Bracey v. Grondin

Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
Prisoners
Citation
Case Number: 
No. 12-1644
Decision Date: 
March 15, 2013
Federal District: 
W.D. Wisc.
Holding: 
Affirmed
In action by plaintiff-prisoner seeking recovery under 8th Amendment from defendants-prison officials for alleged use of excessive force while escorting plaintiff within prison, Dist. Ct. did not err in denying plaintiff’s request for recruitment of counsel and/or for use of adverse jury instruction due to defendants’ failure to preserve video of incident in question. While Dist. Ct. found that plaintiff made reasonable attempts to find counsel, it also held that allegations of complaint were sufficiently straightforward, and that plaintiff was sufficiently competent to handle case by himself. Fact that plaintiff was denied certain internal security documents (due to his status as prisoner) as part of his discovery requests did not require different result. Moreover, plaintiff failed to establish any bad-faith on part of defendants so as to warrant giving of adverse jury instruction where record failed to show that any prison official actually viewed subject video and then allowed video to be recorded over for purpose of hiding adverse information.