A federal judge has found a Garfield County sheriff’s deputy did not violate the constitutional rights of a sleeping detainee by allegedly tossing a pack of playing cards at him and injuring his testicle.

According to Juan A. Carrazco’s lawsuit, he had asked Deputy Amber Morrison to wake him in the morning so he could take his medicine, but Morrison was unable to rouse him verbally. She then threw a nearly-empty toilet paper roll at him, and followed it up with the semi-full pack of cards. Although Morrison maintained the cards hit Carrazco in the thigh, he alleged the blow was to his groin.

Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Nina Y. Wang sided with Morrison, finding the deputy did not violate Carrazco’s right as a pretrial detainee to be free from excessive force.

No jury, she wrote, “could find that defendant’s act of underhanding a pack of cards in plaintiff’s direction in an attempt to wake him up for med pass, after a number of other unsuccessful attempts to wake him up, was objectively unreasonable.”

On May 10, 2019, Carrazco was in the Garfield County jail for charges that prosecutors would later dismiss. He asked Morrison to wake him up early the next morning so he could take his medicine, known as “med pass” or “medline.” Accordingly, around 3:30 a.m., Morrison arrived at Carrazco’s cell, which did not have a door.

Pursuant to her training, she could not go inside. Instead, she tried to wake him up verbally, but Carrazco did not respond. She then lightly tossed the toilet paper roll, also unsuccessfully. Morrison “underhanded” the playing cards in Carrazco’s direction, which did succeed in waking him up.

According to Morrison, Carrazco did not act injured, but Carrazco testified he “hunched over” and asked Morrison to call a nurse. Colorado Politics reviewed the surveillance video, which did not show the location of impact but did depict Carrazco reacting physically.

Carrazco then sued Morrison in her official government capacity, meaning he would need to show Morrison violated his constitutional rights and an official policy was behind the violation. Carrazco pointed to Morrison’s training, prohibiting her from entering the cell, as the responsible policy.

“Plaintiff specifically asked defendant to wake him for Medline by tapping on his shoulder or on the bunk as he wears earplugs to help him sleep. Other deputies had previously woken him up for Medline by tapping his shoulder or bunk,” wrote attorney Ryan T. Earl for Carrazco. “Defendant hardly made an attempt to wake up plaintiff by other, non-forceful means before resorting to throwing an object at him that caused injury.”

Morrison argued she was entitled to qualified immunity, which shields government officials from civil liability unless they violate a person’s clearly-established legal rights. Although qualified immunity is not available to defendants in their official government capacities, Morrison believed Carrazco’s claims were against her personally, and not as a means of suing the government for its policies.

Wang, in a Jan. 13 order, analyzed the lawsuit under Carrazco’s framing. She also viewed the jailhouse video, which depicted the playing card toss. Even though an ultrasound showed no damage to Carrazco’s testicles, she acknowledged there was some evidence Carrazco was in pain at the time.

Wang did not reach the question of whether Morrison’s training was responsible for a constitutional violation, finding instead that Carrazco’s rights were not violated in the first place.

“Most important to the court’s conclusion is the amount of force used, which was minimal,” she wrote. “It is undisputed that defendant ‘underhanded’ the deck of cards in plaintiff’s direction.”

Other factors for determining whether the force was excessive included the extent of Carrazco’s injury and the safety threat to Morrison. Wang agreed Morrison had limited her force all along, balancing Carrazco’s request to wake him up with the jail’s own prohibition on her entering the cell.

The case is Carrazco v. Morrison.