IN THE UNITED DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE
WESTERN DIVISION
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff
v.
STATE OF TENNESSEE, Donald Sundquist, Governor of the State of Tennessee; Marjorie Nell Cardwell, Commissioner, Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation; Dr. A. Jane Walters, Commissioner, Tennessee Department of Education; Stanley Lipford, Superintendent, Nat T. Winston Developmental Center; Julia Bratcher, Superintendent, Clover Bottom Developmental Center, Robert Erb, Superintendent, Greene Valley Developmental Center, Defendants
COMPLAINT
1. The Attorney General of the United States brings this
action on behalf of the United States of America, pursuant to the
Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act of 1980 ("CRIPA"),
42 U.S.C. §§ 1997-1997j, to enjoin the named Defendants from
depriving persons residing at the Nat T. Winston Developmental
Center, in Bolivar, Tennessee ("NWDC"), the Clover Bottom
Developmental Center, in Nashville, Tennessee ("CBDC"), and the
Greene Valley Developmental Center, in Greeneville, Tennessee
("GVDC") (collectively, "the Centers") of rights, privileges or
immunities secured or protected by the laws and Constitution of
the United States.
JURISDICTION, STANDING AND VENUE
2. This Court has jurisdiction over this action pursuant
to 28 U.S.C. § 1345.
3. The United States has standing to maintain this action
pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1997a.
4. The Attorney General has certified that all pre-filing
requirements specified in 42 U.S.C. § 1997b have been met. The
certificate of the Attorney General is appended to this Complaint
and is incorporated herein.
5. Venue in the United States District Court for the
Western District of Tennessee, Western Division is proper
pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1391 and 1392. This Complaint is
properly filed before United States District Court Judge Jon
Phipps McCalla as a related case to United States v. Tennessee,
et al., No. 92-2062 Ml/A. See, e.g., U.S. District Court for the
Western District of Tennessee Local Rule 4(a)(2).
DEFENDANTS
6. Defendant STATE OF TENNESSEE ("State") owns and
operates the Centers, institutions housing individuals with
mental retardation or other developmental disabilities. Some of
the individuals are also elderly and mentally ill.
7. Defendant DONALD SUNDQUIST is the Governor of the State
and, in this capacity, heads the Executive Branch of the State's
government and, among other duties, reviews and approves budget
requests submitted by Executive Branch agencies regarding the
Centers. He selects and appoints the Commissioner of the
Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation.
8. Defendant MARJORIE NELL CARDWELL is the Commissioner of
the Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation and, in
this capacity, exercises administrative control of, and
responsibility for, the Centers.
9. Defendant DR. A. JANE WALTERS is the Commissioner of
the Department of Education and, in this capacity, exercises
administrative control of, and responsibility for, educational
services for school age children living in the Centers.
10. Defendant STANLEY LIPFORD is the Superintendent of
NWDC, and is responsible for the administration and day-to-day
operations of NWDC.
11. Defendant JULIA BRATCHER is the Superintendent of CBDC,
and is responsible for the administration and day-to-day
operations of CBDC.
12. Defendant ROBERT ERB is the Superintendent of GVDC, and
is responsible for the administration and day-to-day operations
of GVDC.
13. The individual Defendants named in paragraphs 7 through
12 above are officers of the Executive Branch of the State of
Tennessee and are sued in their official capacities.
14. NWDC, CBDC and GVDC are institutions as that term is
defined in 42 U.S.C. § 1997(1)(A), (1)(B)(i) and (1)(B)(v).
15. Persons residing at the Centers are individuals with
mental retardation or other developmental disabilities, and some
of the individuals are also elderly and mentally ill.
16. Defendants Sundquist, Cardwell, Lipford, Bratcher, and
Erb are legally responsible, in whole or in part, for the
operation of and conditions at the Centers, as well as the care
and treatment of persons residing at those institutions.
Defendant Walters is responsible, in whole or in part, for the
education of the school age children living at the Centers.
17. At all relevant times, Defendants have acted or failed
to act, as alleged herein, under color of state law.
FACTUAL ALLEGATIONS
18. Defendants have failed and are continuing to fail to
provide reasonably safe conditions and to ensure the reasonable
safety and personal security of the Centers' residents.
19. Defendants have failed and are continuing to fail to
provide adequate medical care and related services, including
psychiatric care, and physical and occupational therapy, to the
Centers' residents.
20. Defendants have failed and are continuing to fail to
ensure that the Centers' residents are free from undue or
unreasonable restraint.
21. Defendants have failed and are continuing to fail to
ensure that chemical and physical restraints are administered to
the Centers' residents by appropriately qualified professionals
in keeping with accepted professional standards, and are not used
as punishment, in lieu of treatment, or for the convenience of
staff.
22. Defendants have failed and are continuing to fail to
ensure that medications are prescribed and administered to the
Centers' residents by appropriately qualified professionals in
keeping with accepted professional standards, and are not used as
punishment, in lieu of treatment, or for the convenience of
staff.
23. Defendants have failed and are continuing to fail to
provide the Centers' residents with that level of individualized
training and behavioral programming to ensure and protect the
Centers' residents' liberty interests, including their right to
training sufficient to provide each resident a reasonable
opportunity to enhance functioning, to grow and develop, attain
self-help and social skills needed to exercise autonomy or
independence, avoid both physical and psychological regression
and loss of skills, and ensure their reasonable safety, security,
and freedom from undue bodily restraint.
24. Defendants have failed and are continuing to fail to
provide a sufficient number of adequately trained staff to render
essential care, treatment and training to individuals living at
the Centers.
25. Defendants have failed and are continuing to fail to
maintain professionally based recordkeeping and record review
systems to ensure that resident records contain accurate, up-to-date and relevant information necessary to enable staff to provide adequate care, treatment, and training to the Centers' residents.
26. Defendants have failed and are continuing to fail to
ensure that the Centers' residents are adequately evaluated for
community placement, that those individual residents who
professionals determine should be placed in community programs
are placed in such programs, and that all residents are served in
the most integrated setting appropriate to each resident's
individual needs.
27. Defendants have violated and continue to violate the
due process rights of the Centers' residents guaranteed under the
Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States,
while arbitrarily denying the Centers' residents rights under
Tennessee state law. See, e.g., Tenn. Code Ann. § 33-3-104 and §
33-5-201.
28. Defendants have failed and are continuing to fail to
meet the requirements of the Individuals With Disabilities
Education Act ("IDEA"), 20 U.S.C. §§ 1400-1486, by failing to
educate its school-age children in the least restrictive
environment appropriate to their needs, and failing to provide
these children with, inter alia, appropriate, individualized
education plans, and adequate related services, including
physical therapy and behavioral services.
VIOLATIONS ALLEGED
29. The acts and omissions alleged in paragraphs 18 through
28 violate the rights, privileges and immunities of residents of
the Centers secured or protected by the laws and Constitution of
the United States, and deprive the Centers' residents of such
rights, privileges and immunities.
30. Unless restrained by this Court, Defendants will
continue to engage in the conduct and practices set forth in
paragraphs 18 through 28 that deprive residents of the Centers of
rights privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the laws
and Constitution of the United States, and cause irreparable harm
to the residents.
PRAYER FOR RELIEF
31. The Attorney General is authorized under 42 U.S.C. §
1997a to seek only equitable relief.
WHEREFORE, the United States prays that this Court enter an
order permanently enjoining Defendants, their agents, employees,
subordinates, successors in office, and all those acting in
concert or participation with them from continuing the acts,
practices and omissions at the Centers set forth in paragraphs 18
through 28 above, and to require Defendants to take such action
as will bring Defendants into compliance with federal law and
provide Constitutional conditions of care to persons who reside
at the Centers. The United States further prays that this Court
grant such other and further equitable relief as it may deem just
and proper.
Respectfully submitted,
JANET RENO, Attorney General of the United States
DEVAL L. PATRICK, Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division
VERONICA F. COLEMAN, United States Attorney
ARTHUR E. PEABODY, JR., Chief, Special Litigation Section
ROBINSUE FROHBOESE, Deputy Chief Special Litigation Section
LAURIE J. WEINSTEIN
VERLIN P. HUGHES
ROBERT C. BOWMAN
Senior Trial Attorneys
U.S. Department of Justice
Civil Rights Division
Special Litigation Section
Updated 2008-07-25