Ecclesiastical Washington v. Benjamin Brooke, No. 20-1386 (8th Cir. 2020)

Annotate this Case

Court Description: [Per Curiam - Before Loken, Shepherd and Stras, Circuit Judges] Prisoner case - Prisoner civil rights. The district court did not err in granting defendants' motion for summary judgment in this prisoner civil rights suit; in particular, the court concludes, like the district court, that defendants did not deliberately disregard a substantial risk of harm to plaintiff based on other inmates' negative reaction to his successful lawsuit to ban the sale and consumption of tobacco products at the prison. [ October 01, 2020 ]

Download PDF
United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit ___________________________ No. 20-1386 ___________________________ Ecclesiastical Denzel Washington lllllllllllllllllllllPlaintiff - Appellant v. Benjamin Brooke, et al. lllllllllllllllllllllDefendants - Appellees ____________ Appeal from United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri - St. Joseph ____________ Submitted: September 24, 2020 Filed: October 2, 2020 [Unpublished] ____________ Before LOKEN, SHEPHERD, and STRAS, Circuit Judges. ____________ PER CURIAM. Missouri inmate Ecclesiastical Washington appeals the district court’s1 grant of summary judgment dismissing his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 damage claims alleging that 1 The Honorable Nanette K. Laughrey, United States District Judge for the Western District of Missouri. numerous Missouri correction officers were deliberately indifferent to his ongoing exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke, failed to protect Washington from assaults by other inmates displeased with his successful lawsuit to ban the sale and consumption of tobacco products, and failed to provide appropriate medical and dental care after the assaults. After dismissing many claims without prejudice for failure to exhaust, the district court granted the remaining defendants summary judgment dismissing the failure to protect claims. After careful review of the record, we affirm for the reasons stated by the district court in its orders dated January 31 and February 5, 2020. See 8th Cir. Rule 47B. In particular, like the district court we conclude that defendants did not deliberately disregard a substantial risk of serious harm to Washington based on the general negative reaction of the prison population to his successful litigation. We decline to consider allegations and claims first raised by Washington on appeal. ______________________________ -2-

Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.