Larry Gene Harless, Jr. v. Michelle Boyd and Johnny Rosenbaum

CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Virginia
DecidedJune 17, 2026
Docket7:25-cv-00650
StatusUnknown

This text of Larry Gene Harless, Jr. v. Michelle Boyd and Johnny Rosenbaum (Larry Gene Harless, Jr. v. Michelle Boyd and Johnny Rosenbaum) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Larry Gene Harless, Jr. v. Michelle Boyd and Johnny Rosenbaum, (W.D. Va. 2026).

Opinion

CLERK'S OFFICE U.S. DIST. □ AT HARRISONBURG, V4 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FILED FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA June 17, 2026 ROANOKE DIVISION LAURA A. AUSTIN, CLE BY: S/J.Vasquez LARRY GENE HARLESS, JR., DEPUTY CLERK Plaintiff, ) Case No. 7:25-cv-00650 ) Vv. ) MEMORANDUM OPINION ) MICHELLE BOYD and ) JOHNNY ROSENBAUM, ) By: | Hon. Thomas T. Cullen ) United States District Judge Defendants. )

Plaintiff Larry Gene Harless, Jr., a Virginia inmate proceeding pro se, filed this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against Defendants Michelle Boyd and Johnny Rosenbaum. (See Compl. [ECF No. 1].) This matter is before the court on respective motions to dismiss by Rosenbaum and Boyd (ECF Nos. 16, 22), two motions for leave to file amended complaints by Harless (ECF Nos. 19, 46), and several ancillary motions by the parties.! For the following reasons, the court will deny the first motion to amend as moot, deny the second motion to amend, grant the motions to dismiss, and deny the ancillary motions as moot. I. BACKGROUND This matter stems from criminal proceedings against Harless in the Washington County Circuit Court. 2 (See ECF No. 46-1 at 3, 5-8.) Boyd is (or was) an assistant commonwealth’s

' The ancillary motions include Defendants’ motion to stay discovery (ECF No. 30) and several motions filed by Harless: two motions to compel (ECF Nos. 31, 33), a motion to introduce exhibits of discovery (ECF No. 35), a motion for a mediation hearing (ECF No. 36), a motion for discovery and a protective order (ECF No. 42), a motion for intervention of the United States attorney general (ECF No. 48), and a motion for a jury trial (ECF No. 50.) ? As noted, Harless has filed two motions for leave to file an amended complaint which remain pending. Upon review, the allegations in Harless’s proposed amended complaints (ECF Nos. 28, 46-1) largely mirror those in his current complaint (ECF No. 1.) But for convenience and completeness purposes, the court will refer chiefly to Harless’s most recent proposed amended complaint (ECF No. 46-1) for the factual background of this case.

attorney in Washington County and allegedly prosecuted Harless in the criminal proceedings at issue.3 (See id. at 6.) Rosenbaum served as Harless’s defense counsel in those proceedings. (See id.) Harless makes the following factual allegations in his current complaint and his latest proposed amended complaint, which the court accepts as true when analyzing the motions to dismiss. In re Birmingham, 846 F.3d 88, 92 (4th Cir. 2017).

On May 18, 2021, Harless executed a plea agreement through which he agreed to plead guilty to certain offenses under Virginia law. (See ECF No. 1-1.) Under the plea agreement, Harless agreed, in relevant part, that during the two-year period of supervised probation specified under the agreement, he would “waive [his] Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures” and would “submit [his] person, place of residence, and property to search or seizure at any time of the day or night by any law enforcement officer

with or without a warrant.”4 (Id. at 2.) Although Harless acknowledges that he signed the plea agreement, he claims that he did so “under extreme duress” caused by his then-present pretrial detention at the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail’s Abingdon facility. (ECF No. 46-1 at 4–5.) According to Harless, the Fourth Amendment Waiver rendered the plea agreement “unconscionab[le],” and he claims that Defendants “willfully in deception presented” the plea agreement to Harless to sign. (Id. at 6.)

On September 9, 2025, Harless executed his complaint, which is his currently operative pleading. On December 9, 2025, and December 23, 2025, Rosenbaum and Boyd filed motions

3 In briefing in support of her motion to dismiss, Boyd asserts that she “had nothing to do with Harless’s prosecution.” (ECF No. 23 at 3 n.1.) On a motion to dismiss, however, the court accepts a plaintiff’s factual allegations as true.

4 For convenience purposes, the court will refer to this provision of the plea agreement as the “Fourth Amendment Waiver.” to dismiss. (ECF Nos. 16, 22.) Harless filed a response in opposition to both motions to dismiss (ECF No. 24), Defendants did not file a reply, and the motions to dismiss are ripe for disposition. On December 17, 2025, Harless executed a motion for leave to file an amended complaint. (ECF No. 19 at 4.) On January 2, 2026, Harless executed the proposed amended

complaint associated with that motion. (ECF No. 28 at 7.) On April 22, 2026, Harless executed a second motion for leave to file an amended complaint (ECF No. 46 at 2), together with a second proposed amended complaint. (ECF No. 46-1 at 8.) Defendants have filed responses in opposition to the motions for leave (ECF Nos. 24, 49), Harless did not file any replies, and the motions for leave are ripe for disposition.5 II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

Motions to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6) test the legal sufficiency of a complaint. Edwards v. City of Goldsboro, 178 F.3d 231, 243 (4th Cir. 1999). To survive a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, the complaint “must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009) (quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570 (2007)). A claim is facially plausible when the plaintiff’s allegations “allow[] the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for

the misconduct alleged.” Id. While a complaint does not need “detailed factual allegations,” complaints merely offering “labels and conclusions,” “‘naked assertion[s]’ devoid of ‘further factual enhancement,’” or “a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not

5 Upon review, Harless’s two proposed amended complaints are virtually identical to one another. (See ECF Nos. 28, 46-1.) Because Harless appears to have intended his second motion to amend to supersede his first, the court will deny as moot the first motion to amend. See Thomas v. Utah Transit Auth. Police Dep’t, No. 2:24-cv- 00736, 2025 WL 2912558, at *3 (D. Utah Oct. 14, 2025) (denying as moot pro se plaintiff’s third motion to amend where the plaintiff “filed a fourth motion to amend which supersedes it.”) do.” Id. (alteration in original) (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555, 557). At bottom, the court “must accept all well-pleaded allegations in the complaint as true and draw all reasonable inferences in the plaintiff’s favor.” Langford v. Joyner, 62 F.4th 122, 124 (4th Cir. 2023). Pleadings filed by pro se litigants must be construed liberally. King v. Rubenstein, 825 F.3d 206, 214 (4th Cir. 2016). “Principles requiring generous construction of pro se complaints are

not, however, without limits.” Beaudett v. City of Hampton, 775 F.2d 1274, 1278 (4th Cir. 1985). A pro se complaint must still “state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Jackson v. Lightsey, 775 F.3d 170, 178 (4th Cir. 2014) (quoting Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678). III. ANALYSIS For organizational purposes, the court will address Harless’s second motion to amend before addressing Defendants’ motions to dismiss.

A. Motion to Amend The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure require courts to “freely give leave [to amend a party’s pleadings] when justice so requires,” Fed. R. Civ. P.

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Larry Gene Harless, Jr. v. Michelle Boyd and Johnny Rosenbaum, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/larry-gene-harless-jr-v-michelle-boyd-and-johnny-rosenbaum-vawd-2026.