Lee v. Willey

Lee was transferred to the custody of the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) following his conviction for criminal sexual conduct involving adult male victims. Lee claims that while at MDOC’s Reception Center for intake, correctional officers harassed him about being homosexual and made comments in front of other inmates encouraging sexual advances. Lee alleged that COs failed to act when Lee requested protection from inmates who were pursuing him. Lee claimed that he complained about staff harassment and being pursued for sex to mental health professionals, but was, nonetheless raped in his cell by unidentified inmates. Lee alleged that he went to the officer’s desk after being assaulted, asked to speak with a mental health professional, and that an unknown CO refused to give him a grievance form. Lee alleged that he submitted a “substitute grievance” on prisoner stationery. Defendants had no record of receiving this substitute grievance. Lee’s 42 U.S.C. 1983 action was filed about three years later. After the Sixth Circuit held that, as a private employee under contract, the MDOC psychiatrist was not entitled to qualified immunity, the district court found that Lee had not submitted the substitute grievance in 2007, and rejected his claims for failure to exhaust administrative remedies as required by the Prison Litigation Reform Act, 42 U.S.C. 1997e(a). The Sixth Circuit affirmed. View "Lee v. Willey" on Justia Law