Due Process Violation

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Destiny Hoffman, et al. v. Susan Knoebel, et al.

Case No.: 17-2750

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and HAMILTON and BARRETT, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Due Process Violation

Like many jurisdictions, Indiana has turned to “drug courts” to tackle substance-abuse problems more flexibly than traditional sentencing regimes might allow. Ind. Code § 33-23-16-5. These non-traditional court programs have been shown to reduce recidivism rates, at least in some jurisdictions. Compare Michael W. Finigan, et al., IMPACT OF A MATURE DRUG COURT OVER 10 YEARS OF OPERATION: RECIDIVISM AND COSTS 23–29 (Nat’l Inst. Just. 2007), https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/219225.pdf  (analyzing the successes of the drug court in Portland, Oregon, in reducing recidivism), with Randall T. Brown, Systematic Review of the Impact of Adult Drug Treatment Courts, 155 J. LABORATORY & CLINICAL MED. 263, 263 (2010) (finding that “randomized trials failed to demonstrate a consistent effect on rearrest rates for drug-involved offenders” participating in drug treatment courts). Unfortunately, the Drug Treatment Court (“DTC”) in Clark County, Indiana, was not one of the success stories. Under the stewardship of Judge Jerome Jacobi, the court ran roughshod over the rights of its participants, who frequently languished in jail for weeks and even months without justification. The jail stays imposed as “sanctions” for noncompliance with program conditions were arbitrary and issued without due process. DTC staff made arrests despite a clear lack of authority to do so under state law. After these abuses were brought to light, numerous participants in the program filed a putative class action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and the Indiana Supreme Court and Indiana Judicial Center shut down the program.

Indiana’s actions may have ended the DTC, but they did not end the litigation in the district court. That court denied class certification, dismissed some claims, and resolved most of the rest of the claims on summary judgment. A final plaintiff’s claim was settled before trial. In the end, the plaintiffs failed to win relief. On appeal, we are left with due process claims by seventeen plaintiffs against three defendants, and Fourth Amendment claims by three plaintiffs against two defendants. The district court resolved all of these claims in the defendants’ favor at summary judgment. While we have no doubt that the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights were violated, the question is whether these defendants were personally responsible for the systemic breakdown. Plaintiffs have failed to make that showing, and so the district court’s judgment dismissing the action must be affirmed.

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.