Agency CEOs Determine Morality Image

In the simplest and most absolute of terms, the Eighth Amendment right of prisoners to be free from sexual abuse was unquestionably clearly established prior to the time of this alleged assault, and no reasonable prison guard could possibly have believed otherwise.

Without question then, Kahle's constitutional right to be protected from being sexually assaulted by a guard was clearly established on December 14, 2002, as was the fact that a supervisor who was deliberately indifferent to a substantial risk of such an assault could be held liable under § 1983. "(I)t would be clear to a reasonable officer (in Malone's position) that his conduct was unlawful in the situation he confronted." Saucier, 533 U.S. at 202.

Because a reasonable juror who accepted Kahle's version of the events could conclude that Malone violated Kahle's clearly-established constitutional rights by demonstrating deliberate indifference to a substantial risk that she would be seriously harmed by Leonard, the district court's denial of Malone's summary-judgment motion is AFFIRMED.”  (Mindy Kahle, Plaintiff/Apellee, v. Jermaine Leonard, individually and in his official capacity, Defendant; Deputy Tim Malone, individually and in his official capacity Defendant/Appellant; Sheriff Don Holloway, individually and in his official capacity; Pennington County Sheriff's Office; Pennington County Jail; Scott Schuft, individually and in his official capacity, Defendants.   2007 U.S. APP LEXIS 3107)

There is an old saying you can run but, you can’t hide from the truth.  In this case the Sheriff took the right road and had good policies.  A large part of the outcome of this case was the testimony of Sheriff Holloway.  It is very persuasive if the Sheriff Holloway himself been in his jail and knew that Malone could see the cell and was untruthful.   The importance of a CEO having the foresight to take part in an investigation is immeasurable.  Some agency heads don’t understand that internal investigations are as important to the department as an officer involved shooting and that mishandling them can have the same negative impact on the agency.

Web Links:

• National Internal Affairs Investigators Association
• Public Agency Training Council

About The Author:

Randy Rider began his career with the Douglas County Sheriff office, Georgia in 1974. He received several promotions eventually to investigations. His areas of expertise are extensive having worked crimes from petty theft to murder. In 1983 he became employed with the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice as an investigator, promoted to Principal Investigator. He eventually moved into the Internal Affairs Unit as an investigator and as a supervisor.

Rider was elected President of the National Internal Affairs Investigators Association in 2005 and stepped down in 2010 having served five years. He is currently the Chaplain of the organization.

He is employed with the Public Agency Training Council one of the largest police training organizations in the country. Rider travels the country teaching officers on internal investigations of corrections facilities and first line supervisors on investigations of citizen’s complaints. He has experience is police audits.

Over the course of his career he has conducted hundreds of investigations concerning abuse, neglect, and use of force by law enforcement officers. Additionally, he has years of experience in custodial investigations, including numerous investigations involving the highly prevalent but seldom reported cases of inmate on inmate abuse. He has conducted investigations of police personnel for acts of misconduct.

A member of the IACP he worked with the organization on the document “Building Trust between the Police and the Citizens They Serve.” Currently he is an advisor on the Leading by Legacy program. He is an advisor to the International Chiefs of Police and the Department of Justice Community Oriented Policing Services.

Randy is a columnist for Officer.com as the internal affairs author. He published the weekly NIAIA newsletter for five years. He currently publishes the riderreport, a police newsletter.