Trial underway in Department of Corrections lawsuit

PALMER — Most central facts in a lawsuit against the Alaska Department of Corrections are not in dispute, lawyers said in opening statements Tuesday.

Richard Mattox, who is white, was serving a two-year sentence for felony driving under the influence charges at Spring Creek Correctional Center in Seward on the afternoon July 22, 2007, when another inmate, Vincent E. Wilkerson, who is black, told him to “shut the (expletive) up,” while they were watching the “Dinotopia” miniseries in a housing module known as Kilo mod at Spring Creek.

After Mattox asked another inmate whether Wilkerson was talking to him, Wilkerson (who was serving three years on a third-degree assault conviction) punched him once in the face, landing him in the hospital and requiring six titanium plates and about 200 screws to repair five fractures in his facial bones.

The attack was eventually ruled an instance of mutual combat, and Mattox was sent to solitary confinement, according to his attorney.

Attorneys on both sides have cited racial tension as allegedly playing a role in the incident.

The central question in the lawsuit is whether the Department of Corrections could have foreseen Wilkerson’s attack on Mattox, and whether they took reasonable precautions to prevent it.

Mattox says he had requested a transfer to get away from Wilkerson. But an earlier summary judgment in which presiding Superior Court Judge Vanessa White threw out Mattox’s lawsuit held that Mattox’s communication “was too general to put the Department on notice that the inmate was at risk for the attack he suffered,” according to the Alaska Supreme Court.

However, the Supreme Court overruled White on appeal in April 2014. The facts of the case merited a trial, because if Mattox’s claims were true, legal precedents have established the department’s responsibility for inmate safety, chief justice Richard Faber wrote.

“In evaluating Mattox’s motion for summary judgment, we draw all reasonable factual inferences in his favor,” he wrote. “Thus, even without production of the written transfer requests, we must assume that Mattox requested a transfer. We have assumed the truth of Mattox’s allegations, and on the basis of those allegations have concluded that summary judgment was improper.”

Mattox, 47 at the time of the attack, says he raised concerns about his safety with Spring Creek guards earlier in his incarceration, after his cellmate, identified only as Aaron, threatened Mattox by telling him on multiple occasions there would be trouble between them based on race. Aaron made threats typically when they were alone in the cell together and Mattox was reading the Bible, Mattox testified.

“I don’t like you,” Aaron said, according to court documents. “Your people were killing my people back in the day. You’ve got to get out or something’s going to happen.”

In addition to the explicit threats, Mattox testified that inmates in Kilo block were more active than he was used to.

“I knew they were a rowdy bunch,” he said. “They were wrestling in their cells when the guard wasn’t looking.”

Wilkerson, 38 at the time of the attack, and Aaron, who also is black, knew each other, ate together and played basketball together, attorneys said.

“There were just a lot of younger guys in their 20s in there, and I was in my 40s and I didn’t want to hang out with anyone, with them,” Mattox said. “I really wanted to move out. Aaron topped it off by telling me ‘One of us is going to leave this room.’ When he looked at me and told me ‘One of us is going to leave this room,’ I knew what he meant.”

Mattox allegedly filed two requests for new housing out of fear, according to Ben Whipple, Mattox’s attorney. When Mattox later requested copies of his record, the two requests weren’t included, Mattox said.

“That omission, that gap, should really be attributed to the department,” Whipple said.

In opening statements Whipple argued that while corrections officials have a difficult job, and do it well for the most part, the actions of a single guard resulted in lasting repercussions for Mattox.

“Every once in a while you run across an attitude or a person, or maybe it’s a singular event, this idea that because someone is in jail, what they get is what they deserve,” he said. “There are some things that inmates should not be permitted to suffer. If a guard turns a blind eye or just refuses to act when the person should act, that indifference can end up costing someone dearly, and we believe that’s what happened in Mr. Mattox’s case.”

Mattox is asking the jury for an unspecified sum for costs associated with recovery from his injuries, and pain and suffering, Whipple said.

In her opening statement, assistant attorney general Susan West said corrections personnel offered Mattox protective custody, but he declined.

“He wasn’t scared enough,” West said.

Mattox’s requests to change housing — West asserted Mattox was attempting to get into Juliet mod, a much more desirable area housing older prisoners — did not mention violence and thus weren’t entered into the permanent system for retention, West said.

“He wanted to move to a quieter, more desirable unit within the institution, because he thought the other inmates were a little too young, rowdy and cocky for his taste,” she said.

Because Mattox didn’t effectively communicate why he wanted out of Kilo mod, corrections isn’t responsible for Wilkerson’s actions, West said.

“The officers who worked in Kilo mod are adamant … that Mr. Mattox never expressed fear for his safety,” she said. “They say, yes, he wanted to move, not because he was afraid, or because he wanted it expressed, but because he wanted a choice housing assignment.”

Ultimately, the jury must decide whether corrections officials could foresee Wilkerson’s attack based on Mattox’s fear, West said.

“It’s going to be up to you to decide whether the Department of Corrections should have foreseen whether Mr. Mattox would keep talking to another inmate during a TV show,” she said. “It will be up to you whether the Department of Corrections should have foreseen that Mr. Wilkerson would get irritated with Mr. Mattox, get up from his chair and punch him in the face.”

The trial is scheduled to continue at least through Friday.

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269 or brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com.