A jail cell with metal bars and bunk beds.
PHILADELPHIA – A Pennsylvania inmate unpopular with corrections officers tired of his civil rights lawsuits will get a second chance to pursue claims they labeled him a “rat” as retaliation.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on Wednesday ruled for Brandon Timmons on a technical issue that had doomed his case against officials at SCI-Dallas including superintendent Jasen Bohinski. Timmons has a history of filing pro se lawsuits against staff at the facility, located in Luzerne County.
He’d not found success in courts until the Third Circuit agreed that his claims might not be precluded because officers intimidated him from seeking other remedies, something he claimed in a declaration filed with Harrisburg federal judge Yvette Kane.
“Plaintiff’s declaration was not ‘conclusory’ to such an extent that the District Court was free to disregard it,” the Third Circuit wrote. “There were some conclusions in Plaintiff’s declaration, but they were grounded in facts that he specified in the document with enough information to infer his first-hand knowledge.”
Timmons sued in 2021 and amended his complaint several times, alleging Bohinski called him a “rat” in front of other inmates and also told them he was a “snitch.” This placed him at risk of assault, he claims.
Bohinski is alleged to have said he did so because of Timmons’ previous lawsuits against dozens of SCI-Dallas employees. Prisoners must exhaust administrative remedies like a grievance process before suing, though the law says they must only exhaust remedies that are available.
The grievance process wasn’t available, Timmons said, because officials had intimidated him to keep him from filing a complaint. Judge Kane didn’t agree, dismissing his lawsuit last year.
But the U.S. Supreme Court later held inmates are entitled to a jury trial on exhaustion when the issue is intertwined with the merits of their claim. That case involved a Michigan prison employee who allegedly destroyed grievance documents made against him.
Thus, the Third Circuit says, Timmons’ declaration that his grievance process was corrupted by similar intimidation like being labeled a “rat” is good enough to keep the case alive. Though Timmons usually represents himself, his cause caught the attention of the Roderick & Solange MacArthur Justice Center.
“Mr. Timmons attempted to file a grievance about this incident, but the prison guard to whom he submitted the grievance read it, discarded it, and threatened Mr. Timmons that ‘inmates who file grievances [against] Bohinski get the shit beat out of them,’” the group said.
Timmons previously faced charges of aggravated assault of officials, following his incarceration on guilty pleas including third-degree murder of a West Philadelphia woman in 2012.
