Lesa Maria Martino v. Christine Marlewski

CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Florida
DecidedNovember 14, 2025
Docket8:25-cv-00521
StatusUnknown

This text of Lesa Maria Martino v. Christine Marlewski (Lesa Maria Martino v. Christine Marlewski) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lesa Maria Martino v. Christine Marlewski, (M.D. Fla. 2025).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT MIDDLE DISTRICT OF FLORIDA TAMPA DIVISION

LESA MARIA MARTINO,

Plaintiff,

v. Case No. 8:25-cv-521-JLB-SPF

CHRISTINE MARLEWSKI,

Defendant. /

REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION Before the Court is Plaintiff’s Application to Proceed in District Court without Prepaying Fees or Costs, construed by the Court as a motion to proceed in forma pauperis (Doc. 3). Upon review of Plaintiff’s Complaint (Doc. 1) and request to proceed in forma pauperis (Doc. 3), the undersigned recommends that Plaintiff’s motion be denied and the complaint dismissed. I. Background There is a lengthy backstory to Plaintiff’s allegations, which she recounts piecemeal through this and other lawsuits. This is not her first attempt to sue characters who played key roles in this backstory.1 Here, along with her affidavit of indigency, Plaintiff submits a Form

1 Although this is Plaintiff’s first lawsuit against Judge Marlewski, Plaintiff filed 11 cases between 2019 and 2022 in the Tampa Division of the Middle District of Florida alleging similar facts; each has been dismissed. See Martino v. Samuel, No. 8:19-cv-1703-VMC-TGW (filed Jul. 15, 2019; dismissed without prejudice Dec. 9, 2019); Martino v. Manning, No. 8:19- cv-3054-MSS-CPT (filed Dec. 12, 2019; dismissed with prejudice Feb. 18, 2020); Martino v. Campbell, No. 8:20-cv-694-VMC-SPF (filed Mar. 25, 2020; dismissed with prejudice May 8, 2020); Martino v. Campbell, et al., No. 8:21-cv-1636-KKM-JSS (filed July 28, 2021; dismissed without prejudice Dec. 13, 2021); Martino v. Hudson, No. 8:21-cv-2035-SDM-CPT (filed Aug. 24, 2021; dismissed Nov. 18, 2021); Martino v. Peacock, No. 8:21-cv-2390-WFJ-TGW (filed Pro Se 15, Complaint for Violation of Civil Rights (Doc. 1), in which she purports to sue the Honorable Christine Marlewski (“Judge Marlewski”), a Hillsborough County judge assigned to civil cases in Florida’s Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, in her official and individual capacities under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, for violating her due process rights (Id. at 1-3). Plaintiff claims that

Judge Marlewski acted under color of state law and that “in Florida, a judge who acts under color of law to violate a person’s constitutional rights can be charged with a felony.” (Id. at 4). From the “Statement of Claim” section of Plaintiff’s Complaint, the Court discerns that Plaintiff takes issue with some of Judge Marlewski’s rulings in cases Plaintiff is a party to, dating back to 2018 (Id. at 4-5). Plaintiff accuses Judge Marlewski of colluding with attorney John. F. Hayter, who represented Traci Samuel Hudson in Samuel v. Martino, Case No. 2018-CA-5020,2 a “fraudulent libel slander lawsuit” against Plaintiff over which Judge Marlewski presided (Id.). Plaintiff claims that Judge Marlewski violated her own procedures

and judicial preferences when she allowed Attorney Hayter to set a unilateral hearing on a motion to strike Plaintiff’s filings in that case (Id.).

Oct. 12, 2021; dismissed with prejudice Oct. 21, 2021); Martino v. Weidner, No. 8:21-cv-2585- SDM-SPF (filed Nov. 3, 2021; dismissed Feb. 23, 2022); Martino v. Weis, et al., No. 8:21-cv- 2979-MSS-TGW (filed Dec. 27, 2021; dismissed with prejudice Dec. 28, 2021); Martino v. Hayter, et al., No. 8:22-cv-2181-CEH-CPT (filed Sept. 20, 2022; dismissed without prejudice Sept. 11, 2023); Martino v. Bryanton, et al., No. 8:22-cv-2187-TPB-SPF (filed Sept. 21, 2022; dismissed Sept. 30, 2022); Martino v. Bryanton, et al., No. 8:22-cv-2811-CEH-JSS (filed Dec. 12, 2022; dismissed without prejudice Sept. 12, 2023).

2 The docket is available at https://hover.hillsclerk.com/html/home.html, a verified website of a public agency. The Court may take judicial notice of “a fact that is not subject to reasonable dispute because it [ ] … can be accurately and readily determined from sources whose accuracy cannot reasonably be questioned.” Fed. R. Evid. 201(b). “The court may take judicial notice at any stage of the proceeding.” Fed. R. Evid. 201(d). Plaintiff underscores that Judge Marlewski’s Procedures and Preferences for setting unilateral hearings, available on the state court’s website, require a minimum of 60 days’ notice to opposing counsel and a detailed description of the efforts made to reach an agreement with opposing counsel on a hearing date (Id.). Plaintiff alleges that Attorney

Hayter set a unilateral hearing with only three weeks’ notice to her, without conferring with her beforehand (Id.). So, according to Plaintiff, Judge Marlewski violated Florida’s Vexatious Litigant Law, Fla. Stat. § 68.093, and Plaintiff’s due process rights when she permitted the unilateral hearing and barred Plaintiff from submitting any more pro se filings in Samuel v. Martino (1-1 at 2).3 Plaintiff seeks monetary damages and equitable relief, asking the Court to reach back in time into the state court docket and reverse Judge Marlewski’s orders (Id. at 5). II. Legal Standard Under 28 U.S.C. § 1915, the Court may, upon a finding of indigency, authorize the

commencement of an action without requiring the prepayment of fees or security therefor. 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(1). When an application to proceed in forma pauperis is filed, the court must review the case and dismiss it sua sponte if the court determines the action is frivolous or malicious, fails to state a claim upon which relief may be granted, or seeks monetary relief

3 Plaintiff has another case against Judge Marlewski pending before the undersigned. In Martino v. Marlewski, No. 8:25-cv-01431-SDM-SPF, Plaintiff attempts to sue Judge Marlewski in her official and individual capacities for violating plaintiff’s First and Fourteenth Amendment rights in both Samuel v. Martino, Case No. 18-CA-5020, and In re Estate of Roland T. Martino, Case No. 2022-CP-003391-A001-HC. Plaintiff claims that Judge Marlewski, in the latter state case, violated her rights by not allowing her to file objections without an attorney when she was unable to afford one, and for striking Plaintiff’s pro se filings. Plaintiff also claims Judge Marlewski aided and abetted a felon (Traci Samuel Hudson) and her attorney, Attorney Hayter, in stealing $35,000 from Plaintiff’s deceased father’s estate. In that case, the undersigned also found that Plaintiff’s in forma pauperis motion should be denied and the case dismissed with prejudice. against a defendant immune from such relief. 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B)(i)-(iii). A suit is frivolous when it is “without any merit in fact or law.” Selensky v. Alabama, 619 F. App’x 846, 848 (2015).4 Where a district court determines from the face of the complaint that the factual allegations are baseless or the legal theories are without merit, the court may conclude that

the case has little or no chance of success and dismiss the complaint before service of process. Carroll v. Gross, 984 F.2d 392, 393 (11th Cir. 1993). The phrase “fails to state a claim on which relief may be granted” has the same meaning as the nearly identical phrase in Rule 12(b)(6), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. See Mitchell v. Farcass, 112 F.3d 1483, 1490 (11th Cir.

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Lesa Maria Martino v. Christine Marlewski, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lesa-maria-martino-v-christine-marlewski-flmd-2025.