Mr Michael Devin Floyd v. Santa Clara Department of Corrections, et al.

San Francisco, California civil rights lawyer represented the Plaintiff who claimed that his rights were violated by the Defendants.



Late in the evening on August 18, 2021, Plaintiff-Appellant Michael Devin

Floyd was arrested and brought to the Santa Clara Main Jail for booking. Four hours

later, Floyd was transferred to the nearby Elmwood Correctional Facility. There,

correctional officers asked Floyd to change from his civilian clothes into jail-issued

attire, a routine procedure that all detainees who arrive at Elmwood must complete

before moving from the lobby into the prison's housing unit. Floyd was unwilling

to change his clothes and thus could not leave the lobby. For ten hours, Floyd

refused to cooperate despite attempts by more than a dozen correctional officers and

two mental-health professionals to persuade him. On the afternoon of August 19,

2021, Floyd finally relented and allowed officers to escort him to his housing unit,

thus ending an encounter that began with Floyd's booking at the Main Jail and lasted

more than fourteen hours.



Floyd filed this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the County of Santa

Clara, several of the County's subdivisions, and twenty-four individual correctional

officers from both the Main Jail and Elmwood (collectively, "Defendants”). Floyd

alleged that various officers used excessive force against him, deprived him of the

right to make a phone call, and denied him access to the restroom, in violation of his

Fourteenth Amendment right as a pretrial detainee to be free from punishment; Floyd

also alleged that the County of Santa Clara had a policy of violating detainees' rights

in this manner and was liable under Monell v. Dep't of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658

(1978). The district court granted summary judgment to Defendants on all counts.

Floyd timely appealed.

Summary judgment in favor of the Defendants.



Affirmed