Telfair v. Tandy

797 F. Supp. 2d 508, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 67147, 2011 WL 2517151
CourtDistrict Court, D. New Jersey
DecidedJune 23, 2011
DocketCivil Action 08-0731 (WJM)
StatusPublished

This text of 797 F. Supp. 2d 508 (Telfair v. Tandy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. New Jersey primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Telfair v. Tandy, 797 F. Supp. 2d 508, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 67147, 2011 WL 2517151 (D.N.J. 2011).

Opinion

OPINION

MARTINI, District Judge:

This matter comes before the Court upon Plaintiffs filing of a slew of motions, letters, notices and analogous documents, see Docket Entries Nos. 43-68 and 70-72, submitted after this Court’s grant of summary judgment as to some Defendants. See Docket Entries Nos. 41-42. For the reasons detailed below: (a) Plaintiffs above-listed submissions will be dismissed; (b) stay as to Plaintiffs claims previously stayed by the Court will be extended; (c) Plaintiffs claims proceeded past sua sponte dismissal and not disposed of in the Court’s summary judgment decision will be dismissed without prejudice, and Plaintiff will be directed to file a clear and concise amended pleading; (d) the limited order of preclusion imposed upon Plaintiff will be adopted for ninety days; and (e) Plaintiff will be ordered to show cause as to why the order of preclusion should not govern the remainder of this matter and Plaintiffs future non-emergent pro se, in forma pauperis civil actions in this District.

I. BACKGROUND

Plaintiffs instant action appears to be both the first civil rights action commenced by Plaintiff in this District and his sole currently pending civil rights action. Other actions, instituted against or by Plaintiff, as well as the proceedings instituted against a certain Catrina R. Gatling (“Gatling”), Plaintiffs former girlfriend, are closely related to the case at bar. Therefore, a brief overview of these actions and a summary of the instant matter appear helpful.

*511 A. Other Actions in This District

A detailed overview of the criminal proceedings instituted against Plaintiff and Gatling, as well as all civil actions commenced by Plaintiff in this District, was already conducted in In re Telfair, 745 F.Supp.2d 536 (D.N.J.2010), a decision providing citations to all relevant docket entries in each such action. Therefore, a brief summary should suffice.

The events that gave rise'to Plaintiffs criminal prosecution began to unfold on September 5, 2006, when police was dispatched to investigate a report of gunfire at a certain residence in Newark, New Jersey. See id. at 538. Upon seeing several bullet holes in the back door and empty shell casings nearby, police entered the residence with consent of two occupants. See id. A search of the residence produced large amounts of various controlled substances. See id. The occupants stated that the substances belonged to an individual named “Hassan Gatling,” which was Plaintiffs alias; they also stated that they were employed by Plaintiff to pack these substances, seemingly, for retail sale. See id. Consequently, an arrest warrant was issued as to Plaintiff on September 8, 2006, and — four and a half months later, ie., on January 23, 2007 — he was arrested at the home of Gatling, who was, by then, notified by the law enforcement authorities that Plaintiff was subject to arrest warrant and, hence, knew that she was harboring a felon. See id. Plaintiff was indicted (and then re-indicted, twice) on drug-related offenses. See id.

Plaintiff initially retained a certain Paul Bergrin (“Bergrin”) as his defense counsel. See id. However, Plaintiff swiftly terminated Bergrin’s representation, and a certain James Kimball (“Kimball”), a CJA attorney, was appointed to represent Plaintiff. See id. at 540. Not long thereafter, Plaintiff terminated Kimball’s appointment, and a certain Michael Pedicini (“Pedicini”), another CJA attorney, took over. See id. at 541. Plaintiff sent threatening letters to Kimball and Pedicini and filed disciplinary grievances against Bergrin, Kimball and Pedicini with the Office of Attorney Ethics (“OAE”); in addition, Plaintiff instituted legal malpractice suits against Pedicini and Bergrin (and, potentially, against Kimball too). See id. at 541-46. He also filed disciplinary grievances with the OAE against his prosecutors. See id. at 565-66.

When Plaintiffs then-latest defense counsel, that is, Pedicini, learned about Plaintiffs legal malpractice suit against him, Pedicini resigned to avoid conflict of interest. See id. at 565. By that time, Plaintiff was already convicted by his jury. See id. at 543.

During pre-sentencing stages of his criminal prosecution, Plaintiff — while being represented by three different defense attorneys 1 — filed in his criminal docket fifty-one pro se applications, including motions, petitions and various letters (many of which replicated each other many times over) totaling one thousand one hundred thirty six pages; some of these submissions made allegations against this Court and referred to the instant proceedings. 2 See id. at 541, 583-84.

*512 Meanwhile, Gatling was charged with harboring a felon, released on bail on the day of her arrest and, eventually, pled guilty. See id. at 550-51.

About a year after his arrest, and while still awaiting resolution of his criminal proceedings, Plaintiff initiated the instant matter, pursuant to Bivens v. Six Unknown Agents of Fed. Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388, 91 S.Ct. 1999, 29 L.Ed.2d 619 (1971). 3 A year later, he initiated another Bivens action, challenging the same transactions and, in addition, raising premature § 2255 habeas challenges; another year later, he commenced one more Bivens action challenging the same. See id. at 549. Plaintiffs complaints in those two matters yielded seventy eight pages. 4 See id. at 587.

On June 3, 2010, Plaintiff filed a series of documents mimicking a disciplinary grievance submitted on behalf of himself and Gatling. See id. at 551-60. Although this set of submissions was reduced to mere four docket entries, it yielded three hundred forty two pages, many of which replicated one another over and over again. See id. at 584. This set of submissions was determined to be not a bona fide ethics application but a mix of: (a) Plaintiffs Bivens claims repeating the challenges at the heart of the instant matter;

(b) habeas-like claims; and (c) § 1983 allegations raised without proper standing on behalf of Gatling. See Telfair et al. v. Office of the U.S. Attorney, Civ. Action No. 10-2958(GEB) (D.N.J.). The decision dismissing these claims and declining to initiate a disciplinary investigation in this District also imposed a limited order of preclusion upon Plaintiff. See id., Docket Entries Nos. 7 and 8. Pursuant to that limited preclusion order:

a.

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Bluebook (online)
797 F. Supp. 2d 508, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 67147, 2011 WL 2517151, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/telfair-v-tandy-njd-2011.