Cordova v. LeMaster

96 P.3d 778

136 N.M. 217

2004 NMSC 26

Phillip CORDOVA, Petitioner, v. Tim LeMASTER, Warden, Respondent.

No. 26,512.

Supreme Court of New Mexico.

July 13, 2004.

Brian A. Pori, Inocente, P.C., Albuquerque, for Petitioner.

Patricia A. Madrid, Attorney General, Ralph E. Trujillo, Assistant Attorney General, Albuquerque, for Respondent.

OPINION

MINZNER, Justice.

{1} Petitioner appeals, pursuant to Rule 5-802 NMRA 2004, from action taken by the district court on his petition for habeas corpus. The district court awarded Petitioner additional good-time credits but otherwise denied the relief requested. We granted certiorari pursuant to Rule 12-501 NMRA 2004. On appeal, Petitioner contends that he was transferred in retaliation for protected activities, that he was indefinitely deprived of spousal visitation without due process, and that prison officials have been deliberately indifferent to his medical needs. We agree with Petitioner that spousal visitation should not have been terminated indefinitely without notice and an opportunity to be heard. We otherwise affirm the district court's ruling. We remand this matter to the district court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I

{2} Petitioner testified that in 1984, while confined in the Penitentiary of New Mexico, he began representing inmates in bringing grievances to the attention of prison officials. He also helped other prisoners with legal matters. In support of a claim that there was a pattern of retaliation for complaints, for example, Petitioner testified he complained in 1992 about a deputy warden. Later that same year, he was transferred to the Ely State Prison in Nevada. During his confinement in Nevada, Petitioner filed pro se his habeas corpus petition requesting the reinstatement of good-time credits. In 1997, he was returned from Ely State Prison to the Penitentiary of New Mexico before being transferred to the Central New Mexico Correctional Facility in Los Lunas.

{3} Petitioner was transferred again in 1998 to the Torrance County Detention Center in Estancia. He testified that when he was confined in Estancia he reported to authorities that he had witnessed correctional officers abuse another inmate. Thereafter, he was returned to the Penitentiary of New Mexico. While in Estancia, Petitioner's visits with his wife were initially suspended for a limited period and later indefinitely suspended, because authorities believed she had received money from other inmates and suspected she was involved in smuggling drugs into the facility. When she petitioned the Director of Adult Prisons to reinstate her visits, her request was denied.

{4} In February, 1999, Petitioner's supplemental habeas corpus petition was filed. Petitioner alleged that prison officials had retaliated against him for pursuing grievances and refusing to cooperate with them in investigating gang activity. He also argued he had been denied due process when spousal visitation had been suspended indefinitely and that he had been subject to cruel and unusual punishment because prison officials had been deliberately indifferent to his medical needs. He noted, for example, that when he was confined in Los Lunas, the facility was experiencing an outbreak of hepatitis B, and at one point he was placed in a cell with an inmate who was infected. He also noted that after he was returned from Estancia to Santa Fe, he was informed by medical staff that he had tested positive for hepatitis B. He alleged that several times during 1998 he requested treatment but medical officials refused to provide treatment other than prescribing medication for an upset stomach. Petitioner also alleged that in late 1998, while he was confined in the Penitentiary of New Mexico, prison officials told him that unless he cooperated with an investigation of prison gangs he would be transferred to an out-of-state prison, he would not receive medical care, and his wife could not visit him.

{5} In September, 1999, while the matter was under consideration before the district court and before the court could issue a written decision, 106 New Mexico prisoners were transferred to Wallens Ridge Prison in Virginia. Petitioner was not in this group of transferees. Approximately three weeks later, a second group of prisoners, including Petitioner, was transferred to Wallens Ridge. Petitioner's counsel immediately filed a motion asking the district court, based on accounts of abuse at Wallens Ridge, to order that Petitioner be returned to New Mexico and that no further transfer occur until the court had the opportunity to rule on all of the claims raised in the supplemental petition. Shortly thereafter, the court granted the motion. The court conducted multiple hearings, and heard some testimony in camera. {6} In a letter ruling in May, 2000, the district court issued its findings of fact and conclusions of law. In denying Petitioner's claim that his transfer to Virginia was retaliatory in nature, the court concluded that Petitioner was not singled out, but rather the transfer was an administrative decision that affected more than a hundred inmates. The district court noted that it had reviewed videotapes of the intake process at Wallens Ridge for both groups of New Mexico inmates, and that "[t]he allegations of mistreatment [were] not supported by the tapes." In denying Petitioner's claim that the indefinite denial of spousal visitation violated due process, the court concluded that the termination of all spousal visits was not retaliatory but rather had been based on "information that continued visits could threaten the security of the institution." Finally, in denying Petitioner's claim that he had been subjected to cruel and unusual punishment, the court concluded that Respondent did not intentionally expose Petitioner to the hepatitis virus, and Respondent "provided the care that Petitioner is entitled to." The district court's order on the petition for habeas corpus was filed July 18, 2000.

{7} Petitioner timely filed his petition for writ of certiorari pursuant to Rule 12-501. The resolution of the issues raised on appeal has been delayed an unusually long time. Much of the delay occurred as a result of missing portions of the record and related extensions of the briefing schedule. The district court settled the record pursuant to Rule 12-211(H) NMRA 2004, and a supplemental record proper was filed in August, 2003. This court heard oral argument in February, 2004, following additional extensions of the briefing schedule. We now address each of Petitioner's contentions.

II

{8} In making his constitutional claims, Petitioner cites Article II, Sections 13 and 18 of the New Mexico Constitution, which are our state counterparts to the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. He does not argue, however, that we should interpret our state constitution to provide Petitioner greater protection than he is afforded by the federal constitution and has not articulated a basis for construing the state constitutional provisions more broadly than the federal. We therefore address his claims only under the federal provisions. See Compton v. Lytle, 2003-NMSC-031, ¶ 23 n. 4, 134 N.M. 586, 81 P.3d 39.

{9} Also, as an initial matter, we note that a petition for a writ of habeas corpus is an appropriate procedure by which an inmate may challenge his or her conditions of confinement. See Preiser v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 475, 499-500 & n. 15, 93 S.Ct. 1827, 36 L.Ed.2d 439; see also 1 Randy Hertz & James S. Liebman, Federal Habeas Corpus Practice and Procedure § 9.1, at 431-437 & n. 34 (4th ed.2001). Habeas corpus is not the only available remedy; an inmate may choose to file a civil rights lawsuit attacking his or her conditions of confinement under the Civil Rights Act of 1871, 42 U.S.C. § 1983. See Preiser, 411 U.S. at 499, 93 S.Ct. 1827. Thus, cases involving Section 1983 challenges to conditions of confinement are relevant in evaluating Petitioner's claims on appeal.

{10} In appeals from habeas corpus proceedings, findings of fact of the trial court are reviewed to determine if substantial evidence supports the court's findings. Lytle v. Jordan, 2001-NMSC-016, ¶ 28, 130 N.M. 198, 22 P.3d 666. In that review, "evidence is viewed in the light most favorable to the prevailing party and all inferences arising from the factual findings of a trial court are indulged in." Aken v. Plains Elec. Generation & Transmission Coop., Inc., 2002-NMSC-021, ¶ 19, 132 N.M. 401, 49 P.3d 662. Claims involving the denial of procedural due process are questions of law, which we review de novo. State ex rel. Children, Youth & Families Dep't v. Ruth Anne E., 1999-NMCA-035, ¶ 22, 126 N.M. 670, 974 P.2d 164.

A

{11} We first address Petitioner's claim that he was transferred because he repeatedly challenged his own conditions of confinement, as well as those of other inmates. He argues these transfers were "official acts of retaliation." It is well-established that prisoners' right of access to the courts is a fundamental right protected by the Constitution. Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817, 821, 97 S.Ct. 1491, 52 L.Ed.2d 72 (1977). Thus, prison officials may not retaliate against or otherwise harass an inmate because he or she has exercised this right. Smith v. Maschner, 899 F.2d 940, 947 (10th Cir.1990). Even though the discretion afforded prison administrators "is extremely broad," prison officials may not employ otherwise legitimate transfers as retaliatory tools against an inmate who has exercised his or her right to access the courts. McDonald v. Hall, 610 F.2d 16, 18 (1st Cir.1979).

{12} In order to prevail on a claim of retaliation, the inmate must prove that the actual motivating factor precipitating the transfer was retaliatory. Id. In other words, the inmate must prove that "but for" the allegedly retaliatory motive, he or she would not have been transferred. Id.; see also Smith, 899 F.2d at 949-50. Once...