Elias v. Davis

212 F. Supp. 3d 698, 2016 WL 4255048, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 105736
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Texas
DecidedAugust 10, 2016
DocketEP-16-CV-1-PRM
StatusPublished

This text of 212 F. Supp. 3d 698 (Elias v. Davis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Elias v. Davis, 212 F. Supp. 3d 698, 2016 WL 4255048, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 105736 (W.D. Tex. 2016).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART RESPONDENT’S MOTION TO DISMISS

PHILIP R. MARTINEZ, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

On this day, the Court considered Petitioner Benjamin Elias’s “Petition for a [700]*700Writ of Habeas Corpus by a Person in State Custody” (ECF No. 1) [hereinafter “Petition”], filed on December 28, 2015; Respondent Lorie Davis’s “Motion to Dismiss with Brief in Support” (ECF No. 22) [hereinafter “Motion”], filed on June 16, 2016; and Petitioner’s “Reply to Respondent Livingston’s [sic] Motion to Dismiss with Brief in Support and Motion to Supplement Record” (ECF No. 23) [hereinafter “Reply”], filed on June 27, 2016, in the above-captioned cause. Petitioner, a Texas state prisoner, challenges the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles’ (“the Board”) revocation of his parole. Respondent argues that the Petition should be dismissed because it is time-barred. Mot. 1. After reviewing the record, and for the reasons set forth below, the Court finds that some, but not all, of Petitioner’s habeas claims are time barred.

1. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On April 18, 2001, Petitioner was convicted of aggravated kidnapping with a deadly weapon and aggravated robbery in the 243rd Judicial District Court in El Paso, Texas, and was sentenced to twenty-three years’ confinement in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (“TDCJ”). State v. Elias, No.970D11232 (243rd Dist. Ct., El Paso, Cty. Tex. Apr. 18, 2001).

In December of 2010, the Board paroled Petitioner to the supervision of the TDCJ Parole Division. Pet. 13; Mot. Ex. A, at 1-2. While Petitioner was on parole, the Parole Division issued a pre-revocation warrant for his arrest after officers in Bexar County, Texas, arrested him for driving while intoxicated. Pet. 14; Mot. Ex. A, at 1-2. Petitioner was arrested on May 29, 2013, based on this pre-revocation warrant. Pet. 14.

Authorities detained Petitioner at the Bexar County Adult Detention facility for over a year until the Board revoked his parole on July 9, 2014. Id.; Mot. Ex. A. As a result, Petitioner spent 380 days in confinement before the adjudication of his class B misdemeanor case, which carried a maximum statutory punishment of 180 days’ confinement in a county jail. Pet. 14.

Petitioner now brings his federal habeas Petition asserting the following six claims:

(1) Petitioner was subjected to cruel and unusual punishment when, as a result of the pre-revocation warrant, Petitioner spent 380 days in confinement before the adjudication of his class B misdemeanor case, which carried a maximum statutory punishment of 180 days’ confinement in a county jail;
(2) Petitioner’s due process rights were violated when a parole officer introduced double hearsay statements at his parole revocation hearing;
(3) The Parole Division considered the fact that Petitioner had potential legal actions against it at his revocation hearing, in violation of the rules governing actions by the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole;
(4) Parole Division employees retaliated against Petitioner for exercising his right to plead not guilty to the driving-while-intoxicated offense in Bex-ar County by forcing him to remain in pre-trial custody until his trial.
(5) The TDCJ Classification and Records Department(“CRD”) violated the separation of powers doctrine by altering the final decree issued by the 243rd Judicial District Court in El Paso County to extend his maximum release date from March 4, 2020, to August 22, 2022.
(6) The TDCJ, CRD excluded 901 days from his time credits for the time between the date of his arrest on the [701]*701pre-revocation warrant on May 29, 2013.

Pet. Attach. 1 Mem. of Law in Support of Fed. Writ of Habeas Corpus 1-14, Jan. 1, 2016, ECF No. 1-1 [hereinafter “Memorandum”]. The Court will refer to claims one through four as Petitioner’s “parole-revocation claims” and to Petitioner’s fifth and sixth claims as “time-credit claims.”

For the reasons set forth below, the Court concludes that Petitioner’s parole-revocation claims should be dismissed with prejudice as time barred, and Petitioners time-credit claims should not be dismissed as time-barred.

II. LEGAL STANDARD

Pursuant to the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (“AEDPA”), an application for a writ of habeas corpus by a state prisoner is subject to a one-year limitations period, which begins to run on one of four possible dates. 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d). In the case of a claim predicated- on a parole decision, the applicable triggering date is “the date on which the factual predicate of the claim or claims presented could have been discovered through the exercise of due diligence.” See Goodwin v. Dretke, 118 Fed.Appx. 817, 818 (6th Cir. 2004) (citing § 2244(d)(1)(D)); Stone v. Thaler, 614 F.3d 136, 138 (5th Cir. 2010).

Under certain circumstances, the one-year limitations period will be tolled. For instance, AEDPA explicitly provides that “[t]he time during which a properly filed application for State post-conviction or other collateral review with respect to the pertinent judgment or claim is pending shall not be counted toward any period of limitation.” § 2244(d)(2).

In accordance with § 2241(d)(2), the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has held that where a state requires that a prisoner exhaust a certain administrative procedure prior to filing his habeas application, the time period in which the prisoner begins and exhausts said state administrative remedy or procedures tolls the limitations period as well. See Stone, 614 F.3d at 138—39.

The limitations period will also be equitably tolled “in rare and exceptional circumstances.” United States v. Patterson, 211 F.3d 927, 928 (5th Cir. 2000); Manning v. Epps, 688 F.3d 177, 183 (5th Cir. 2012) (“Only extraordinary cases justify the invocation of equitable tolling[.]”) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). A petitioner is entitled to equitable tolling only when he meets the following two elements: (1) “he has been pursuing his rights diligently,” and (2) “‘some extraordinary circumstance stood in his way’ and prevented timely filing.” Holland v. Florida, 560 U.S. 631, 649, 130 S.Ct. 2549, 177 L.Ed.2d 130 (2010) (quoting Pace v. DiGuglielmo, 544 U.S. 408, 418, 125 S.Ct. 1807, 161 L.Ed.2d 669 (2005)).

III. ANALYSIS

A. Parole-Revocation Claims

Although the limitations period was tolled, Petitioner’s parole-revocation claims are still time-barred pursuant to § 2244(d).

The following is the chronology of events that transpired in state court and with the Parole Division, which is pertinent to determining whether the Petition was timely:

• July 9, 2014—Petitioner’s parole is revoked. Mot. Ex.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
212 F. Supp. 3d 698, 2016 WL 4255048, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 105736, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/elias-v-davis-txwd-2016.