JEESSE CALLOWAY IV v. TEMPLE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania·Decided August 5, 2024·No. 2:24-cv-02320·Unknown

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA

JESSE CALLOWAY, IV, : CIVIL ACTION Plaintiff : : v. : NO. 24-CV-2320 : TEMPLE UNIVERSITY : COLLEGE, et al., : Defendants :

M E M O R A N D U M NITZA I. QUIÑONES, J. AUGUST 5, 2024 Currently, before the Court is a Second Amended Complaint (“SAC”) filed by Plaintiff Jesse Calloway, IV. Calloway brings this pro se civil action alleging violations of his civil rights. For the reasons set forth, the SAC is dismissed. I. FACTUAL ALLEGATIONS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY1 Calloway filed an initial Complaint on May 30, 2024. (See ECF No. 1.) The caption identified the “Jesse Calloway IV Estate & Trust” as the Plaintiff, section I.A. of the form Complaint listed the Plaintiff as “Jesse Calloway IV,” and the Complaint was signed by “JCIV Estate and trust.” (See id. at 1, 5.) Calloway had neither paid the required filing fees nor submitted an application to proceed in forma pauperis. By Order dated June 6, 2024, the Court directed Calloway to either pay the required fees or submit an application to proceed in forma pauperis. (ECF No. 4.) The Court further directed that, to the extent that a trust or an estate was a plaintiff in this case, such trust or estate must have licensed counsel enter an appearance on its behalf and must pay the $405 in fees. (Id.) On June 10, 2024, Calloway filed an Amended Complaint,

1 The Court adopts the sequential pagination supplied by the CM/ECF docketing system. clarifying that neither a trust nor an estate is the Plaintiff in this matter. (See ECF No. 5 at 6.) He also submitted an application to proceed in forma pauperis. (ECF No. 6.) In the caption of the Amended Complaint, Calloway named as Defendants: Temple University College, Temple University Police, Richard M. Englert, Jennifer Griffin, Enoch

McCoy, Monica H. Padilla, P.O. Garrett, and P.O. Austin. (See Am. Compl. at 1.) Calloway alleged that his rights were violated during several interactions with Temple University police officers over the years. Referring to himself in the plural, Calloway claimed that on March 30, 2024, at approximately 10:00 p.m., at 11th Street between Berks and Montgomery Streets, “[a] Temple University Police Officer was driving down the street at 12 MPH for no reason. We had to use the restroom really bad. We attempted to go around the officer, but he moved over to prevent us from going around.” (Id. at 3.) Calloway asserted that “[t]his is an ongoing issue with Temple Police since April 2009.” (Id.) He claimed that in 2009, “we had a officer put a gun to our head over a license plate being in our back window.” (Id.) Calloway contended that this officer “was in her own personal vehicle with nothing indicating that she was an officer.” (Id.)

According to Calloway, he had just purchased the vehicle “as a graduation gift for ourselves from the auction and was on our way to grab some screws (for the plate).” (Id.) He claimed that Temple University police “pulled their guns on us again for no reason at all” in September 2019. (Id.) As alleged, Temple University police “pulled our son[’s] mom over and took our car illegally” in February or March 2020. (Id.) He also asserted that “the officer who put the gun to our head” also threatened in 2022 “to lock [him] up” because he chose not to speak to her. (Id.) In a June 27, 2024 Memorandum and Order, the Court screened Calloway’s Amended Complaint pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B) and determined that he had failed to plead plausible constitutional claims. (See ECF No. 6 and 7.) The Court found that Calloway did not allege a basis for a claim against any of the individual Defendants because he failed to allege the personal involvement of each in an alleged constitutional violation, and failed to plead sufficient facts for the Court to determine whether the named individuals were state actors. Calloway also failed to plead a plausible § 1983 claim against Temple University. Consequently, Calloway’s

claims against Temple University College, Richard M. Englert, Jennifer Griffin, Enoch McCoy, Monica H. Padilla, P.O. Garret, and P.O. Austin were dismissed, without prejudice, pursuant to § 1915(e)(2)(B)(ii) for failure to state a claim. Additionally, because Temple University Police as an entity is not a proper defendant in a § 1983 action, it was dismissed with prejudice. The Court also explained that, to the extent he raised claims based on any injuries suffered by the mother of his child, Calloway lacked standing to raise such claims and could not represent her in federal court because he is not an attorney. Furthermore, the Court noted that Calloway’s allegations based on events that occurred prior to May 30, 2022, may be time-barred. Calloway was given thirty-days leave to file an amended complaint, to the extent that he could cure the deficiencies noted by the Court. On July 26, 2024, Calloway filed the SAC.2 (ECF No. 9.) In the SAC, Calloway names

as Defendants Temple University, “P.O. Aken 2294,” P.O. Garrett, Richard M. Englert, P.O.

2 Calloway submitted a form complaint as well as a document titled “Schedule A,” (ECF No. 9), and exhibits (ECF No. 10), which the Court will consider together as comprising the SAC. (See ECF No. 9 at 1-8.) The exhibit consists of a May 23, 2022 email communication from Calloway to city officials regarding the actions of Temple University police officers. (See ECF No. 10.) He also attached to the SAC a “Durable Power of Attorney,” which is replete with sovereign citizen verbiage. (ECF No. 9 at 9-13.) “[L]egal-sounding but meaningless verbiage commonly used by adherents to the so-called sovereign citizen movement” is frivolous. See United States v. Wunder, No. 16-9452, 2019 WL 2928842, at *5 (D.N.J. July 8, 2019) (discussing the futility of the sovereign citizen verbiage in collection claim for student loan); United States v. Crawford, No. 19-15776, 2019 WL 5677750, at *1 (D.N.J. Nov. 1, 2019) (holding that criminal defendant’s attempt to use fake UCC financing statements against prosecutor were frivolous); Banks v. Florida, No. 19-756, 2019 WL 7546620, at *1 (M.D. Fla. Dec. 17, 2019), report and recommendation adopted, 2020 WL 108983 (M.D. Fla. Jan. 9, 2020) (collecting cases and stating that legal theories espoused by sovereign citizens have been consistently rejected as “utterly frivolous, patently ludicrous, and a waste of . . . the court’s time, which is being paid by hard-earned tax dollars”). Austin, Jennifer Griffin, Enoch McCoy, and Monica H. Padilla. (SAC at 1, 2.) Calloway asserts that “[a]s a living man who is a citizen of heaven and resides inside of the Pennsylvania territory of the republic,” the Temple University Police Department does not have jurisdiction over him. (Id. at 6.) His claims again pertain to series of encounters with various Temple University police officers beginning in 2011.3

Calloway asserts that he was pulled over on May 30, 2011, by “officer #2246” in an AutoZone parking lot because his license plate was improperly displayed.4 (Id. at 7.) Calloway claims that the officer put a gun to his head and threatened to blow his head off. (Id.) As alleged, the officer was in a personal vehicle and not a marked police car. (Id.) He contends that the same officer threatened to arrest him in September 2022 while he worked as a paramedic and dropped a patient off at the hospital. (Id.) Calloway also claims that he was pulled over on the 2200 block of N. 11th Street on February 29, 2020, by “Temple police officer #2350” who was driving a black, unmarked car with dark tints, and that the officer refused to “give his name or any other identifying markers.” (Id.)

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JEESSE CALLOWAY IV v. TEMPLE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, (E.D. Pa. 2024).

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