Thomsen v. Ross.

U.S. District Court

SEARCHES

MAIL

ACCESS TO COURT

MEDICAL CARE

Thomsen v. Ross, 368 F.Supp.2d 961 (D.Minn. 2005). A detainee brought a [section] 1983 civil rights action against a county and county employees, alleging he was wrongfully strip searched and suffered a broken hand after he arrested on driving under the influence (DUI) charges. The district court granted summary judgment for the defendants in part, and denied it in part. The district court held that summary judgment was precluded by genuine issues of material fact regarding the reasonableness of the strip search, and the existence and implementation of a county policy authorizing strip searches for all gross misdemeanant arrestees. The court found that even if a police officer grabbed the detainee and threw him to the floor, his actions did not amount to the use of excessive force in violation of due process, absent evidence that the officer's actions caused the detainee's lost tooth and broken hand. The court held that opening three of the detainee's attorney letters outside of his presence did not violate his Fourteenth Amendment right to court access, where the letters were not confiscated and did not prevent the detainee from communicating with his attorney, and did not address matters of defense strategy. According to the court, the detainee failed to identify any conceivable way in which the information contained in the letters, even if read by jail officials, interfered with his defense or hindered his access to the courts. The court noted that respect for the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments obliges a jail to open legal mail in the inmate's presence and to ensure it is not read. The court found that the detainee's broken hand was not a serious medical need, such that a 48-hour delay by county employees in taking the detainee to a hospital could amount to deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs, absent evidence that a red and swollen hand was a critical or escalating situation requiring immediate attention, or that the delay jeopardized the detainee's prognosis. The court noted that employees took the detainee to the hospital on the on the evening he made the written request for treatment. (Crow Wing County Jail, Minnesota)