A divided federal appeals court Monday sided with Florida correctional officers in a lawsuit that accused them of “deliberate indifference” in the 2017 death of an inmate who had been restrained.
A panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, upheld a district judge’s ruling granting summary judgment to 10 Lake Correctional Institution officers. The estate of inmate Jose Gregory Villegas filed the lawsuit, but a district judge and the appeals-court majority found that the officers were entitled to what is known as qualified immunity “because their conduct did not violate any clearly established right,” according to Monday’s opinion, written by Judge Barbara Lagoa and joined by Judge Ed Carnes.
Villegas was found unresponsive on the floor of his cell and became combative after he was awakened by officers. The opinion said he had used the synthetic drug K2. Numerous officers became involved in restraining Villegas, who ultimately was placed in a wheelchair after he had been restrained. Officers began wheeling Villegas to another prison dorm without stopping for nurses to check his breathing and pulse, the opinion said.
Medical staff later found he did not have a pulse, and after he could not be resuscitated, Villegas was pronounced dead at South Lake Hospital. An autopsy report concluded that “the force applied during the physical altercation impeded Villegas’s blood flow and put strain on his cardiovascular system, which was exacerbated by his excited delirium and increased heart rate, and ultimately led to cardiac arrest,” Lagoa wrote.
In a dissent, Judge Adalberto Jordan wrote that the officers did not take reasonable measures and should not be entitled to qualified immunity.
–News Service of Florida
