Hurd v. District of Columbia

146 F. Supp. 3d 57, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 156420, 2015 WL 7303522
CourtDistrict Court, District of Columbia
DecidedNovember 19, 2015
DocketCivil Action No. 15-666 (ESH)
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 146 F. Supp. 3d 57 (Hurd v. District of Columbia) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, District of Columbia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hurd v. District of Columbia, 146 F. Supp. 3d 57, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 156420, 2015 WL 7303522 (D.D.C. 2015).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

ELLEN SEGAL HUVELLE, United States District Judge

Plaintiff brings this suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 to redress alleged due procéss violations by the District of Columbia (“the District”). He claims the District suddenly and unjustly re-incarcerated him without a hearing, four years after he was mistakenly released from a federal prison. (Am. Compl., July 10, 2015 [ECF No. 7].) The District has moved to dismiss, arguing that plaintiffs substantive due process claim is barred by the doctrine of res judicata and that the District did not violate plaintiffs substantive or procedural due process rights. (Defi’s Mot. to Dismiss [ECF No. 9].)1 For the reasons set forth below, the District’s motion to dismiss is granted.

BACKGROUND

In January 2006, plaintiff Michael Hurd pled guilty in D.C. Superior Court to five counts: (1) carrying a pistol without a license; (2) possession of a prohibited weapon; (3)-(4) two counts of possession of unregistered firearms; and (5) possession of cocaine. (Am. Compl. ¶¶ 10-11.) He was sentenced to forty-two months in prison with all but forty-five days suspended, a $1,000 fine, and one year of supervised probation. (Id. ¶ 11) After violating the terms of his probation, Hurd was required to serve thé previously suspended portion of his sentence, as well as a three-year term of supervised release. (Id. ¶ 12.) On September 21, 2006, he began serving his forty-two-month sentence at the Federal Correctional institution in Beckley, West Virginia. (Id. ¶ 14.) Less than a year later, however, Hurd was inexplicably released to á halfway house in D.C., which in turn released him a month later to begin serving his three-year term of supervised release. (See id. ¶¶ 15, 17.) It is undisputed that he served only thirteen months of his forty-two-month prison sentence. (See Ex. 3 to Def.’s Mot. to Dismiss [ECF No. 5-3] at 2 n.l (“Habeas Motion”).)2 At the time [60]*60of his release, he apparently believed that his motion for a sentence reduction had been successful, but he now acknowledges that no reduction had been granted, and there is no other valid explanation for his early release. (See id.)

On July 18, 2010, the U.S. Parole Commission determined that Hurd- had successfully completed his three-year term of supervised release, and- it no longer had jurisdiction over him. (See Am. Compl. ¶¶, 19, 22.) During this time, Hurd avers that he successfully completed a sheet metal apprenticeship program; maintained employment as a sheet metal journeyman; consistently tested negative for drugs; successfully completed an anger management course; kept all appointments with officers monitoring his supervised, release at the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency (“CSOSA”); and re-established ties with his wife and children. (See Habeas Motion at 2, 5.) By the same token, however, he acknowledges that he failed more than fifty drug tests and was arrested three times while under supervision. (See Pl.’s Opp’n Br. [ECF No. 10] at 11; see also Ex. 5 to Def.’s Mot. to Dismiss [ECF No. 5-5] at 2.) First, Hurd was arrested for simple assault in September 2007 and found not guilty at trial. (Ex. 5 to Def.’s Mot. to Dismiss at 2.) A year later, he was arrested for possession with intent to distribute cocaine while armed, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of an unregistered firearm, and unlawful possession of ammunition, but the charges were later dismissed. (Id. at 2, 21.) The arrest report indicates that 108.7 grams of crack cocaine were found in false-bottomed containers in Hurd’s girlfriend’s apartment, along with $8,426 in cash, a Ruger firearm, and nineteen rounds of ammunition. (Id. at 22-23.) In August 2009, he was again arrested for simple assault, a charge that was dismissed without prejudice when the victim failed to appear to testify against him. (Id. at 34, 37.)

Finally, almost a year after his supervision had terminated, Hurd was arrested for possession of marijuana, to which he eventually pled guilty. (Am. Comp. ¶¶ 24-25.) This time he was sentenced to nine days in prison, to be served over three weekends. (See id. ¶ 25.) While serving his second weekend at D.C. Jail, Hurd was informed that he had twenty-seven months remaining on his 2006 sentence, so he would not be released that evening as he had expected. (See id. ¶¶ 27-29.) His interrupted prison sentence thus restarted nearly fifty-one months after he was erroneously released. (See id. ¶¶ 17, 28.) He was not given any prior notice or a hearing to contest his re-incarceration. (Id. ¶ 30.)

On November 16, 2011, Hurd filed a motion for habeas corpus in his closed criminal case in D.C. Superior Court. (See Habeas Motion at 1.) In it, Hurd argued that his re-incarceration “without notice; a hearing, or any sort of warning, is ’so unfair that it must be deemed inconsistent with fundamental notions of fairness embodied in the Due Process Clause.’” (Id. at 4 (quoting DeWitt v. Ventetoulo, 6 F.3d 32, 35 (1st Cir.1993).) Five days later, the Superior Court issued a show- cause order to the United States, which prosecuted Hurd on the 2006 charge, and the District, which was holding him at the jail. (See Ex. 4 to Def.’s Mot. to Dismiss [ECF No. 5-4].) Although the United States and the District filed timely oppositions, no further action was taken on Hurd’s motion by the Superior Court. (See Am. Compl. ¶¶ 31-33.) Therefore, in June 2012, he filed a second, emergency petition. (See id.) This time, a Superior Court judge scheduled a motions [61]*61hearing for more than a month later, at which he denied Hurd’s petition from the bench. (Id. ¶¶ 34-35.) The court then issued a one-sentence order committing Hurd back to prison, but no written opinion. (See Ex. 8 to Def.’s Mot. to Dismiss [ECF No. 5-8].) Hurd filed an appeal to the D.C. Court of Appeals, which took no action for seventeen months. (Am. Compl. ¶ 36.)

By the time the Court of Appeals issued a ruling, Hurd had already been released from prison on September 30, 2013, so his appeal was denied as moot. (Am. Compl. ¶¶ 37-39.) In total, his habeas motion and appeal had been pending before the local courts for more than twenty-five months. (See id. ¶¶ 31, 39.) ;

ANALYSIS

I. LEGAL STANDARD

To survive a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim under Rule 12(b)(6), a complaint “must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to ’state á claim to relief that is plausible on its face,”’ such that a court may “draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007)). The plausibility standard “asks for more than a sheer possibility that a defendant has acted unlawfully.” Id.

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Bluebook (online)
146 F. Supp. 3d 57, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 156420, 2015 WL 7303522, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hurd-v-district-of-columbia-dcd-2015.