Rocky’s Suits

I mentioned that Rocky Joe was litigious. How litigious?  A judge ordered the court clerk to reject Rocky Joe’s future filings.

This order was part of a ruling* on four 42 U.S.C. § 1983 civil rights actions that Rocky Joe filed:

Rocky Joe Houston
v.
John E. Potter, U.S. Postal Service, David Haggard, and Fay Hall, Defendants.

Rocky Joe sued the Postmaster General, USPS, the county sheriff, and a sheriff’s office employee.
Plaintiff alleges the defendants conspired to deprive him of his right to judicial process, in violation of the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Specifically, Plaintiff alleges conspiracy to delay service of process of 15 federal complaints. Plaintiff demands $100 million in each of compensatory and punitive damages from the Postmaster General and the USPS, and $3 million in each of compensatory and punitive damages from Haggard and Hall.
Rocky Joe never responded to a motion to dismiss (failure to state a claim., statute of limitations). The judge ordered a response…
Plaintiff failed to respond (though he did file a motion for Judge Phillips to recuse himself and several motions for default judgment against the Postmaster General).

[…]

It should be noted, the Court would also grant the motion to dismiss on its merits, because Plaintiff’s complaint is frivolous and groundless, fails to assert a § 1983 violation by failing to state a true deprivation of a protected right, is time-barred by expiration of the statute of limitations, and fails under Fed.R.Civ.P. 8(a)(2)  […] to contain a “short and plain statement” and giving “fair notice” to the defendants as to the claims against them individually, collectively, legally, and factually.
It’s a big CivPro fail. Can I getta 12(b)6 motion?

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II.

Rocky Joe Houston, Plaintiff,
v.
Jeff Wicks, James Buddy Scott, J. Scott McCluen, Brad Nealon, Angela Randolph, Charles C. Snow, Randy G. Rogers, James F. Logan, Jr., State of Tennessee, and Roane County, Defendants.

Here, Rocky is suing:

• two State Court Judges
• the District Attorney
• a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agent
• the Roane County Clerk
• the grand jury foreman in Roane County
• two otherwise unidentified attorneys
• the State of Tennessee
• Roane County.

And the allegations:
Plaintiff alleges the defendants conspired against him. They refused to protect him, obtained a murder indictment against him, unlawfully issued and executed a writ against him, and refused to hold a preliminary hearing on the murder charges. Plaintiff alleges the defendants have committed crimes such as official misconduct, obstruction of justice, public corruption, “organized crime,” and treason.

Defendant Attorneys, who are (or were) representing Plaintiff and his brother on the murder charges, are accused of “breach of contract” and, apparently, of not demanding the D.A. recuse himself from prosecuting Plaintiff.

Plaintiff asserts a § 1983 action for deprivation of his rights under the Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, and demands $7 million in each of compensatory and punitive damages.

Plaintiff asserts the D.A. has various conflicts of interest, because he was allegedly attorney to Plaintiff’s father, and because Plaintiff has filed numerous civil charges against him.
The court’s decision reads like the answer to a CivPro hypo:
… the supporting memorandum points out “almost all of the allegations concern matters raised in previous civil rights suits filed in this court” The motion to dismiss raises a Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) defense, a statute-of-limitations defense, judicial and qualified immunity defenses, and issue preclusion…
Rocky (again) never responded to any motions, even when ordered. But he did file “an irrelevant motion for Magistrate Judge Shirley’s recusal and motions for default judgment against the Attorneys.”

This suit was so ridiculous that the defendants filed a motion for sanctions. This is where Rocky was slapped with a pre-filing requirement:
Finally, pending before the Court is a motion for sanctions filed by defendants the D.A., Scott, Nealon, and the State of Tennessee. The supporting memorandum recounts the seven prior lawsuits filed by Plaintiff against many of the same defendants. The motion and memo request this Court impose Fed.R.Civ.P. 11 sanctions on Plaintiff, for his history of filing frivolous and vexatious lawsuits. “Mr. Houston files frivolous federal lawsuits against any state entity, official, or the State itself, apparently in an attempt to alter the course of his criminal trial.”

The motion and memo request a sanction previously approved by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit: a pre-filing requirement, which would mandate Plaintiff first submit a complaint to a magistrate judge to review whether his claims were frivolous or improper before such complaint could be filed.

The defendants believe this sanction is appropriate because it still permits Plaintiff to file complaints, if meritorious, and because Plaintiff has been warned repeatedly (1) he may be sanctioned and (2) his suits asserted frivolous or unjusticiable claims (noting Plaintiff has previously been shown copies of the motion for sanctions and failed to respond to it or take action to avoid its filing).

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III.

Rocky Joe Houston, Plaintiff,
v.
George W. Bush, Thomas W. Phillips, Leonard Green, the Federal Government, and the State of Ohio, Defendants.
In this matter, filed January 1, 2007, Plaintiff sued President George W. Bush, Judge Phillips, the Sixth Circuit Clerk, the “federal government,” and the State of Ohio. Plaintiff alleges a deprivation of his Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Plaintiff alleges “a conspiracy in furtherance of a conspiracy and a direct attempt to delay, impede, and obstruct justice”; in other words, his prior lawsuits have not been dealt with in the way Plaintiff would like, and George W. Bush and the Sixth Circuit were complicit in permitting this travesty (it is unclear what Ohio has done, other than being the state where the City of Cincinnati is located).

Plaintiff’s complaint is full of invective against non-defendant federal and state officials, police officers, the victim in the murder of which Plaintiff has been accused, and pretty much every one else except soldiers in the armed forces. Procedurally, Plaintiff has demanded Judge Varlan’s recusal and entry of default judgment against all defendants-despite the absence of evidence any defendant has been properly served.

Here (and in all his pending cases), Plaintiff is seeking monetary damages from government entities or officials. As stated herein, his claims are frivolous, malicious, offensive, and patently without merit. Moreover, his complaint fails to state a claim.The defendants are all immune and thus this Court does not have subject matter jurisdiction, as it has pointed out to Mr. Houston on numerous occasions. Plaintiff’s claims also appear to be time-barred…
And it’s all downhill from there:
Considering Plaintiff’s litigation history, his failure to prosecute multiple suits, his failure to state a claim for which relief may be granted, his failure to give the defendants fair notice of the individual, collective, legal, and factual claims against them, and the ridiculous and offensive factual allegations of some of these suits-including an allegation the undersigned has conspired to kill him…

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IV.

Rocky Joe Houston , Plaintiff,
v.
Roane County, David H. Beams in his official capacity as Oak Ridge Police Chief, George W. Bush, and United States of America, Defendants.

And more of the same:

Here, Plaintiff alleged a conspiracy of non-neutral state judges violated his entitlement to a fair and impartial trial. He also alleged mail fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Plaintiff filed for entry of a default judgment, which was denied. Judge Greer granted the defendant’s motion to dismiss because (1) Plaintiff failed to respond to it, and (2) all defendants (the State, a State Supreme Court justice, and a Circuit Court judge) were immune from suit. Again, Plaintiff filed recusal motions against the first assigned judges until finally Judge Greer denied a recusal motion and dismissed the case. As per his usual practice, Plaintiff moved for entry of a default judgment but the motion was denied…

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On Westlaw: Houston v. Potter. Slip Copy, 2007 WL 5238976. E.D.Tenn.,2007.

On LexisNexis: Houston v. Potter, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 39898 (E.D. Tenn. May 30, 2007)