United States ex rel. Pope v. Williams

• Decision Date: 08 March 1971
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 70-28.
• Citation: 326 F. Supp. 279
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America ex rel. James T. POPE v. John H. WILLIAMS, Sgt., State Correctional Institution, Graterford, Pa.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania

326 F. Supp. 279

UNITED STATES of America ex rel. James T. POPE v. John H. WILLIAMS, Sgt., State Correctional Institution, Graterford, Pa.

Civ. A. No. 70-28.

United States District Court, E. D. Pennsylvania.

March 8, 1971.

James T. Pope, pro se.

Arlen Specter, Dist. Atty., Mark Sendrow, Asst. Dist. Atty., Philadelphia, Pa., for respondent.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

JOHN W. LORD, Jr., Chief Judge.

Presently before the Court is petitioner's motion to amend, join, revise and correct his complaint. While this action was initially entitled criminal complaint, plaintiff, who is a state court prisoner, has entitled this petition Civil Rights Complaint.

Plaintiff, who has filed with this Court at least fourteen (14) separate actions, may well be the most litigious individual this Court has encountered in over sixteen years on the federal bench. The Court finds this motion, as well as the initial complaint, to be completely without merit and ably demonstrates the increasingly large number of totally frivolous petitions from state court prisoners which are currently burdening the Court and hindering it from effectively performing its other functions. See Gittlemacker v. Prasse, 428 F.2d 1 (3rd Cir. 1970) at fn. 1.

Without pausing to discuss the merits of plaintiff's recitation of over 13 "jurisdictional" provisions — including 5 amendments and 2 Articles of the Constitution as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — the Court will treat this as an action brought under 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983.

First, plaintiff seeks to add as party defendant the Board of Probation and Parole. Plaintiff "accuses" the Board of "conspiring to deter by force and intimidation policies and practices and reprisals for the purpose of impeding, hindering, obstructing and/or defeating the due course of justice * *." Petitioner has on three separate occasions been denied parole and, without more, concludes that the Board is taking reprisals against him for his "legal involvements". The Court is not impressed with plaintiff's contention, nor does plaintiff support his allegation in any way except to state he has been denied parole. Therefore the Court could deny this motion as a mere conclusion, not supported by facts. United States ex rel. Hoge v. Bolsinger, 211 F.Supp. 199 (W. D.Pa.), aff'd 311 F.2d 215 (3rd Cir. 1962), cert. denied 372 U.S. 931, 83 S. Ct. 878, 9 L.Ed.2d 735 (1963). However, the Court need not base its decision to deny the motion on this basis because the law is settled that a Board of Parole is not a "person" within the meaning of the Civil Rights Act. Bennett v. California, 406 F.2d 39 (9th Cir. 1969); Paige v. Pennsylvania Board of Parole, 311 F. Supp. 940 (E.D.Pa.1970); Gallagher v. Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole, 287 F.Supp. 610 (E.D.Pa.1968). Moreover, the members of the Parole Board have judicial immunity. Lang v. Wood, 67 App.D.C. 287, 96 F.2d 211, cert. denied 302 U.S. 686, 58 S.Ct. 48, 82 L.Ed. 530 (1937); Lawhorn v. Pennsylvania, Civil Action No. 69-652 (E.D. Pa. filed September 15, 1969). For the above reasons the Court finds this request to be frivolous within the meaning of 28 U.S.C.A. § 1915(d) and therefore will deny leave to proceed in forma pauperis against the Board. See Pennebaker v. Chamber, 437 F.2d 66 (3rd Cir. decided January 6, 1971).¹

Plaintiff also seeks leave to proceed against Officer Benedict, who, like the original defendant, is a guard at Graterford. Plaintiff asserts that Benedict "maliciously, flagrantly, willfully asserted his own sense of justice * * * and did injure your Relator by reprisal measures taken against him for his exercise of aforesaid rights * * *" Petitioner claims that the defendant intentionally created "provocative vulnerable situations" in an effort to get plaintiff to violate institutional rules. In support of this plaintiff lists such things as allowing inmates to have brass musical instruments, denying him access to a typewriter, denying him permission to send for educational materials and filing an "unjustifiable" misconduct report. The major incident which plaintiff alleges in support of his request to add this defendant revolves around plaintiff's claim, which he relates in several lengthy paragraphs, that he should not have been subjected to a misconduct report for attending a movie in the prison.

The Court will deny plaintiff's request to add Officer Benedict as a party defendant. This Circuit has consistently taken the position that absent extraordinary circumstances, discipline reasonably maintained in state prisons is not under the supervisory direction of the federal courts. Ford v. Board of Mgrs. of New Jersey State Prison, 407 F.2d 937 (3rd Cir. 1969); Gurcznski v. Yeager, 339 F.2d 884 (3rd Cir. 1964); United States ex rel. Duronio v. Russell, 256 F. Supp. 479 (M.D.Pa.1966). Clearly, the movie incident, and the misconduct report which resulted from it, is peculiarly that type of problem which the federal courts will not interfere with. To rule otherwise would be tantamount to placing the federal courts in the position of administering state court prisons. This the Court will not do. This Court has previously stated "somewhere along the line there exists a still finer line that separates mere...