Ruling by USDC Judge Stephen A. Murphy, Magistrate Elizabeth Stafford is first victory in lawsuit vs. conditions at WHC, filed in 2019
Black mold dripping from showerheads onto women at WHV; eats through bricks and door frames, falls from ceilings and air vents
MDOC Director Heidi Washington multiple other officials, represented by MI Atty. General Dana Nessel, promptly appeal to 6th Circuit Court
“MOTION to STAY PROCEEDINGS OR DISCOVERY PENDING RESOLUTION OF THEIR APPEAL by Shawn Brewer, Richard Bullard, Jeremy Bush, Dan Carter, Joel Dreffs, Lia Gulick, Jeremy Howard, David Johnson, Kenneth McKee, Toni Moore, Karri Ousterhout, Joseph Treppa, Ed Vallard, Heidi Washington.” —July 11, 2024
Jay Love, Survivors Speak call for freedom for Krystal Clark; doctor says she must be immediately removed from WHV prison to live
By Diane Bukowski
July 14, 2025
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DETROIT–Six years after they filed a class-action suit regarding horrific conditions including rampant black mold and filthy ventilation systems throughout Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility, women there won an outstanding ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Stephen J. Murphy June 24, which adopted the March 12 Report of Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Stafford.
It condemns the conditions at WHV in graphic terms and denies qualified immunity to dozens of MDOC prison officials including MDOC Director Heidi Washington, who have dragged the case out for years as over 1600 women (total in 2023) c0ntinue to suffer.
USDC Judge Murphy ordered the parties to submit discovery materials by January 30, 2026. But the defendants filed an appeal July 1o, to the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, followed by a Motion to Stay Proceedings July 11.
Complete ruling at: http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/ORDER-Granting-In-Part-and-Denying-In-Part-184-Motion-for-Judgment-on-the-Pleadings-WHV-Krystal-Clark.pdf
The Murphy/Stafford ruling follows a dismissal due in part to qualified immunity and in part due to lack of clear case law on the effects of mold by U.S. District Court Judge Victoria A. Roberts, 0n Aug. 23,2023, leaving it open for an amended complaint by the plaintiffs. Judge Murphy noted in his ruling that the amended complaint, filed Sept. 15, 2023, presented vast extensive evidence of the violations.
On qualified immunity, he said, “All defendants’ Eighth Amendment deliberate indifference claims must satisfy a two-part test with an objective and subjective component. The objective prong asks whether the inmate was incarcerated under conditions posing a substantial risk of serious harm. The subjective prong then asks whether officials knew of and disregarded that excessive risk to the inmate’s health or safety.” Here, Plaintiffs satisfy both prongs.”
Judge Murphy notes, “Defendants suggested that the poor conditions at Huron Valley are part of the routine discomforts of prison life. And they argued that the conditions do not inflict unnecessary and wanton pain. The Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed that only those deprivations denying ‘the minimal civilized measure of life’s necessities’ are sufficiently grave to form the basis of an Eighth Amendment violation.”
The MDOC defendants’ attorneys had argued during hearings on the first complaint, “There are no cases establishing a prisoner’s right to be free from these molds (Ochroconis, Cladosporium and Chaetomium), that it is not clearly established that any type of mold at WHV is sufficiently dangerous to incarcerated people, and even if it were clearly established that certain molds were dangerous enough to implicate the Eighth Amendment it is not clearly established that prison officials need to take any particular action to remediate the presence of mold.”
Meanwhile, Jay Love, host of the podcast, “Turning a Moment into a Movement,” and Trishe Duckworth, head of Survivors Speak, have mounted an emergency campaign for the release and hospitalization of plaintiff Krystal Clark, who doctors say could die if she is not released from prison forthwith. They are asking people to call Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and email MDOC Director Heidi Washington.
Judge Murphy’s order notes Clark suffers from “severe respiratory issues, uncontrollable asthma, shortness of breath,
breakouts on her face, rashes on her arms, legs, and ankles, weight gain, nosebleeds, incessant coughing, headaches, dizziness, bacterial
infections, severe eye infections that have resulted in having to wear an
eye patch, and . . . ear infections that caused hearing loss and a white residue to grow and leak from her ears.
“Today, it is hard for Clark to breathe anywhere at Huron Valley. In 2015, she was hospitalized for relentless coughing and breathing issues, and she was diagnosed with bronchitis. An allergist has since confirmed that Clark has a severe allergy to mold and that her symptoms are due to mold exposure. Id. Dr. Tran at Huron Valley has said that Clark probably won’t heal until she leaves the facility. Id. at PageID.3413. Clark has been diagnosed with pneumonia twice while at Huron Valley, and she is on three different inhalers and six different medications to cope with her symptoms. ”
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