UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 19-7611

JAMES GARY MOSKOS,

Plaintiff – Appellant, v. JAMES HARDEE; KATHERINE BUTLER; JAMES HORNE; LARON LOCKLEAR; JAMES MCRAE; ROSE LOCKLEAR,

Defendants - Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, at Raleigh. Terrence W. Boyle, District Judge. (5:16-ct-03177-BO)

Argued: December 7, 2021 Decided: January 20, 2022

Before WILKINSON, NIEMEYER, and AGEE, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge Wilkinson wrote the opinion, in which Judge Niemeyer and Judge Agee joined.

ARGUED: Jason Michael Burton, BURTON LAW FIRM, PLLC, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellant. Sripriya Narasimhan, NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: Michael A. Kaeding, Ryan Ethridge, ALSTON & BIRD LLP, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellant. Joshua H. Stein, Attorney General, Orlando L. Rodriguez, Assistant Attorney General, NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellees. WILKINSON, Circuit Judge:

James Gary Moskos, a state prisoner in North Carolina, sued several prison officials under § 1983, alleging that they had used excessive force against him, had acted with deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs and to unconstitutional conditions of his confinement, and had violated his due process rights. Moskos also brought a state-law assault and battery claim. At trial, the district court granted judgment as a matter of law to the defendants on the deliberate indifference and due process claims, while a jury found for the defendants on the remaining claims. Moskos now appeals, contesting the district court’s grant of judgment as a matter of law, as well as an evidentiary decision made by the district court at trial. For the following reasons, we affirm.

I.

A.

At about 9:15 pm on the evening of August 2, 2013, Moskos, an inmate at the Lumberton Correctional Institute in North Carolina, approached Officer James Hardee and asked whether he could cross to a different wing of the prison to get cold water from a water fountain there. Hardee denied this request because, he later testified, it would have violated protocol for an inmate to move across the prison yard once the dormitories had been secured for the evening. Shortly thereafter, Moskos came across Officer Katherine Butler, who allowed him to fill a nearby cooler with water. The cooler was located in an area adjacent to Moskos’s wing, and therefore did not require him to cross the prison yard. See J.A. 805.

2 As Moskos returned with the cooler full of cold water, he encountered Hardee again. The details of what happened next are hotly disputed. According to Butler and Hardee, Moskos began cursing at Hardee, and Hardee asked Moskos for his ID card, which he was required to carry with him at all times. Moskos did not have his card with him and walked away as if to retrieve it from his locker, but then abruptly turned around, repeatedly punched Hardee in the face, and jumped on top of him. Butler radioed for assistance and Officer James Horne testified that he ran to the scene, ordered Moskos to stop the assault, and used pepper spray twice when Moskos refused. Moskos continued to assault both officers until Horne was able to subdue him.

Moskos testified to a very different series of events. According to Moskos, he had threatened to file a grievance against Hardee during their earlier conversation, which had angered Hardee. When Moskos stated that he did not have his ID card with him, Hardee became enraged. Moskos testified that when he set off to retrieve the card, Hardee stru