Hageman v. Billups
8th Cir. No. 22-2098
Mr. Hageman was quietly reading his bible in his cell when five correctional officers forcibly removed him from his bunk and took him to segregation, nominally not because he had done anything wrong but for his own protection. Although he was not resisting, they handcuffed him and pulled on the chain, breaking his wrist and cutting his hands. Prison officials placed himin a segregation cell covered in another prisoner’s blood and denied him medical treatment
The district court wrongly dismissed this excessive force claim writing that Mr. Hageman “was initially segregated for his safety, which is an authorized method of safeguarding Hageman and maintaining institutional security.” We argued that the legitimacy of transferring of Mr. Hageman to administrative segregation does not bear on whether the COs had the authority to break his wrist and cut his hands in doing so.
The Eighth Circuit agreed, writing “the facts alleged create a reasonable inference the officers acted maliciously in an effort to cause harm because the corrections officers applied force without justification against a non-violent, cooperative inmate during a non-emergency transfer—that is, use of force sufficient to break a cooperative inmate’s wrist with a complete absence of any penological purpose”
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