Bonilla v. Humboldt County Superior Court

Opinion

1 2 3 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 4 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 5 6 STEVEN WAYNE BONILLA, Case Nos. 21-cv-02012-PJH Plaintiff, 21-cv-02013-PJH 7 21-cv-02014-PJH v. 8 21-cv-02049-PJH

9 SANTA CRUZ COUNTY SUPERIOR 21-cv-02050-PJH COURT, et. al., 21-cv-02052-PJH 10 Defendants. 21-cv-02053-PJH 11 21-cv-02056-PJH 12 21-cv-02057-PJH

21-cv-02058-PJH 13

14 ORDER DISMISSING MULTIPLE 15 CASES WITH PREJUDICE

17 Plaintiff, a state prisoner, has filed multiple pro se civil rights complaints under 42 18 U.S.C. § 1983. Plaintiff is a condemned prisoner who also has a pending federal habeas 19 petition in this court with appointed counsel. See Bonilla v. Ayers, Case No. 08-0471 20 YGR. Plaintiff is also represented by counsel in state court habeas proceedings. See In 21 re Bonilla, Case No. 20-2986 PJH, Docket No. 1 at 7. 22 In these civil rights cases plaintiff names as defendants various federal judges, 23 state judges and superior courts. Plaintiff presents very similar claims in these cases. 24 He seeks relief regarding his underlying conviction or how his various pro se habeas 25 petitions and other cases were handled by the state and federal courts. 26 To the extent that plaintiff seeks to proceed in forma pauperis (IFP) in these cases, 27 he has been disqualified from proceeding IFP under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g) unless he is 1 U.S.C. 1915(g); In re Steven Bonilla, Case No. 11-3180 CW; Bonilla v. Dawson, Case 2 No. 13-0951 CW. 3 The allegations in these complaints do not show that plaintiff was in imminent 4 danger at the time of filing. Therefore, he may not proceed IFP. Moreover, even if an 5 IFP application were granted, his lawsuits would be barred under Heck v. Humphrey, 512 6 U.S. 477, 486-87 (1994), Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 43-54 (1971), Demos v. U.S. 7 District Court, 925 F.2d 1160, 1161-62 (9th Cir. 1991) or Mullis v. U.S. Bankruptcy Court, 8 828 F.2d 1385, 1393 (9th Cir. 1987). Accordingly, the cases are dismissed with 9 prejudice. 10 Furthermore, these are not cases in which the undersigned judge’s impartiality 11 might be reasonably questioned due to the repetitive and frivolous nature of the filings. 12 See United States v. Holland, 519 F.3d 909, 912 (9th Cir. 2008) (absent legitimate 13 reasons to recuse himself or herself, a judge has a duty to sit in judgment in all cases 14 assigned to that judge). 15 The clerk shall terminate all pending motions and close these cases. The clerk 16 shall return, without filing, any further documents plaintiff submits in these closed cases. 17 IT IS SO ORDERED. 18 Dated: March 29, 2021 19 20 /s/ Phyllis J. Hamilton PHYLLIS J. HAMILTON 21 United States District Judge 22 23 24 25 26 27