Toolasprashad v. Grondolsky

• Decision Date: 23 July 2008
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 07-5157 (JBS).
• Parties: Latchmie TOOLASPRASHAD, Petitioner, v. Jeff GRONDOLSKY, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of New Jersey

570 F.Supp.2d 610

Latchmie TOOLASPRASHAD, Petitioner, v. Jeff GRONDOLSKY, Respondent.

Civil Action No. 07-5157 (JBS).

United States District Court, D. New Jersey.

July 23, 2008.

Latchmie Toolasprashad, Fort Dix, NJ, Petitioner Pro Se.

OPINION

SIMANDLE, District Judge:

TABLE OF CONTENTS
                I. Petitioner's Previous Legal Actions................................ 613
                

                II. Petitioner's Pending Legal Actions................................ 622
                    A. Bivens-VII..................................................... 623
                    B. 2241-III; the Instant Petition................................. 623
                    C. Supplement to the Instant Petition............................. 627
                    D. Joint Reading of the Petition and Supplement................... 627
                    E. Post-Supplement Submissions In This Action..................... 628
                III. Discussion....................................................... 629
                     A. The Nature of Habeas Action and Pleading Requirements......... 629
                     B. Claims Not Cognizable Under § 2241....................... 631
                        1. Expungement Claims......................................... 632
                           a. Complete Expungement of the BOP Report.................. 632
                           b. Partial Expungement..................................... 633
                        2. Curative/Future Parole Hearing Claims...................... 635
                           a. Parole Hearing Conducted by a Single Examiner........... 637
                           b. Presence of Audience and Life Testimony................. 639
                           c. Examiner's Bias......................................... 642
                     C. Habeas-like Claims............................................ 646
                        1. Mickens-Thomas............................................. 647
                        2. Gambino v. Morris.......................................... 648
                        3. Wasman, Pearce, Bono and Marshall Cases.................... 649
                        4. Solomon, Misasi, Dye, Billiteri and Persico Cases.......... 650
                IV. Conclusion........................................................ 654
                

Latchmie Toolasprashad ("Petitioner") is presently confined at F.C.I. Fort Dix, New Jersey, serving a life term for contract murder. This matter is before this Court upon Petitioner's filing of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2241 ("Petition"). See Docket Entry No. 1. After filing his Petition, Petitioner then filed a document titled "amended petition" ("Supplement"), which, it appears, was intended by Petitioner to operate as a supplement to, rather than a substitute of, the original Petition. See Docket Entries No. 2, 4. Petitioner raises various civil rights claims and habeas-like allegations. As explained below, the present case will be referred to as "2241-III," as it is but one of a long series of related, often duplicative, filings by Mr. Toolasprashad.¹

I. PETITIONER'S PREVIOUS LEGAL ACTIONS

Since the Petition and Supplement directly relate to many of Petitioner's past and ongoing litigations, this Court finds it helpful to begin this Opinion with a summary of some of these actions. Petitioner's earliest actions concentrated on Petitioner's challenges to his convictions.² See United States v. Toolasprashad ("2255-III"), 1994 WL 83779, 1994 U.S.App. LEXIS 4486 (4th Cir. Mar. 14, 1994); United States v. Toolasprashad ("2255—II"), 1993 WL 17082, 1993 U.S.App. LEIS 1557 (4th Cir. Jan. 28, 1993); Toolasprashad v. United States, ("2255—I"), 902 F.2d 30, 1990 WL 52506 (4th Cir.1990).

His next set of actions arose from his allegations that, upon his conviction, he began serving his life sentence "at the federal correctional facility in Allenwood, Pennsylvania [where] he and a female staff member had a sexual relationship." Toolasprashad v. Beeler, App. No. 99-5512, Docket Entry No. 19 (opinion), at 2 and n. 1, 2000 WL 1508538 (3d Cir.2000).³

Apparently, as a disciplinary measure, [Petitioner] was transferred . . . to the federal correctional facility in Marianna, Florida . . . . [W]hile at FCI-Marianna [Petitioner] was written up in an incident report and charged with [two minor offenses]. Following a disciplinary hearing, [he] was found guilty . . . and sanction [to minor a sanction, which] was suspended in its entirety pending 180 days of clear conduct. The sanction did not include loss of good time credit. [After being transferred to FCI Fort Dix, petitioner] filed [a] § 2241 [application (hereinafter "2241-I") alleging that the] Incident Report . . . was invalid because the staff [at FCI-Marianna] was racially biased [and] the Disciplinary Hearing Officer reneged on his promise to recommend that the Parole Commission not credit the incident Report in calculating [his] parole eligibility date. [He] also alleged that [the aforesaid] actions . . . were taken in retaliation for his having filed numerous grievances.⁴

Id. at 2-3.

Judge Irenas, presiding over Petitioner's 2241-I action, dismissed the petition, finding that:" (a) Petitioner's due process rights were not violated during the administrative hearings, which fully comported to the requirements set forth in Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 563-71, 94 S.Ct. 2963, 41 L.Ed.2d 935 (1974); (b) Petitioner's liberty rights were not implicated by the transfer from FCI-Allenwood to FCIMarianna; (c) no facts suggesting retaliatory motives were offered by Petitioner; and (d) the Parole Commission was allowed to rely on Petitioner's incident reports to determine his parole eligibility. See Toolasprashad v. Beeler ("2241-I"), Civ. Action No. 98-4983(JEI) (D.N.J.), Docket Entry No. 15. The Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed Judge Irenas' decision, with clarification that— while Petitioner's § 2241 application indeed failed to allege a constitutional violation—"habeas relief [was] not available on [Petitioner's] claim[s] . . . because he did not lose good time credit." Toolasprashad v. Beeler, 234 F.3d 1266, 2000 WL 1508538 (3d Cir.2000), App. No. 99-5512, Docket Entry No. 19, at 4. The Court of Appeals explained that "[a] suspended sentence to disciplinary confinement [is a decision of the type that does] not impact on a prisoner's release date and thus [does] not involve a significant liberty interest," amenable to § 2241 review.⁵ Id.

Then, in 1999, Petitioner filed a civil action in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, pursuant to the Privacy Act, against the United States Bureau of Prisons ("BOP"), alleging that his transfer to another facility and reclassification as a special offender adversely affected him in several ways. Upon the district court's decision granting the BOP's motion to dismiss Petitioner's complaint for insufficiency of pleadings, Petitioner appealed. The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed and remanded, finding that the district court erred in dismissing the complaint but solely because Petitioner's allegations (that the BOP failed to maintain accurate records regarding Petitioner's history of harassing and demeaning staff members and, in addition, included a certain memorandum containing false information in Petitioner's prison file, all in order to obtain basis for his transfer) met the liberal pleading requirements of Rule 8, thus preventing dismissal of the complaint as insufficiently pled. See Toolasprashad v. Bureau of Prisons, 286 F.3d 576 (D.C.Cir.2002) (an intermediary decision in Petitioner's Bivens-II line of cases).

It appears that Petitioner was moved to a correctional facility in Pennsylvania during the time when the District of Columbia was considering the above-discussed remand, and the case was transferred to the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Judge Muir, presiding over that matter, addressed the "false information" claim (i.e., the sole claim that remained unresolved by the District of Columbia) and resolved the matter in favor of the BOP.⁶ Petitioner appealed Judge Muir's decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which affirmed Judge Muir's conclusion. See Toolasprashad v. Fed. Bureau of Prisons ("Bivens-II"), 2007 WL 3122269, 2007 U.S.App. LEXIS 25263 (3d Cir. Oct. 26, 2007). Specifically, the Court of Appeals agreed with Judge Muir's finding that Petitioner failed to show any material statement in the memorandum so inaccurate as to warrant monetary relief. See id. at *2 and n. 1, 2007 U.S.App. LEXIS 25263 at *4-6 and n. 1 (combing through Petitioner's prison file supporting the statements in the BOP's memorandum stating that Petitioner disrupted the orderly running of a federal prison through his blatant disrespect for authority and harassment of correctional staff members).

It also appears that, around the same time when he began his challenge with respect to the BOP's memorandum in the District of Columbia, Petitioner filed another action in that court, that is, an application for a writ of mandamus alleging that the BOP violated his rights by offering him only a copy of the current Parole Commission Manual and failing to provide him with a copy of 1985-87 Parole Commission Manuals. See Toolasprashad v. Bureau of Prisons ("Mandamus-I"), 2002 WL 31741515, 2002 U.S.App. LEXIS 25145 (D.C.Cir. Dec. 6, 2002). Upon the district court's denial of the writ, Petitioner appealed to the District of Columbia Circuit, which affirmed the district court's finding.⁷ See id.

On June 10, 2002, Petitioner filed another petition for a writ of habeas corpus in this District, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2241. See Toolasprashad v. De Rosa ("2241-II"), Civ. Action No. 02-2841(JHR), Docket Entry No. 1. Presiding over Petitioner's 2241-II matter, Judge Rodriguez summarized the facts underlying that litigation, as well as Petitioner's challenges, as follows:⁸

Petitioner was eligible for parole [consideration on] December 16, 1995 . . . On June 7, 1995, Petitioner received [his] initial parole hearing wherein he denied committing the crime; rather, he alleged that both he and his...