Mitchell v. Department of Corrections, CIV.A.3:02-CV-2219.

Decision Date22 July 2003
Docket NumberNo. CIV.A.3:02-CV-2219.,CIV.A.3:02-CV-2219.
Citation272 F.Supp.2d 464
PartiesChristopher MITCHELL, Plaintiff, v. DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS; Jeffrey A. Beard, Ph.D,; Ben Varner, Warden; and William S. Ward, Chairman of the Parole Board, Defendants.
CourtU.S. District Court — Middle District of Pennsylvania

Francis R. Filipi, Office of Atty. Gen., Harrisburg, PA, for defendant.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

CONABOY, District Judge.

I

Before the Court is Magistrate Judge J. Andrew Smyser's Report and Recommendation, (Doc. 18), filed on June 5, 2003 regarding Plaintiff's pro se action filed pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 on December 5, 2002, (Doc. 1). Plaintiff asserts that Defendants violated his constitutional rights because he was held beyond his maximum release date.1 In his complaint, Plaintiff requested both immediate release from custody and monetary damages. (Doc. 1, History of the Case at 3.)

On February 19, 2003, Defendants filed a Motion to Dismiss and a brief in support of the motion. (Docs.12, 13.) Defendants assert the following grounds for dismissal: 1) the Department and the natural person Defendants are immune from damages by reason of the Eleventh Amendment of the United States Constitution to the extent they are being sued in their official capacities; 2) Plaintiff's claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 is not cognizable because he has not obtained a favorable decision concerning the time added to his maximum sentence as a result of parole revocation proceedings; and 3) Plaintiff's claims for injunctive and declaratory relief are moot because he was released from prison on February 9, 2003. Plaintiff filed a Brief in Opposition and a document entitled Motion in Opposition on April 14, 2003. (Docs.16, 17.) Defendants did not file a reply.

The Magistrate Judge recommends that Plaintiff's requests for declaratory and injunctive relief be dismissed as moot, concurring with Defendants that these requests are moot because Plaintiff was released from prison on February 9, 2003. (Doc. 18 at 4.) The Magistrate Judge also recommends that Plaintiff's claims against the Department and the individual Defendants in their official capacities be dismissed based on Eleventh Amendment immunity. (Doc. 18 at 4-5.) The Magistrate Judge does not agree with Defendants that the claims against them in their individual capacities should be dismissed because such claims are barred by the reasoning of Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477, 114 S.Ct. 2364, 129 L.Ed.2d 383 (1994). (Doc. 18 at 6.) Rather, the Magistrate Judge concluded that the reasoning of Heck does not apply to those who have been released from custody. (Doc. 18 at 16.)

Defendants filed objections to the Magistrate Judge's Report and Recommendation and a Brief in Support of Objections, (Docs.19, 20), on June 19, 2003. Defendants objected on the bases that Heck is applicable and Plaintiff has not satisfied the Heck requirement that he obtain a favorable decision regarding the re-calculation of his maximum date in order for a § 1983 claim to be cognizable. (Doc. 19 at 2-3.)

II

When a Magistrate Judge makes a finding or ruling on a motion or issue, his determination should become that of the court unless objections are filed. See Thomas v. Arn, 474 U.S. 140, 150-53, 106 S.Ct. 466, 88 L.Ed.2d 435 (1985). When no objections are filed, the district court need only review a record for clear error prior to accepting a Magistrate Judge's Recommendation. See Cruz v. Chater, 990 F.Supp. 375, 376-78 (M.D.Pa.1998). However, when a Petitioner files objections to a magistrate judge's Report and Recommendation, the district judge makes a de novo review of those portions of the report or specified proposed findings or recommendations to which objection is made. See Cipollone v. Liggett Group, Inc., 822 F.2d 335, 340 (3d Cir.1987), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 976, 108 S.Ct. 487, 98 L.Ed.2d 485 (1987).

Because Defendants have filed objections in this case, we will review de novo those portions of the Magistrate Judge's Report and Recommendation to which Defendants object. For the reasons set forth below, we adopt the Magistrate Judge's Report and Recommendation in part, concurring that Plaintiff's request for release is moot, his claim against the Department of Corrections is barred by the Eleventh Amendment and his claims against individual Defendants in their official capacities are also barred by the Eleventh Amendment. We also conclude that Plaintiff's claim for damages against Defendants in their individual capacities cannot go forward. We therefore grant Defendants' Motion to Dismiss.

III

The documents submitted to the Court in this matter do not present a concise history of charges and sentences for which Plaintiff has been incarcerated periodically since his arrest for murder in 1971. The following summary is derived essentially from Plaintiff's Complaint and attached Exhibits, (Doc. 1), and his response to Defendants' Motion to Dismiss and attached exhibits, (Doc. 18).

Plaintiff received a ten to twenty-year sentence with an effective date of April 27, 1971, on the murder charge. The minimum date on this sentence was April 27, 1981 and the maximum was April 27, 1991. (Doc. 16 Ex. A.)

While serving this sentence, Plaintiff was charged with Possession of Implements of Escape, for which he received a one to two year sentence on January 8, 1975. Apparently this sentence was to run consecutively with Plaintiff's minimum sentence on the murder charge because he began serving the Implements of Escape sentence on April 27, 1981 — the minimum date on his murder sentence. (Doc. 16 Ex. B.)

On July 6, 1982, Plaintiff was ordered released on parole (Id.) The Order to Release on Parole contained the notation that Plaintiff was to remain on parole until April 27, 1991, the longest remaining maximum on his murder conviction. (Doc. 16 Ex. B.)

In 1986, Plaintiff was arrested for Possession of a Controlled Substance. (Doc. 16 Ex. C.) He was sentenced on April 13, 1987, to a term of six to twelve months in the Dauphin County Prison. (Id.)

On July 1, 1987, Plaintiff was returned to the custody of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections for violating the conditions of parole on his murder sentence. (Doc. 16 at 4.) The Parole Board imposed a one-year term for violation of parole and the Department of Corrections recalculated Plaintiff's maximum date to November 11, 1997. (Id.) Plaintiff asserts that the Parole Board rescinded the one year violation of parole penalty after Plaintiff filed an administrative appeal.2 (Id. at 6.)

On January 25, 1988, Plaintiff was reparoled on the murder sentence. (Id. at 4)

On July 12, 1988, Plaintiff was arrested on drug charges and, following a plea of guilty to Unlawful Delivery of a Controlled Substance and Criminal Conspiracy, was sentenced on March 28, 1989, to three to ten years, to be served "following completion of the inmate's current sentence." The "current sentence" referred to was the remainder of the murder sentence. (Doc. 1 Ex. B.)

Plaintiff asserts that he was reparoled on the murder sentence on April 4, 1990, and began serving his first delivery of a controlled substance sentence. (Doc. 16 at 6.)

On July 20, 1992, Plaintiff was reparoled. (Id.)

On February 9, 1993, Plaintiff was again arrested on drug charges and was convicted by a jury on one of three indictments on December 8, 1993. Following the jury verdict, Plaintiff asserts that he pled guilty to the two remaining indictments and entered into a plea agreement that sentences on the three indictments would run concurrently. (Doc. 1 History of the Case ¶ 5.) Plaintiff was sentenced to four to eight years on October 6, 1994, for Delivery of a Controlled Substance. (Doc. 16 at 7.)

On April 22, 1993, the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole rendered a decision requiring Plaintiff to serve twenty-four months backtime for parole violations. (See Doc. 1 Ex. j.)

On October 20, 1994, Plaintiff was returned to the custody of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections for violating the conditions of his parole. Plaintiff asserts that this violation was based on his parole on his first Delivery of a Controlled Substance sentence (July 12, 1988, arrest). (Doc. 16 at 7.) He contends that he was given a six-month term for leaving the district without his parole supervisor's permission to run concurrently with twenty-four months for technical violations (Criminal Conspiracy and Unlawful Delivery of a Controlled Substance). (Id.; see Doc. 1 Ex. E.) According to the Board of Parole's decision of February 7, 1995, as of that date Plaintiff's Parole Violation Maximum Sentence was October 6, 2002. (Doc. 1 Ex. E.)

On March 14, 1995, Plaintiff was recommitted to the Parole Board as a convicted parole violator on his murder sentence. (Doc. 16 at 7.)

On August 16, 2002, the Department of Corrections calculated Plaintiff's minimum release date as December 5, 2001, and the maximum date as December 5, 2005. This calculation was based on a start date for the four to eight year Delivery of a Controlled Substance sentence as December 5, 1997. (Doc. 1 Ex. H-1.)

On November 6, 2002, the Department of Corrections recomputed Plaintiff's sentence to have an effective date of February 9, 1995, a minimum date of February 9, 1999, and a maximum date of February 9, 2003. (Doc. 16 Ex. G.)

Plaintiff asserts that, according to the Parole Board's prescriptive plan, Plaintiff's maximum date is February 7, 2001.3 (Doc. 1 at 1.)

Plaintiff filed his initial grievance on April 4, 2001. Plaintiff received an unfavorable response both to his initial grievance and the appeal thereof. (Doc. 1 Exs. G, H.) On August 1, 2001, Plaintiff's appeal to final review was denied.4 (Doc. 1 Ex. G.)

The record does not reflect that Plaintiff took any further action on the matter until he filed this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 complaint on December 5, 2002 — approximately two months before his maximum sentence was to expire.

Plaintiff was released from custody on February 9, 2003.

IV
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