Rowe v. Church et al

While Logan Rowe was in pretrial detention in the Sumner County Detention Center, a sheriff’s deputy spread a false rumor that Mr. Rowe was a racist. Recognizing that this rumor could put him at risk for harm from other detainees, Mr. Rowe quickly asked jail staff to set the record straight. But even though several jail supervisors promised to fix the problem, they did nothing about it.

Mr. Rowe was soon physically assaulted and sexually harassed by two other detainees, who wrongly believed Mr. Rowe to be a racist; jail staff did nothing to intervene and stop the hours-long abuse.

Mr. Rowe, unsurprisingly, developed PTSD from this incident. His symptoms were debilitating and constant, including chest pains, paranoia, flashbacks, and nightmares. Mr. Rowe tried many times over the course of several months to receive mental health treatment for his PTSD, but was ignored or denied every time. And though the jail had strict orders to keep Mr. Rowe’s two attackers away from him, a jail supervisor placed one of his attackers in a hallway with Mr. Rowe just a few weeks later and then left the two of them alone, enabling Mr. Rowe’s attacker to threaten and sexually harass him.

To compound matters, the jail retaliated against Mr. Rowe for filing grievances about what he’d endured.

Representing himself, Mr. Rowe sued in federal district court to hold jail officials accountable for failing to protect him and refusing to provide necessary medical care in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, and for retaliating against him in violation of the First Amendment. The district court dismissed Mr. Rowe’s case because it held that his claims were barred by a provision of the Prison Litigation Reform Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(e), which requires a “physical injury.”

We represent Mr. Rowe on appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Our opening brief explains that Mr. Rowe’s case satisfies the requirements of § 1997e(e) because he suffered multiple physical injuries, including pain and PTSD, which modern neuroscience demonstrates is a physical as well as psychological disorder.

We thank Harvard Law School students Erica Medley, Alex Ropes, and Ash Smith for their significant contributions to the opening brief.