Peterson v. Shanks

F I L E D
United States Court of Appeals
Tenth Circuit
PUBLISH
JUL 15 1998
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
PATRICK FISHER
Clerk
TENTH CIRCUIT
DAVID S. PETERSON,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v. No. 96-2190
JOHN SHANKS, Warden, WILFRED
ROMERO, and MAJOR RUBEN
VIGIL,
Defendants-Appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the District of New Mexico
(D.C. No. CIV-95-865-C)
Submitted on the briefs:
Jeffrey J. Buckels, Albuquerque, New Mexico, for Plaintiff-Appellant.
Melinda L. Wolinsky and Ida M. Lujan, Deputy General Counsel, New Mexico
Corrections Department, Santa Fe, New Mexico, for Defendants-Appellees.
Before MURPHY, HOLLOWAY, and MAGILL, * Circuit Judges.
*
Honorable Frank J. Magill, Senior Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals
for the Eighth Circuit, sitting by designation.
MAGILL, Circuit Judge.
David S. Peterson, an inmate at the Penitentiary of New Mexico, brought
this pro se suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that prison officials had violated
his right to be free from retaliation for the exercise of constitutional rights, his
right to have access to the courts, and his right to family visitation. Peterson also
raised claims that prison officials violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt
Organizations Act (RICO), 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961-68, the New Mexico anti-
racketeering statute, N.M. Stat. Ann. §§ 30-42-1 to 30-42-6, and the Religious
Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000bb to 2000bb-4. The district
court dismissed the family visitation, RICO, New Mexico anti-racketeering, and
RFRA counts for failure to state a claim, and granted summary judgment on the
access to courts and retaliation claims. Peterson now appeals, and we affirm.
I.
Peterson has been incarcerated in the New Mexico state prison system since
1988. From November 23, 1988, until November 22, 1994, Peterson was housed
at the Central New Mexico Correctional Facility, where he proved himself to be
an ambitious jailhouse lawyer. Peterson represented a number of inmates at
administrative hearings, filed habeas corpus petitions, and brought lawsuits
against prison officials.
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On December 10, 1993, one day after Peterson attended a child custody
hearing, Peterson was placed in segregation for allegedly attempting to escape
from prison. Peterson alleges that Warden John Shanks, a defendant in the instant
suit, visited him at his segregation cell and said: "'You tricky little bastard, I've
got you now. I'm going to fuck you for each and every suit you have done against
me and the prison. You tried to escape and I got your ass.'" Amend. Compl. at 2,
reprinted in R. at Tab 23. Following his alleged escape attempt, Peterson spent
forty-nine days in segregation and was removed from the honor unit of the prison.
Peterson contends that Warden Shanks directed a hearing officer to find him
guilty of attempting to escape, but that the charge was dismissed on appeal for
lack of evidence.
On March 18, 1994, Peterson filed suit in New Mexico state court against
Warden Shanks, seeking to have the Warden removed from office. In his suit,
Peterson alleged that Warden Shanks received bribes from a food service
company in exchange for not enforcing the prison's contract with the company. In
September 1994, the New Mexico trial court ruled against Peterson, and Peterson
began pursuing an appeal in the case.
Peterson alleges that Warden Shanks was angry with him for filing the
March 18 lawsuit. In the summer of 1994, Peterson was removed from an inmate-
child visitation program (the Impact Program), and he was denied a vegetarian
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diet that he allegedly required for an unidentified religious faith. On November
10, 1994, Peterson was again placed in segregation, this time because he had been
assaulted while housed in the prison's general population. Although Peterson now
contends that he was not at risk from other inmates at the Central New Mexico
Correctional Facility, Peterson was transferred to the Penitentiary of New Mexico
on November 22, 1994.
At the time of his transfer, Peterson was working on a reply brief on his
word processor for his appeal of the dismissal of his March 18 lawsuit against
Warden Shanks. The Penitentiary of New Mexico, however, prohibits inmates
from possessing computers, because inmates can put escape plans, lotteries, and
betting sheets in encrypted files. See PNM Procedures: Inmate Personal Property
§ II(C)(1)(j) (1994) ("Typewriters may be electric or manual, but may not possess
computer, or disk operating features, i.e., floppy discs, magnetic cards, etc."
(emphasis in original)), reprinted in R. at Tab 33; Id. § II(C)(5) ("Computer
hardware or software will not be sold in the canteens or allowed as personal
property."), reprinted in R. at Tab 33. Accordingly, Peterson's word processor
and floppy disks were confiscated and given to his father. Although the New
Mexico Court of Appeals repeatedly gave Peterson extensions of time in which to
file his reply brief, Peterson never filed a reply brief, and the trial court was
ultimately affirmed.
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On April 8, 1995, Warden Shanks also transferred from the Central New
Mexico Correctional Facility and became the warden of the Penitentiary of New
Mexico. Following Warden Shank's arrival at the Penitentiary of New Mexico,
Peterson contends that Warden Shanks ordered prison employees to read
Peterson's mail, and that a contract Peterson mailed to a friend was removed and
destroyed. Peterson also contends that he was denied a transfer into a clean and
quiet housing unit at the penitentiary.
On August 7, 1995, Peterson filed this lawsuit in the United States District
Court for the District of New Mexico against Warden Shanks and other officials
of the Penitentiary of New Mexico. On March 21, 1996, the magistrate judge
recommended dismissing all of Peterson's claims, except for the retaliation and
access to courts claims, for Peterson's failure to state a claim upon which relief
could be granted. The district court adopted the recommendation without
modification. On July 12, 1996, after the defendants filed a report pursuant to
Martinez v. Aaron, 570 F.2d 317, 319-20 (10th Cir. 1978) (per curiam), the
magistrate judge recommended granting summary judgment against Peterson on
his remaining claims. The district court again adopted the magistrate's
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recommendation and granted summary judgment against Peterson. Peterson now
appeals. 1
II.
We review the district court's dismissal of Peterson's complaint and grant of
summary judgment de novo. See Coosewoon v. Meridian Oil Co., 25 F.3d 920,
924, 929 (10th Cir. 1994). Because Peterson filed his complaint pro se, we must
construe his complaint liberally. See Hall v. Bellmon, 935 F.2d 1106, 1110 (10th
Cir. 1991).
"We believe that this rule means that if the court can reasonably read
the pleadings to state a valid claim on which the plaintiff could
prevail, it should do so despite the plaintiff's failure to cite proper
legal authority, his confusion of various legal theories, his poor
syntax and sentence construction, or his unfamiliarity with pleading
requirements. At the same time, we do not believe it is the proper
function of the district court to assume the role of advocate for the
pro se litigant."
Id. (footnote omitted). Accordingly, "we will not supply additional facts, nor will
we construct a legal theory for plaintiff that assumes facts that have not been
pleaded." Dunn v. White, 880 F.2d 1188, 1197 (10th Cir. 1989) (per curiam).
1
During the pendency of this appeal, Peterson has filed motions with this Court to
sanction the defendants for contempt, to amend the docketing statement, and to amend
this Court's prior grant of Peterson's motion for additional time. These motions are
denied.
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In considering an inmate's suit against prison officials, we recognize "that
courts are ill equipped to deal with the increasingly urgent problems of prison
administration and reform." Turner v. Safley, 482 U.S. 78, 84 (1987) (quotations
omitted). As the Supreme Court has explained,
"the problems of prisons in America are complex and intractable,
and, more to the point, they are not readily susceptible of resolution
by decree. Running a prison is an inordinately difficult undertaking
that requires expertise, planning, and the commitment of resources,
all of which are peculiarly within the province of the legislative and
executive branches of government. Prison administration is,
moreover, a task that has been committed to the responsibility of
those branches, and separation of powers concerns counsel a policy
of judicial restraint. Where a state penal system is involved, federal
courts have . . . additional reason to accord deference to the
appropriate prison authorities."
Id. at 84-85 (quotations and citation omitted).
We have held that "[p]rison officials may not retaliate against or harass an
inmate because of the inmate's exercise of his" constitutional rights. Smith v.
Maschner, 899 F.2d 940, 947 (10th Cir. 1990). "This principle applies even
where the action taken in retaliation would be otherwise permissible." Id. at 948.
As the Supreme Court made clear in Turner, however, it is not the role of the
federal judiciary to scrutinize and interfere with the daily operations of a state
prison, and our retaliation jurisprudence does not change this role. Obviously, an
inmate is not inoculated from the normal conditions of confinement experienced
by convicted felons serving time in prison merely because he has engaged in
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protected activity. Accordingly, a plaintiff "must prove that 'but for' the
retaliatory motive, the incidents to which he refers, including the disciplinary
action, would not have taken place." Id. at 949-50. An inmate claiming
retaliation must "allege specific facts showing retaliation because of the exercise
of the prisoner's constitutional rights." Frazier v. DuBois, 922 F.2d 560, 562 n.1
(10th Cir. 1990) (emphasis added).
We conclude that Peterson's allegations of retaliation must fail because he
has presented no evidence that the defendants' alleged retaliatory motives were
the "but for" cause of the defendants' actions. Peterson's placement in segregation
following his alleged escape attempt could not have been in retaliation for his
March 18 suit against Warden Shanks: Peterson was placed in segregation on
December 10, 1993, over three months before Peterson would file his suit. While
Peterson's complaint suggests that he was placed in segregation in retaliation for
his advocacy efforts on behalf of other inmates, this Court has made clear that an
inmate "does not have a protected interest in providing legal representation to
other inmates." Smith, 899 F.2d at 950.
Peterson's allegation that his word processor was removed in retaliation for
his March 18 suit against Warden Shanks is similarly meritless. The Penitentiary
of New Mexico has an explicit, written policy prohibiting inmates from
possessing computers. Peterson has not alleged that the defendants failed to
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enforce this policy towards all inmates, and Peterson has no right to be exempted
from a generally applicable prison regulation.
Nor can Peterson's transfer to the Penitentiary of New Mexico support a
cause of action for retaliation. As Peterson acknowledged, prison officials
believed that he had been assaulted while at the Central New Mexico Correctional
Facility, prompting his placement in segregation. See Letter from David S.
Peterson to the Hon. Pamela B. Minzner, Chief Judge, New Mexico Court of
Appeals (11/18/94) ("Recently I was placed in segregation. The prison
administrators believe that I either got into a fight or was assaulted."), reprinted
in R. at Tab 33. Rather than keep Peterson in segregation to protect him from
other inmates, Peterson was transferred to another facility--which we conclude is
a reasonable means of meeting the legitimate penological interest of preserving
Peterson's safety. See Frazier, 922 F.2d at 562 (allegedly retaliatory transfer of
inmate must be reasonably related to legitimate penological interests).
Peterson's remaining allegations of retaliation are based on mere
speculation rather than evidence. For example, Peterson has not referred us to
any evidentiary support for his assertion that his mail was read and destroyed by
the defendants, and our examination of the record revealed no such evidentiary
support. Accordingly, we conclude that the district court properly granted
summary judgment against Peterson on his claim of retaliation.
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Peterson's remaining claims are meritless. Peterson's RFRA claim, which is
based on the defendants' failure to provide a vegetarian diet for Peterson's
unnamed religion, is no longer actionable. See City of Boerne v. Flores, 117 S.
Ct. 2157, 2171-72 (1997) (holding that RFRA is unconstitutional as applied to
state governments). In addition, Peterson's allegation that he was denied the right
to family visitation because he was unable to participate in the Impact Program is
not a viable claim under § 1983. Contrary to Peterson's apparent assumption that
his right to visitation is absolute, the Supreme Court has held that inmates have
no right to unfettered visitation. See Kentucky Dep't of Corrections v. Thompson,
490 U.S. 454, 460 (1989). Rather, prison officials necessarily enjoy broad
discretion in controlling visitor access to a prisoner, see Ramos v. Lamm, 639
F.2d 559, 580 (10th Cir. 1980), and Peterson has not alleged that this discretion
has been abused.
The district court also properly dismissed Peterson's claims based on
Warden Shanks's alleged racketeering activities. A private RICO claim can only
be brought by a plaintiff claiming a personal injury arising from the use or
investment of racketeering income, see Grider v. Texas Oil & Gas Corp., 868
F.2d 1147, 1149 (10th Cir. 1989), and Peterson has alleged no such injury. To
state a claim under New Mexico's anti-racketeering statute, Peterson was required
to allege an actual injury. See N.M. Stat. Ann. § 30-42-6(A) (allowing a cause of
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action by one "who sustains injury to his person, business or property by a pattern
of racketeering activity"). Rather than allege a specific, actual injury, however,
Peterson's complaint only alleges that "Shanks jeopardized the saftey [sic] and
security of the prison employees and the inmates by not enforcing the contract."
Amend. Compl. at 2F. Because "conclusory allegations without supporting
factual averments are insufficient to state a claim on which relief can be based,"
Riddle v. Mondragon, 83 F.3d 1197, 1202 (10th Cir. 1996) (quotations omitted),
we conclude that the district court properly dismissed this claim as well.
Finally, the district court properly granted summary judgment against
Peterson on his denial of access to courts claim. Peterson bases his claim on the
defendants' removal of Peterson's word processor, which allegedly interfered with
Peterson's filing of a reply brief to the New Mexico Court of Appeals. To present
a viable claim for denial of access to courts, however, an inmate must allege and
prove prejudice arising from the defendants' actions. See Penrod v. Zavaras, 94
F.3d 1399, 1403 (10th Cir. 1996) (per curiam) ("an inmate must satisfy the
standing requirement of 'actual injury' by showing that the denial of legal
resources hindered the prisoner's efforts to pursue a nonfrivolous claim"); see also
Peterson v. Vargas, No. 93-2143, 1994 WL 50452, at *2 (10th Cir. Feb. 22, 1994)
(unpublished) (affirming grant of summary judgment against denial of access to
courts claim brought by Peterson in a prior suit against a different prison official
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because "Peterson has failed to produce evidence sufficient to show that he was
actually prejudiced by Vargas' alleged conduct"). In this case, the New Mexico
Court of Appeals gave Peterson multiple opportunities to complete his reply brief.
Despite having ample time to complete his reply brief without his word processor,
Peterson chose not to do so. Because Peterson did not accept the opportunities
that were offered to him, he cannot complain of prejudice at this late date.
Accordingly, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.
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