Munera v. Metro West Detention Center.

U.S. District Court

MEDICAL CARE

RESTRAINTS

USE OF FORCE

Munera v. Metro West Detention Center, 351 F.Supp.2d 1353 (S.D.Fla. 2004). A former pretrial detainee brought a [section] 1983 action against a county correctional officer who escorted him on a visit to an optometrist, alleging that the officer used excessive force, threatened him, and deprived him of access to medical care. The district court entered summary judgment in favor of the defendant. The court held that the alleged profanity and ethnic slurs that the officer directed at the detainee did not rise to the level of a constitutional violation. The court found that the officer's decision to remove the detainee from an eye clinic because of security concerns did not deprive the detainee of needed medical care and did not amount to deliberate indifference to a serious medical need in violation of the Due Process Clause. According to the court, the force applied by the officer was the minimum necessary under the circumstances, where the force included wrist cuffs secured to a waist chain with the detainee seated in a wheelchair. The court noted that the officer checked that the cuffs were properly applied when the detainee complained of discomfort, and told the detainee not to struggle. The officer used additional force and restraints to keep the detainee seated in the wheelchair, when the detainee was repeatedly moving between the wheelchair and another seat in the waiting room. (Ward D, Jackson Memorial Hospital, Miami-Dade County, Florida)