Pelfrey v. Department of Justice

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Tennessee
DecidedJune 25, 2025
Docket1:25-cv-00076
StatusUnknown

This text of Pelfrey v. Department of Justice (Pelfrey v. Department of Justice) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pelfrey v. Department of Justice, (E.D. Tenn. 2025).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE AT CHATTANOOGA

) LADONNA PELFREY, ) ) Case No. 1:25-cv-73 Plaintiff, ) ) Judge Atchley v. ) ) Magistrate Judge McCook DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, et al., ) ) Defendants. ) ) LADONNA PELFREY, ) ) Case No. 1:25-cv-74 Plaintiff, ) ) Judge Atchley v. ) ) Magistrate Judge McCook STATE DEPARTMENT, et al., ) ) Defendants. ) ) LADONNA PELFREY, ) ) Case No. 1:25-cv-75 Plaintiff, ) ) Judge Atchley v. ) ) Magistrate Judge McCook JAMES GIORDANO, et al., ) ) Defendants. ) ) LADONNA PELFREY, ) ) Case No. 1:25-cv-76 Plaintiff, ) ) Judge Atchley v. ) ) Magistrate Judge McCook DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, et al., ) ) Defendants. ) MEMORANDUM OPINION & ORDER

This matter is before the Court sua sponte to determine whether it has subject matter jurisdiction over the allegations of the complaints filed in the above-captioned cases. See Kontrick v. Ryan, 540 U.S. 443, 455 (2004) (challenge to a federal court’s subject-matter jurisdiction may be made at any time and the court should raise the question sua sponte) (citing Mansfield, C. & L.M.R. Co. v. Swan, 111 U.S. 379, 382 (1884)). In each case, Plaintiff’s complaint is totally implausible and factually frivolous, depriving the Court of subject matter jurisdiction. These actions will be DISMISSED and Plaintiff Ladonna Pelfrey ENJOINED from filing cases in this Court without receiving prior approval. I. FACTUAL AND LEGAL BACKGROUND On March 7, 2025, Plaintiff filed five substantially identical complaints, opening Case Nos. 1:25-cv-72 through 76 (the “March 7th Cases”). Each action names one government defendant – the Department of Energy, Department of Defense, State Department, or the Department of Justice – plus five individual defendants: James Giordano, Deno Giordano, Carey Leann Stockholm, Jay

Giordano, and Lynn D. Forster Rothchild. Plaintiff makes no allegations as to any of the individual defendants except James Giordano. It is not clear who they are or whether any of them are purported state actors. In each action, Plaintiff asserts violations of the Fourth, Fifth, and Eighth Amendments to the Constitution, 18 U.S.C. § 116, 18 U.S.C. § 2332a, and T.C.A. § 39-13-806. While she does not mention 42 U.S.C. § 1983, she references “color of law,” so the Court treats relevant claims as if they were properly brought pursuant to § 1983. Her allegations center around her belief that “energy weapons” are being used against her and other United States citizens. Plaintiff used a complaint form to initiate her actions. In each case, she also filed a photocopy of the following: (i) 12 pages of handwritten allegations, divided into a numbered, four- page section identifying the harm she believes she has suffered at the hands of electromagnetic / radioactive weapons, and a numbered, eight-page section discussing her injury and opinions about the harm these weapons are inflicting on the United States; (ii) two pages of medical records related

to a CT scan of her head; (iii) a page purporting to interpret those records; and (iv) a two-page request for judgment. Some portions of this document are barely legible. The Court refers to this filing as the “Statement of Claim,” and details its allegations below. In each of the March 7th Cases, Plaintiff also filed a Supplement, adding Defendants Deno Giordano and Carey Leeann Stockholm as Defendants, with no further allegations. See e.g. Case No. 1:25-cv-73 [Doc. 5].1 She also filed photographs of what appear to be scabs, open wounds, rashes, and other injuries on her body, as well as some medical imaging and a photo of a woman in a Halloween costume. [Doc. 4]. On April 2, 2025, Plaintiff filed a Notice of Appeal in each of her March 7th Cases. It states: “I Ladonna Pelfrey am taking the appeal to the United States Court of Appeal for the 6th Circuit of

Ohio and TN. Order entered on 3/7/25.” [Id.]. The only Orders entered on March 7th in any of her cases were entered in Pelfrey v. United States Department of Energy, Case No. 1:25-cv-72.2 They were procedural orders entered in every civil case: an Order Governing Depositions, Order Governing Motions to Dismiss, and Order Governing Sealing Confidential Information. See Case

1 For her Supplement, Motion to Amend and for Default Judgment, Notice of Appeal, and Writ of Certiorari, Plaintiff submitted a single document to be docketed in multiple cases. Each of these documents was filed in each of the instant cases, among others, and the filings are identical. For ease of reference, the Court refers to the docket entries in Pelfrey v. Department of Defense, et al., Case No. 1:25-cv-73, unless otherwise noted. Her Complaints contain an identical Statement of Claim, but otherwise differ slightly, so the Complaints are discussed separately below.

2 The remaining March 7th Cases were referred for a related case determination, so they had not yet been assigned to the undersigned District Judge. No. 1:25-cv-72 [Docs. 4-6]. Though no order was filed on March 7th in any other case, Plaintiff filed the same Notice of Appeal in all of the March 7th Cases, as well as in Pelfrey v. Giordano, Case No. 1:24-cv-354. The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit dismissed all six of Plaintiff’s interlocutory appeals for lack of jurisdiction. See, e.g., Case No. 1:25-cv-73 [Docs. 11 & 12].

On May 7, 2025, Plaintiff filed a “Petition for Writ of Certiorari.” [Doc. 10]. The body of the document is as follows: “From the United States Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit for writ of certiorari to the Surpreme Court of Washington, D.C. & State of Tennessee.” [Id.] (errors original). She filed this document in each of the instant cases, among others. There is no text in the document other than the case caption and signature block. Finally, on June 5, 2025, Plaintiff filed a Motion to Amend and for Default Judgment, which likewise lists all five of the March 7th Cases and two others. [Doc. 16]. The Motion does not contain new factual allegations, but adds a demand for “$10 million or more to settle these cases.” [Id.]. It also seeks “default judgment from the 7 summons I mailed.” [Id.]. No proof of service or executed summons has been filed in any of the March 7th Cases.

With this background, the Court turns to the allegations in the remaining March 7th Cases. The Court has no desire to draw unkind attention to the fantastical nature of Ms. Pelfrey’s contentions. But because these actions will be dismissed as implausible and factually frivolous, Plaintiff’s allegations must be set out in some detail. The bulk of the allegations, moreover, appear in the Statement of Claim, which was filed in each action. a. The Statement of Claim Though at times difficult to decipher, the Statement of Claim generally alleges that “biochemicals, neurotoxins, & magnetic energy” are being used on United States citizens, apparently by the Government and/or James Giordano. See, e.g., Case No. 1:25-cv-73 [Doc. 2 at 7]. Plaintiff claims there is “secret spying” in bedrooms and showers, that women and young girls are being molested, and that she herself is being “sexually assaulted and battered” with these weapons. [Id.]. Plaintiff alleges her tires were “blown out” and she had lights “beamed” into her eyes,

causing her to wreck her car. [Id. at 8].

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Pelfrey v. Department of Justice, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pelfrey-v-department-of-justice-tned-2025.