Custodio v. Dowell

CourtDistrict Court, D. Idaho
DecidedAugust 27, 2022
Docket1:21-cv-00351
StatusUnknown

This text of Custodio v. Dowell (Custodio v. Dowell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Idaho primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Custodio v. Dowell, (D. Idaho 2022).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF IDAHO

ELIAS MANUEL CUSTODIO,

Plaintiff, Case No. 1:21-cv-00351-BLW

vs. INITIAL REVIEW ORDER BY SCREENING JUDGE ASHLEY DOWELL, SANDY JONES, LISA BOSTAPH, RICH WILLIS, KAREN NEILL, CORNEY DENNIS, R. DAVID MOORE, MIKE MATTHEWS, JANIE DRESSEN, DIANA CARNELL, PAROLE HEARING OFFICER, and IDAHO COMMISSION OF PARDONS,

Defendants.

The prisoner civil rights complaint of Plaintiff Elias Manuel Custodio was conditionally filed by the Clerk of Court, subject to review by the Court to determine whether it should be dismissed under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1915 or 1915A. Plaintiff, an Idaho state prisoner, contests his denial of parole. Having reviewed the record, the Court enters the following Order permitting Plaintiff to proceed for injunctive relief against certain defendants only on his equal protection claim. REVIEW OF COMPLAINT

1. Background Plaintiff asserts that members of the Idaho Commission of Pardons and Parole (ICPP) and its executive director violated his Fourteenth Amendment due process and equal protection rights and his First Amendment rights as a potential parolee. He alleges that the ICPP erred by relying on “falsified controverted police reports” that were

discredited at trial and are now 20 years old; by allowing the victim’s mother to testify against the release of Plaintiff even though she lied at trial; and by asking all the State’s witnesses, including the victim, to lie to the ICPP—all “in retaliation for plaintiff’s previous 1983 lawsuit which helped stop T/C prgms in Idaho, also placing Plaintiff’s parole hearing behind COP KILLER hearing to bias/retaliate violating Plaintiff’s rights.”

Dkt. 3, p. 3 (verbatim). Plaintiff also alleges that “whites are paroled at faster rate than Hispanics for same crimes.” Id., p. 6 (verbatim). Among Plaintiff’s damages is “denial of parole.” Id. He seeks damages and a new parole hearing “without the errors.” Id.

2. Standard of Law for Review of Complaint The Court is required to review complaints of prisoner and in forma pauperis litigants to determine whether summary dismissal is appropriate. The Court must dismiss a complaint or any portion thereof that states a frivolous or malicious claim, that fails to state a claim upon which relief may be granted, or that seeks monetary relief from a

defendant who is immune from such relief. 28 U.S.C. §§1915(e)(2)(B), 1915A. Plaintiff brings his claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, the civil rights statute. To state a claim under § 1983, a plaintiff must allege a violation of rights protected by the Constitution or created by federal statute proximately caused by conduct of a person

acting under color of state law. Crumpton v. Gates, 947 F.2d 1418, 1420 (9th Cir. 1991). A complaint fails to state a claim for relief under Rule 8 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure if the factual assertions in the complaint, taken as true, are insufficient for the reviewing court plausibly “to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009).

“Threadbare recitals of the elements of a cause of action, supported by mere conclusory statements, do not suffice.” Id. In other words, although Rule 8 “does not require detailed factual allegations, ... it demands more than an unadorned, the-defendant-unlawfully- harmed-me accusation.” Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). If the facts pleaded are “merely consistent with a defendant’s liability,” but lack a causal link or other element of

a civil rights cause of action, the complaint has not stated a claim for relief that is plausible on its face. Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). Certain types of parole claims may be brought as § 1983 claims; others must be asserted in habeas corpus actions. For example, in Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477, 481 (1994), the United States Supreme Court determined that a prisoner in state custody

cannot use a civil rights action to challenge the fact or duration of his confinement. Id. at 81-82. In Edwards v. Balisok, 520 U.S. 641, 648 (1997), the United States Supreme Court applied Heck to a prisoner’s challenge to denial of good-time credit, holding that the claim was not cognizable under § 1983 because the challenge would have necessarily implied the invalidity of the judgment. In Butterfield v. Bail, 120 F.3d 1023 (9th Cir. 1997), the Ninth Circuit extended

the Balisok holding to a defendant’s challenge that parole officials wrongfully found him ineligible for parole when they considered false information in his prison file. Therein, the court reasoned: We have no difficulty in concluding that a challenge to the procedures used in the denial of parole necessarily implicates the validity of the denial of parole, and therefore, the prisoner’s continuing confinement. Few things implicate the validity of continued confinement more directly than the allegedly improper denial of parole. This is true whether that denial is alleged to be improper based upon procedural defects in the parole hearing or upon allegations that parole was improperly denied on the merits. Appellant’s civil claim for damages amounts to a collateral attack on his denial of parole and subsequent incarceration. Heck does not permit this. The fact that Butterfield seeks money damages rather than parole as a remedy does not alter this conclusion... Any money damages that would be assessed against defendants in this case would necessarily be based upon the harm to Appellant in having his parole denied, i.e., damages will inevitably be measured by the denial of parole–Butterfield’s continuing confinement. Butterfield, 120 F.3d at 1024.1

1 Similarly, in Bogovich v. Sandoval, 189 F.3d 999 (9th Cir. 1999), the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit made it clear that prisoners cannot use a civil action like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to challenge the validity or duration of confinement, but must do so in a habeas corpus action. Only in certain cases will plaintiffs be able to assert a civil rights action that implicates confinement without having first exhausted their state court remedies. In Bogovich, the court found that the claims of plaintiffs/appellants did not challenge the validity or duration of confinement because they: After Balisok and Butterfield, the Supreme Court decided Wilkinson v. Dotson, 544 U.S. 74 (2005), clarifying that an inmate may initiate a § 1983 action to seek invalidation of “state procedures used to deny parole eligibility ... and parole suitability,”

but he may not seek “an injunction ordering his immediate or speedier release into the community.” Id. at 82. At most, an inmate can seek as a remedy “consideration of a new parole application” or “a new parole hearing,” which may or may not result in an actual grant of parole. Id. This holding comports with Preiser v. Rodriguez,

Related

Hayward v. Marshall
603 F.3d 546 (Ninth Circuit, 2010)
Hans v. Louisiana
134 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 1890)
Skinner v. Oklahoma Ex Rel. Williamson
316 U.S. 535 (Supreme Court, 1942)
Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee v. McGrath
341 U.S. 123 (Supreme Court, 1951)
Preiser v. Rodriguez
411 U.S. 475 (Supreme Court, 1973)
Pennhurst State School and Hospital v. Halderman
465 U.S. 89 (Supreme Court, 1984)
City of Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center, Inc.
473 U.S. 432 (Supreme Court, 1985)
Board of Pardons v. Allen
482 U.S. 369 (Supreme Court, 1987)
Kentucky Department of Corrections v. Thompson
490 U.S. 454 (Supreme Court, 1989)
Lankford v. Idaho
500 U.S. 110 (Supreme Court, 1991)
Heck v. Humphrey
512 U.S. 477 (Supreme Court, 1994)
Edwards v. Balisok
520 U.S. 641 (Supreme Court, 1997)
Wilkinson v. Dotson
544 U.S. 74 (Supreme Court, 2005)
Ashcroft v. Iqbal
556 U.S. 662 (Supreme Court, 2009)
John Houston Sellars v. Raymond K. Procunier
641 F.2d 1295 (Ninth Circuit, 1981)

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