BRIGHTON, Colo. – In 2021, Ralph Hardy, incarcerated at the Adams County Detention Facility, was denied medical treatment after falling from his wheelchair, worsening a long-term back injury. According to the Legal Defense Fund (LDF), Hardy sat in pain for more than an hour before receiving proper medical attention.
On Sept. 22, 2021, Hardy was attempting “to get around a barrier to the toilet in his cell” when he fell out of his wheelchair and could not get up due to a “permanent in nature” back injury. His cellmate allegedly pressed the emergency distress button three times over a 30- to 45-minute period while Hardy was on the floor. The LDF reported that no help arrived.
Detention Specialist DeHerrera, who was on duty and monitoring emergency distress signals, allegedly ignored them instead of notifying anyone of the emergency, according to the LDF.
Deputy Chavez later said, “Some inmates abuse the buttons, and they are not going to spend their entire shift chasing buttons.”
The LDF noted that Hardy had no history of abusing the emergency call button and that neither he nor his cellmate had previously pressed it at random. The appeal argues, “Detention Specialist DeHerrera served as a gatekeeper to medical care by monitoring the emergency call buttons,” ultimately choosing not to fulfill his duty the day of Hardy’s injury.
Hardy allegedly remained on the floor “in severe pain, and suffering, and had degradingly soiled himself because of the pain and inability to move.” Eventually, his cellmate moved him back into a “contorted seated position in the wheelchair,” which caused him additional pain, according to the LDF.
Deputy Rabie, an escort for incarcerated porters, came to Hardy’s cell to deliver dinner. Hardy verbally told the deputy that he had fallen and “verbally declared a medical emergency,” according to the appeal.
The deputy did not help Hardy obtain medical care and left him in the same painful position. After a shift change, Deputy Chavez found Hardy and, with a nurse, provided medical attention.
Although Hardy was in pain for more than an hour, “[t]here is no precise amount of suffering that makes a delay in medical care actionable,” the LDF argued.
The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals denied Deputies Rabie and DeHerrera’s motions to dismiss the appeal. The court stated that Deputy DeHerrera’s “alleged violation of the Constitution wouldn’t have been clearly established” and that the “absence of a clearly established violation would not trigger qualified immunity.”
The court noted that the violation was not clearly established because it was not alleged that anyone discussed the fall with Deputy DeHerrera or that DeHerrera observed Hardy.
The Tenth Circuit determined that there does not need to be a set amount of time a person is in pain to hold a correctional officer accountable for withholding medical care. The court also held that an officer who has access to proper medical care for an injured person but does not know their exact symptoms cannot ignore their request for medical attention. Finally, the court clarified that it was not limited to the cases introduced by the plaintiff when deciding whether to deny qualified immunity.
