4th Circuit revives MD prisoner’s excessive force claim against Eastern Correctional Institution officers

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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit has revived a Maryland prisoner’s excessive force claim against two Eastern Correctional Institution officers, finding genuine disputes of material fact as to the correctional officers’ use of force on the prisoner and ordering the case to proceed to trial.

In a published opinion written by Judge DeAndrea Gist Benjamin and filed Thursday, a panel for the 4th Circuit found the difference of accounts by Edwin Escobar-Salmeron and two ECI correctional officers as to Escobar-Salmeron’s injuries following a June 2017 strip search of him by the officers “is exactly the sort of ‘genuine dispute of material fact’ that renders summary judgment inappropriate on an excessive force claim.”

The 4th Circuit panel vacated the U.S. District Court for Maryland’s grant of summary judgment in favor of former Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services Secretary Stephen Moyer and correctional officers Corey Holland and Daniel Arndt, remanding the case to allow Escobar-Salmeron to renew his motion for counsel and proceed to trial.

The appellate court also ruled the district court did not abuse its discretion by granting summary judgment as to Escobar-Salmeron’s Rule 56(d) declaration, finding his allegation that the correctional officers had not been responsive to his discovery requests was insufficient to put the district court on notice of the discovery he sought.

According to court documents, Holland and Arndt received a tip that Escobar-Salmeron had a knife and strip-searched Escobar-Salmeron in June 2017. While the officers said Escobar-Salmeron did not comply at several points during their orders in conducting the search and bit Holland’s arm, Escobar-Salmeron says Holland “grabbed” him and “forc[ed] him to the floor” without cause or justification and after he promptly complied with the officer’s orders.

Escobar-Salmeron says Holland began to repeatedly punch, kick and choke him while laughing and screaming at him to “stop resisting,” and Arndt later began to punch and kick him to “assist” Holland. Throughout the altercation, Escobar-Salmeron repeatedly told Holland he could not breathe, after which he bit Holland’s arm “in an effort to obtain air.” Escobar-Salmeron also alleged Holland kicked him in the back of the head and face, and other officers beat him and injured his shoulder and spine.

Escobar-Salmeron refused medical care immediately after the incident but complained on video that the officers began “hitting me for no reason, choking me for no reason, just because I forgot to put my, my hand on the wall.” In the months that followed, Escobar-Salmeron repeatedly sought care for injuries allegedly related to the incident.

According to the opinion, Arndt discovered a homemade sheath wrapped in Escobar-Salmeron’s shorts during the search and, in a subsequent search of Escobar-Salmeron’s cell, found “a 6 ¾ inch long knife style homemade weapon” in Escobar-Salmeron’s mattress.

Counsel for Escobar-Salmeron and a spokesperson for the Maryland Office of the Attorney General, whose office represented Moyer and the officers, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Prisoners and their advocates have repeatedly raised concerns about conditions in Maryland’s correctional facilities and specifically those at ECI.

Earlier this month, Prisoner Rights Information System of Maryland wrote a letter to the OAG and DPSCS asking them to address staffing shortages that advocates say have led to “constant and indefinite lockdowns” for prisoners in deprivation of their constitutional rights.

Last year, federal prosecutors charged an ECI officer with allegedly destroying a video recording that showed another correctional officer assaulting an inmate. The officer pleaded guilty a month later.