(CN) — A federal judge on Tuesday again advanced claims against California prison officials brought by the family of a state prison inmate who was killed in the showers by a convicted murderer who claims to be a 2,000-year-old vampire who drinks his victims’ blood.
Prison officials found Aaron Coderre dead with multiple stab wounds to the neck in the showers at the California Health Care Facility in Stockton on May 31, 2020. The facility houses inmates who require extensive medical or mental health care.
Inmate Joshua Rudiger was in the showers with Coderre. Rudiger claims to be a 2,000 year old vampire who drinks the blood of his victims for strength and vitality, and was serving a life sentence for slashing a San Francisco homeless woman’s neck, killing her and drinking her blood in a 1999 attack
Rudiger had also attempted to kill three other homeless people before he was arrested. Local news dubbed him the “vampire slasher.”
In a 2021 lawsuit filed by Coderre’s mother Rita Coderre, she claims prison authorities were negligent in their duties to provide due care to her son and ignored that Rudiger was a danger even after her son told a prison supervisor that Rudiger had threatened him. In 2023, a federal judge allowed those claims to proceed.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Troy Nunley, a Barack Obama appointee, ruled that prison officials failed to protect Coderre in violation of the Eighth Amendment because they were deliberately indifferent when they ignored the signs that Rudiger was a danger to Coderre.
“Plaintiff alleges Rudiger was known in the facility as the ‘Modern Day Vampire.’ Plaintiff further alleges defendants knew of Rudiger’s violent history and continued proclivity for slashing the throats of others and drinking their blood,” Nunley wrote. “Plaintiff alleges defendants also knew Rudiger would pose a substantial risk of harm if placed in close contact with another inmate. Plaintiff specifically alleges the decedent requested defendants protect him from Rudiger and reported to defendants that Rudiger threatened him.”
Nunley advanced claims of supervisor liability against two prison officials who were responsible for monitoring video feeds that showed Rudiger entering the single-cell shower where Coderre was and placing a towel over the window into the shower. This suspicious behavior should have triggered intervention, Nunley wrote, especially after Coderre had complained to a sergeant that Rudiger had threatened him and asked to be moved to a mental health crisis bed for his own safety. The sergeant denied Coderre’s request.
The judge dismissed claims that the defendants failed to summon medical care for Coderre because there is no evidence Coderre was alive when he was found or that any of the defendants knew Coderre needed immediate medical care. Coderre’s mother did not contest the dismissal of the medical care claims and did not request leave to amend them.
He advanced wrongful death and negligence claims for similar reasons to the Eighth Amendment claims.
“There was a reasonable inference that Rudiger was a danger to the decedent,” Nunley wrote.
However, Nunley ruled that Coderre’s mother failed to respond to the defendants’ arguments about her ability to obtain punitive damages or attorney’s fees for the wrongful death and negligence claims.
“Accordingly, the court deems those requests abandoned,” Nunley wrote.
Attorneys for Coderre’s mother and the defendants did not respond to requests for comment before deadline.
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
Additional Reads
-
More than tight handcuffs August 27, 2024 -
A duty to defend? August 27, 2024
