriff Timothy B. Howard and Collins support Green’s hard line against the Justice Department, as well as her stand against the State Commission of Correction, which polices local jails in New York and last month filed a lawsuit against Howard over the Holding Center.
“Erie County will not be bullied by the [Justice Department] Civil Rights Division to provide hotel room standards for people in our facilities,” Collins said.
email: mspina@buffnews.com
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