Hamlet v. Irvin
| Decision Date | 13 September 2021 |
| Docket Number | Civil Action 7:20-cv-00013 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Virginia |
| Parties | BRIAN LEON HAMLET, Plaintiff, v. DAVE A. IRVIN, et al., Defendants. |
Plaintiff Brian Hamlet, a Virginia inmate appearing pro se and proceeding in forma pauperis, ECF Nos. 8, 20, has filed suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging that Defendants Dave Irvin, Vanessa Duncan, and Travis Cassell violated Hamlet's constitutional rights by requiring him to wear a global positioning system (“GPS”) ankle bracelet as a condition of his state court supervised probation. See generally Compl. 1-24, ECF No. 1. Hamlet seeks $12 million in damages against each Defendant in his or her individual capacity. Id. at 4, 23-24. The matter is before the court on Defendants' motion for summary judgment on the merits, ECF No. 23, which has been fully briefed, ECF Nos. 24, 28.
Having considered the nature of Hamlet's § 1983 claims however, the court concludes that they are barred by Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477 (1994), and, in any event, his complaint fails to state a claim for which relief can be granted. Accordingly, the action will be dismissed without prejudice under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1915(e)(2)(B), 1915A(b)(1) (), and Defendants' motion for summary judgment will be denied as moot.[1]
In February 2014, Hamlet was convicted in the Circuit Court of Montgomery County, Virginia, on one count of malicious wounding. Compl. Ex. A, ECF No. 1-1 at 1-4 ().[3] That May, the presiding judge sentenced Hamlet to a term of imprisonment for fifteen years, with ten years suspended “upon the condition(s) specified in [the] Suspended Sentence Conditions” section of the order. Id. at 2. The judge marked off two such conditions:
Id. at 3; see generally Burnham v. Commonwealth, 833 S.E.2d 872, 873-74 (Va. 2019) (discussing a sentencing order containing similarly worded suspended sentence conditions, including that “‘[t]he defendant shall comply with all the rules and requirements set by the Probation Officer'” while on supervised probation, and explaining that a suspended sentence “is a ‘free gift' intended to spur the defendant into turning his life around” or risk serving his entire sentence in prison). The judge did not put any “Special conditions” on the suspension of sentence. Compl. Ex. A, at 3; see also Compl. 5-6, 9, 16-18, 20-21.
Hamlet was released from prison on January 4, 2018. See Compl. 5. That day, he was taken to the “District 28 Probation Dept.” in Radford, where he met with Probation Officers Vanessa Duncan and Travis Cassell. Id. at 1, 9; see generally id. at 8-12. While Duncan and Hamlet were “going over [the] conditions of [Hamlet's] probation, ” she told him that “she was placing [him] on GPS monitoring special conditions.” Id. at 9. Hamlet objected that the sentencing judge had not ordered GPS monitoring and asked Duncan who authorized it. Id. Duncan responded that she, Cassell, and Chief Probation Officer Dave Irvin discussed the issue and “felt that [Hamlet] need[ed] to be placed on GPS monitoring.” Id. at 10. Hamlet asked to speak to his attorney and said he had the right to a court hearing before he could be required to submit to GPS monitoring. Id. Duncan allegedly instructed Hamlet to sign a “Waiver of Hearing paper, ” id., and a “GPS Monitoring Condition” form, id. at 15. Both
Duncan and Cassell allegedly threatened to “lock [Hamlet] back up” if he did not at least sign the forms' “refused to sign” sections. Id. at 8; see id. at 10-11, 15. Hamlet signed the forms as directed. See id. at 11, 21. At that point, Duncan and Cassell secured the GPS bracelet around Hamlet's left ankle. See id. at 5, 11. Cassell also programed the “GPS pager” to go off if Hamlet violated his “10 pm curfew.” See id. at 14 ( ).
Hamlet wore the GPS ankle bracelet until late August 2018. Id. at 6. He often spoke to all three Defendants, either on the phone or in person, during those eight months and repeatedly asked them to take him off GPS monitoring. See, e.g., id. at 11-17. They refused each time, and allegedly told Hamlet that he would wear the ankle bracelet for his entire five-year term of supervised probation. See id. at 12, 14-15, 17. Around August 24, 2018, Hamlet was arrested on a probation violation “for pushing a small hole in the wall of [the] motel room, ” id. at 6-7, where he had been staying at the probation department's expense, see id. at 9, 16. The GPS bracelet was removed upon his arrest. Id. at 6. In January 2019, the judge revoked Hamlet's suspended term of imprisonment, sentenced him to time served, and placed him on probation for five years from the date of his release from jail. See docket entry of Jan. 8, 2019, Hamlet, No. CR13001481-01 (Montgomery Cir. Ct. filed Sept. 10, 2018) ( “[s]entence [t]ime” of 10 years' incarceration, with 9 years, 7 months, 14 days suspended, for a violation occurring on September 10, 2018).
Hamlet filed this § 1983 lawsuit in January 2020, while detained at Western Virginia Regional Jail. Compl. 1.[4] Although Hamlet does not plead his claims in separate counts, see Fed. R. Civ. P. 10(b), it is sufficiently clear that he believes the Defendants conspired to violate, and did violate, five federal constitutional protections by requiring Hamlet to wear the GPS monitor as a “special condition” of his probation without first obtaining a court order specifically imposing that condition in accordance with Virginia law. See generally id. at 3-9, 13, 18-24; accord Defs.' Br. in Supp. of Mot. for Summ. J. 9-10 ), ECF No. 24. Hamlet alleges that Defendants' conduct violated (1) his First Amendment right to travel freely, see Compl. 8, 19; (2) his Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures, see id. at 3-5, 18-23; (3) his Fifth Amendment right against “double sentencing, ” id. at 20, or “enhance[d] or extend[ed]” conditions of probation, id. at 21; (4) the Eighth Amendment's protection against cruel and unusual punishments, id. at 8, 19-23; and (5) his Fourteenth Amendment right not to be deprived of a protected “liberty interest [without] notice and a hearing on the matter, ” id. at 3; see also id. at 4-6, 17-19. He also invokes the “unconstitutional conditions doctrine, ” id. at 8, in describing Duncan and Cassell's alleged threats to send him back to jail if he did not sign the “Waiver of Hearing” and “GPS Monitoring Conditions” forms, see id. at 8, 10-11, 15, 21.Hamlet seeks $6 million in compensatory damages and $6 million in punitive damages against each Defendant in his or her individual capacity. Id. at 4, 23-24.
Hamlet was released from jail in October 2020, see ECF No. 17, but he was arrested in June 2021 for allegedly violating the terms of his probation, see docket entry of Aug. 16, 2021, Hamlet, No. CR13001481-03 (Montgomery Cir. Ct. filed June 21, 2021) ( revocation proceedings continued until September 2021). The last ECF filing in this case indicates that Hamlet was incarcerated at the Western Virginia Regional Jail as of July 8, 2021. ECF No. 29.
Defendants moved for summary judgment on the merits of Hamlet's § 1983 claims. See generally Defs.' Br. in Supp. of Mot. for Summ. J. 9-18. Although Hamlet mentioned Heck v. Humphrey in his complaint, Compl. 4 (“None of my claims are barred by Heck because none of my claims change or challenge the invalidity of my original conviction of malicious wounding I was sentenced to on May 21st 2014 case # CR13001481-02.”), Defendants did not argue that Hamlet's claims were arguably “an attack on the sentence imposed by the Circuit Court, ” Saunders v. Jones, No. 3:12cv192 2014 WL 2155342, at *3 (E.D. Va. May 22, 2014), which suspended part of Hamlet's fifteen-year prison term “upon the condition[], ” Compl. Ex. A, at 2, that he “comply with all the rules and requirements set by the Probation Officer” while on supervised probation id. at 3. See Saunders, 2014 WL 2155342, at *3. Consistent with its screening obligations under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1915(e)(2)(B) and 1915A(a)-(b), however, the court finds it appropriate to address the potential Heck bar sua sponte. Cf. Holcomb v. Kindley, Civ. Act. No. 1:16-372, 2016 WL 7669499, at *3 n.3 (D.S.C. Dec. 22, 2016) (...
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