Upkins v. Brosh

2018 Ohio 2971
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 27, 2018
Docket2018-CA-2
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 2018 Ohio 2971 (Upkins v. Brosh) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Upkins v. Brosh, 2018 Ohio 2971 (Ohio Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

[Cite as Upkins v. Brosh, 2018-Ohio-2971.]

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT MIAMI COUNTY

LAMONE UPKINS : : Plaintiff-Appellant : Appellate Case No. 2018-CA-2 : v. : Trial Court Case No. 17-420 : LENEE BROSH, PROSECUTOR : (Criminal Appeal from : Common Pleas Court) Defendant-Appellee : :

...........

OPINION

Rendered on the 27th day of July, 2018.

LAMONE UPKINS, Inmate No. 723-308, London Correctional Institution, P.O. Box 69, London, Ohio 43140 Plaintiff-Appellant, Pro Se

NICHOLAS E. SUBASHI, Atty. Reg. No. 0033953 and TABITHA JUSTICE, Atty. Reg. No. 0075440, 50 Chestnut Street, Suite 230, Dayton, Ohio 45440 Attorneys for Defendant-Appellee Lenee Brosh

MELANIE J. WILLIMASON, Atty. Reg. No. 0079528 and DANIEL A. SABOL, Atty. Reg. No. 0096720, 7775 Walton Parkway, Suite 200, New Albany, Ohio 43054 Attorney for Defendant-Appellee J.J. Bubeck

.............

DONOVAN, J. -2-

{¶ 1} This matter is before the Court on the February 7, 2018 pro se Notice of

Appeal of Lamone Upkins. Upkins appeals from the trial court’s January 12, 2018 denial

of his pro se Civ.R. 60(B) motion for relief from judgment, issued after the trial court

granted the motion to dismiss of Miami County Prosecutor Lenee Brosh and Miami

County Deputy Sheriff J.J. Bubeck (“Defendants”). We hereby affirm the judgment of the

trial court.

{¶ 2} On October 16, 2017, Upkins filed a pro se “Complaint 42. U.S.C. § 1983”

against Defendants. The complaint provided, “This is a claim of malicious prosecution.”

It further provided that, on January 22, 2016, Bubeck stopped Upkins as he was walking

at the corner of Hetzler Road and County Road 25A in Piqua, questioned him, placed him

in handcuffs, and arrested him for an active Montgomery County warrant. The complaint

alleges that Bubeck then proceeded to Upkins’s vehicle, which he searched without

Upkins’s permission. According to the complaint, after “illegally obtaining what Deputy

Bubeck[ ] believed was drug paraphernalia,” Bubeck “proceeded to try and get the Plaintiff

to take a field sobriety test, and a breath test,” which Upkins refused. Upkins alleged

that he was charged with “OVI-Drugs and Alcohol and DUS-Driving Under Suspension.”

Upkins stated that he was “incarcerated within the Miami County Jail from January 22,

2016, up to February 4, 2016, [sic] the date upon which the Plaintiff had to pay a high

bond for such misdemeanor charges after Montgomery County dropped the warrant in

Dayton, Ohio, from a 2009 traffic violation.” Upkins asserted that Bubeck “knew his

actions would ignite the Miami County Prosecuting Office to begin its malicious

prosecution of a case that had neither probable cause [n]or justifiable standings in -3-

criminal law.” Upkins further alleged that Brosh “acted with malice while instituting or

continuing the prosecution” and that Brosh attempted “to achieve a guilty plea by way of

a dishonest purpose.” Upkins sought $582.65 “for bail money lost in malicious

prosecution,” as well as $10,000.00 in punitive damages and $10,000.00 in compensatory

damages “for stress and duress.”

{¶ 3} On October 19, 2017, Defendants filed their “Motion for Dismissal.” In its

entirety, the motion provides as follows:

Now comes the above named defendants by and through, Miami

County Prosecuting Attorney, Anthony E. Kendell, and for the reasons set

forth below, respectfully requests that the Plaintiff’s Complaint be

dismissed.

It is the State’s position that this Honorable Court lacks jurisdiction in

order to proceed on the Plaintiff’s Complaint as a matter of law. As a result,

the State respectfully requests that the Plaintiff’s Complaint be summarily

dismissed on those grounds.

{¶ 4} The certificate of service on the motion provides that it was sent via regular

mail to Upkins at London Correctional Institution, to Brosh at the Miami County Municipal

Court Prosecutor’s Office, and to Sheriff David Duchak and Deputy Bubeck at the Miami

County Sheriff’s Office.

{¶ 5} On October 24, 2017, the court granted the motion to dismiss without

analysis; the entirety of it of its decision provided: “Upon Motion of the State, and for good

cause shown, the Motion to Dismiss filed by the Miami County Prosecutor in this matter,

is hereby granted.” We note that the signature appearing above Judge Christopher -4-

Gee’s signature line is difficult to read.

{¶ 6} On November 13, 2017, Upkins filed his pro se motion for relief from

judgment, arguing that the “State filed a motion to dismiss with the Court without serving

a copy on the Plaintiff, and therefore, obstructed the Plaintiff from being able to oppose

the motion.” He argued that the trial court failed to provide a rationale for the dismissal of

his complaint. According to Upkins, “the contents of the State’s motion to dismiss is [sic]

still unknown to the plaintiff.” He asserted that “it is incumbent upon this Court to grant

relief from judgment pursuant to Civil Rule 60(B)(1)(3) & (5).” Upkins further asserted

that he “may had [sic] mistakenly used the wrong statute in presenting his claim to the

Court by asserting 42 U.S.C. 1983, but such oversight could have been easily corrected

pursuant to Civil Rule 15(A), whereas [the] body of the complaint itself, did in fact state a

claim upon which relief could be granted if proven.” He argued that “in considering

60(B)(3),” Defendants’ failure to serve him with the motion to dismiss “was an act of

misconduct, and the reasons stated all through this motion covers 60(B)(5) and justifies

relief from judgment.” The certificate of service on the motion provides that “a copy of

the foregoing motion for Relief from Judgment, Civil Rule 60(B) was sent to Lenee Brosh,

the Miami County Prosecutor’s Office [on] November 4, 2017 at 501 W. Main St., Safety

Building, Troy, Ohio 45373-2363.”

{¶ 7} Upkins attached his affidavit to his motion for relief from judgment. The

affidavit stated that he was not served with a copy of the motion to dismiss and that his

complaint was dismissed without any rationale. He further averred that he received “the

dismissal entry on October 26, 2017 from Anthony E. Kendell Miami County Prosecuting

Attorney as the sender on the envelope from the mail room here at the London -5-

Correctional Inst.” Finally, Upkins stated that he “is now before Judge Gee, requesting

Motion for Leave to file an Amended Complaint, and motion for Relief from judgment due

to the failure to adhere to the civil rules.”

{¶ 8} On the same day, Upkins filed a “Motion to Amend Complaint,” which

provided that Defendants “have not filed an affirmative defense in this case, and based

on these facts and the supporting civil rules the motion for leave should be freely given.”

Upkins also filed an affidavit which provided, “[t]his will verify that a copy of the Plaintiff’s

Motion for Release from Judgment, Motion to Amend Complaint, & Affidavit of the Plaintiff

was mailed to the clerk of courts at Miami County Common Pleas Court by U.S. Mail,

County Courthouse Troy, Ohio, to be filed with the Common Pleas Court.”

{¶ 9} On January 12, 2018, the trial court issued its “Decision/Judgment Entry

Denying Motion for Relief from Judgment.” The court noted that Defendants “have not

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