On April 18, 2002, inmate Roderick Johnson filed an extensive complaint under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, alleging that Texas prison officials failed to protect him from repeated sexual assault and therefore violated his rights under the Eighth Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause. Johnson brought separate Equal Protection claims for failure to protect because of his race and because of his sexual orientation. Johnson, a black homosexual, claimed that prison officials failed to protect him from prison gangs that repeatedly raped him and bought and sold him as a sexual slave while he was housed at the Texas prison system's Allred Unit. Plaintiff Johnson was represented by the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and several private attorneys. The defendants moved for judgment on the pleadings and for summary judgment, asserting qualified immunity and a failure on the prisoner's part to exhaust administrative remedies. The United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas (Judge Jerry Buchmeyer) in April, 2003, denied the defendants' motions, and the defendants brought interlocutory appeals. Johnson v. Johnson, No. 02-87, 2003 U.S. Dist. WL 21510816 (N.D.Tex. June 9, 2003).The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed Johnson's race-based Equal Protection claims and remanded the case to the district court for further proceedings on the remaining claims. Johnson v. Johnson, 385 F.3d 503 (5th Cir. 2004). The Court of Appeals noted that the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), 42 U.S.C. § 1997e, requires that a prisoner exhaust administrative remedies available within the correctional facility before bringing suit under Section 1983 regarding prison conditions. The Court held that Johnson had exhausted the available administrative remedies for his Eighth Amendment claims. The Court also found that Johnson had exhausted remedies for some of his Equal Protection sexual orientation claims because his grievances were sufficient to give prison officials fair notice that there might have been a sexual-orientation-related aspect to Johnson's problems. The Court further held that certain defendant prison officials were not entitled to qualified immunity because they did not reasonably respond to Johnson's grievances and their conduct was clearly illegal.

On remand before the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, the case was reassigned to Judge Barbara M. G. Lynn on January 3, 2005, and on March 22, 2005, the case caption was modified to Johnson v. Wathen to reflect the dismissal of several defendants. On September 8, 2005, Judge Lynn granted plaintiff Johnson's petition for writs of habeas corpus. The case was tried before a jury which rendered a verdict in favor of the defendants on each of Johnson's claims on October 18, 2005. There was some subsequent litigation over attorney's fees. As of this writing, the docket on PACER ends with a January 2006 order granting costs against the plaintiff.

Tom Madison - 02/11/2006


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