Weinert v. Pushmataha County Municipal District

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
• Decided: July 8, 2026
• Docket: 25-7075
• Status: Unpublished

Opinion

Appellate Case: 25-7075 Document: 34-1 Date Filed: 07/08/2026 Page: 1 FILED United States Court of Appeals UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS Tenth Circuit

FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT July 8, 2026 _________________________________ Christopher M. Wolpert Clerk of Court STEVEN ALEXANDER WEINERT,

Plaintiff - Appellant,

v. No. 25-7075 (D.C. No. 6:23-CV-00330-RAW-JAR) PUSHMATAHA COUNTY MUNICIPAL (E.D. Okla.) DISTRICT; B.J. HEDGECOCK; AMANDA RODEN,

Defendants - Appellees. _________________________________

ORDER AND JUDGMENT * _________________________________

Before HARTZ, BACHARACH, and EID, Circuit Judges. _________________________________

Stephen Weinert, an Oklahoma pretrial detainee proceeding pro se, appeals the

district court’s dismissal of his civil rights lawsuit. We have jurisdiction under

28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we affirm.

After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined *

unanimously that oral argument would not materially assist in the determination of this appeal. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2); 10th Cir. R. 34.1(G). The case is therefore ordered submitted without oral argument. This order and judgment is not binding precedent, except under the doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. It may be cited, however, for its persuasive value consistent with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 and 10th Cir. R. 32.1. Appellate Case: 25-7075 Document: 34-1 Date Filed: 07/08/2026 Page: 2

I. BACKGROUND & PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Weinert filed this lawsuit while an inmate at the Pushmataha County Jail. The

district court screened his complaint per 28 U.S.C. § 1915A and dismissed, but with

leave to amend. Weinert filed an amended complaint, by which time he had been

moved to a different detention facility, but his claims still arose from his time at the

Pushmataha County Jail. He named as defendants the Pushmataha County Municipal

District, BJ Hedgecock (the county sheriff), and Amanda Roden (administrator of the

jail). He alleged:

• lack of access to news material, in violation of the First Amendment;

• lack of access to a law library, in violation of the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments;

• inadequate nutrition and unsafe/unsanitary living conditions, in violation of the Eighth Amendment; 1

• excessive bail, in violation of the Eighth Amendment; 2

• punishment without due process; and

• retaliation for filing the original complaint, in violation of the First, Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments.

1 Like the district court, we treat this claim as pleaded under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. See Colbruno v. Kessler, 928 F.3d 1155, 1162 (10th Cir. 2019) (explaining that the Fourteenth Amendment, not the Eighth, protects pretrial detainees against unconstitutional treatment while detained). 2 Weinert also pleaded excessive fines, in violation of the Eighth Amendment, but he abandons that claim on appeal. 2 Appellate Case: 25-7075 Document: 34-1 Date Filed: 07/08/2026 Page: 3

Defendants moved to dismiss for failure to state a claim. The district court

agreed with defendants and dismissed the amended complaint without prejudice, 3

denied numerous pending motions Weinert had filed, and entered final judgment.

II. ANALYSIS

“We review de novo a district court’s decision on a Rule 12(b)(6) motion for

dismissal for failure to state a claim.” Waller v. City & Cnty. of Denver, 932 F.3d

1277, 1282 (10th Cir. 2019) (internal quotation marks omitted). 4

A. Access to News Media. Weinert first alleges the individual defendants

(Sheriff Hedgecock and Jail Administrator Roden) “did not provide any means to

read or veiw [sic] news material [in] jail.” R. at 113. A prison regulation restricting

inmates’ constitutional rights “is valid if it is reasonably related to legitimate

penological interests,” Gee v. Pacheco, 627 F.3d 1178, 1187 (10th Cir. 2010) (internal

quotation marks omitted), and an inmate challenging the restriction must “plead facts

3 Normally, we may only decide appeals from a district court’s “final decisions.” 28 U.S.C. § 1291. Sometimes a dismissal without prejudice is “a non-final, nonappealable order (since amendment would generally be available).” Mobley v. McCormick, 40 F.3d 337, 339 (10th Cir. 1994). But “a dismissal of the entire action is ordinarily final.” Id. In this case the order granting defendants’ motion to dismiss assessed a strike under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g) and directed entry of final judgment. The district court therefore intended to dismiss the entire action, making the dismissal order final and appealable. 4 For most of Weinert’s claims, the district court gave two or more independent reasons to dismiss. But once we identify a dispositive ground, we need not address others. See Harrison v. Wahatoyas, LLC, 253 F.3d 552, 558 (10th Cir. 2001) (“We need not discuss all of [the] reasons [given by the district court] because we can affirm on the basis of one.”). That ground need not be one relied on by the district court. See Richison v. Ernest Grp., Inc., 634 F.3d 1123, 1130 (10th Cir. 2011) (“[W]e may affirm on any basis supported by the record . . . .”). 3 Appellate Case: 25-7075 Document: 34-1 Date Filed: 07/08/2026 Page: 4

from which a plausible inference can be drawn that the action was not reasonably

related to a legitimate penological interest,” id. at 1188.

Weinert believes that Kingsley v. Hendrickson, 576 U.S. 389 (2015),

overcomes this standard. In Kingsley the Supreme Court held that a pretrial detainee

claiming excessive force “must show only that the force purposely or knowingly used

against him was objectively unreasonable,” id. at 396–97, in contrast with excessive-

force claims brought by convicted prisoners, who must prove that the force “was

applied maliciously and sadistically to cause harm,” id. at 400 (internal quotation

marks omitted). The Court said that “pretrial detainees (unlike convicted prisoners)

cannot be punished at all, much less ‘maliciously and sadistically.’” Id.

Weinert relies on Kingsley’s “cannot be punished at all” statement seemingly

to assert there can never be a legitimate penological interest in failing to give pretrial

detainees access to news media. See Aplt. Opening Br. at 4. We are not persuaded

there can never be a nonpunitive purpose for denying access. Because Weinert did

not attempt to plead the lack of a legitimate penological interest, this claim was

properly dismissed.

B. Access to the Courts. Weinert next claims the individual defendants

did not give him access to a law library before a preliminary hearing in a criminal

case, “causing lack of knowledge of [a] state statute which would have allowed [an]

objection to [the] hearing being continued and having subpoenas issued.” R. at 113.

In turn, this allegedly “caused [the] case to be bound over for trial rather than

dismissed.” Id. Weinert therefore claims the defendants deprived him of his due-

4 Appellate Case: 25-7075 Document: 34-1 Date Filed: 07/08/2026 Page: 5

process right of access to the courts. At the hearing in question, however, Weinert

chose to represent himself and the state court appointed standby counsel.

“[P]roviding legal counsel is a constitutionally acceptable alternative to a prisoner’s

demand to access a law library.” United States v. Taylor, 183 F.3d 1199, 1204

(10th Cir. 1999).

Weinert counters that standby counsel is not an adequate substitute for a

library, and a defendant should not be put to the choice of representing himself

without a library or accepting court-appointed counsel. But in Taylor we rejected

essentially the same assertion. The defendant in Taylor “elected to waive counsel,

but did so conditioning his pro se election on access to a law library.” Id. The

county jail where the defendant was housed had no law library, so the district court

appointed standby counsel. Id. This court ruled that the district court provided the

defendant “with the equivalent of his library access demand when it ordered counsel

to assist him at trial” because access to counsel “included access to any relevant legal

materials obtainable through counsel.” Id. In this light, Weinert’s access-to-courts

claim fails.

C. Living Conditions at the Jail. Weinert claims all defendants (that is,

the individual defendants and the county) are responsible for allegedly unsafe living

conditions that “caused extreme emotional distress, especially so due to plaintiff’s

[posttraumatic stress disorder].” R. at 114. But “[n]o Federal civil action may be

brought by a prisoner confined in a jail, prison, or other correctional facility, for

mental or emotional injury suffered while in custody without a prior showing of

5 Appellate Case: 25-7075 Document: 34-1 Date Filed: 07/08/2026 Page: 6

physical injury or the commission of a sexual act . . . .” 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(e). Thus,

Weinert’s claim, based on emotional injury, necessarily fails.

D. Excessive Bail. Weinert claims all defendants held him on excessive

bail, in violation of the Eighth Amendment. But the state court, not any of the

defendants, set his bail. This claim therefore fails for lack of causation. See Daniels

v. Gilbreath, 668 F.2d 477, 480 (10th Cir. 1982) (“As a quasi-tort action, a showing

of proximate cause is one of the requirements [of a § 1983 claim].”).

E. Lockdowns as a Form of Punishment Without Due Process.

Apparently returning to the principle that “pretrial detainees (unlike convicted

prisoners) cannot be punished at all,” Kingsley, 576 U.S. at 400, Weinert alleges he

was held in the Pushmataha County Jail with convicted tribal defendants serving

sentences and he was “locked-down as a collective punishment for actions of other

inmates,” R. at 117. He further alleges the jail never answered grievances, which

amounted to lack of a grievance procedure.

The exact injury here is unclear. If he means to say that being locked down

based on the actions of other inmates—including those who are serving sentences—

converts the lockdown into punishment, he offers no support for that notion. If he

means to say that ignoring grievances (presumably about the lockdown) converts the

lockdown into punishment, he likewise offers no support. Referring to lockdowns,

he says he has a “liberty interest in not being punished for the actions of others,”

Aplt. Opening Br. at 10, but this assumes lockdowns are punishment, rather than

“reasonably related to legitimate penological interests,” Gee, 627 F.3d at 1187

6 Appellate Case: 25-7075 Document: 34-1 Date Filed: 07/08/2026 Page: 7

(internal quotation marks omitted). Weinert may not simply assume the main fact to

be proved. He must plausibly plead lack of a legitimate penological interest. See id.

Because he does not do so, this claim also fails.

F. Lockdown as Retaliation. Finally, Weinert alleges the following about

Jail Administrator Roden: “Amanda Roden, shortly after [the] filing of [the] original

complaint, actually locked [Weinert] down after stating ‘O, you want to sue the jail’

prior to slamming his bean hole and then locking him down.” R. at 117. The district

court identified this as a First Amendment retaliation claim, and Weinert’s opening

brief agrees with that characterization.

Retaliation claims require, among other things, “that the defendant’s adverse

action was substantially motivated as a response to the plaintiff’s exercise of

constitutionally protected conduct.” Shero v. City of Grove, 510 F.3d 1196, 1203

(10th Cir. 2007). Weinert’s retaliation claim fails to plausibly plead facts satisfying

this element because there is no context to suggest the lockdown in question was

unique to him, as opposed to part of the broader lockdowns he discusses in his

complaint (in which he would have been locked down anyway). We therefore affirm

dismissal of this cause of action.

III. MOTIONS

The district court also denied several of Weinert’s motions. He contests three

of those denials on appeal.

A. Motion to Expunge. Weinert moved “to expunge his arrest and

criminal records” because “every ‘conviction’ in [his] history is the result of civil

7 Appellate Case: 25-7075 Document: 34-1 Date Filed: 07/08/2026 Page: 8

rights violations and the coercion of prosecutor’s [sic].” R. at 120. The district court

denied the motion because only a habeas action could grant the relief requested.

{R. at 326.} We review this ruling de novo, see Butler v. Compton, 482 F.3d 1277,

1278 (10th Cir. 2007), and discern no error. Although Weinert argues he only moved

“to expunge not set aside prior convictions,” Aplt. Opening Br. at 12, that is a

distinction without a difference. The district court correctly denied this motion.

B. Motion to Appoint Counsel. Weinert also moved to have an attorney

appointed for him. “We review the denial of appointment of counsel in a civil case

for an abuse of discretion,” Rucks v. Boergermann, 57 F.3d 978, 979 (10th Cir. 1995),

although abuse of discretion in this context is even more deferential than usual:

“Only in those extreme cases where the lack of counsel results in fundamental

unfairness will the district court’s decision be overturned,” McCarthy v. Weinberg,

753 F.2d 836, 839 (10th Cir. 1985). We see no fundamental unfairness in these

circumstances. We therefore will not overturn the district court’s decision on this

issue.

C. Motion to Remove State Cases. Weinert moved to remove several

state-court criminal prosecutions to federal court. He cited multiple removal statutes,

but only one, 28 U.S.C. § 1443, permits removal of a criminal case. To qualify for

removal under that statute, the prosecution must be “[a]gainst any person who is

denied or cannot enforce in the courts of such State a right under any law providing

for the equal civil rights of citizens of the United States, or of all persons within the

jurisdiction thereof,” § 1443(1); or “[f]or any act under color of authority derived

8 Appellate Case: 25-7075 Document: 34-1 Date Filed: 07/08/2026 Page: 9

from any law providing for equal rights, or for refusing to do any act on the ground

that it would be inconsistent with such law,” § 1443(2). Weinert claimed the state

courts were denying him numerous constitutional rights, apparently meant as an

argument for application of § 1443(1). The district court denied the motion because

Weinert had not alleged racial animus as the force behind the alleged constitutional

violations. See Johnson v. Mississippi, 421 U.S. 213, 219 (1975) (stating that to

qualify for removal under § 1443(1), “it must appear that the right allegedly denied

the removal petitioner arises under a federal law providing for specific civil rights

stated in terms of racial equality” (internal quotation marks omitted)).

“We review a district court’s removal determination de novo.” Doe v. Integris

Health, Inc., 123 F.4th 1189, 1193 (10th Cir. 2024). Weinert argues that housing him

with tribal inmates “suggest[s] that what is punishment for [a] tribal member

([I]ndian), is not for [a] white man,” thus demonstrating the racial animus the district

court said was lacking. Aplt. Opening Br. at 13. But Weinert never raised this

argument in the district court. We therefore leave the district court’s ruling

undisturbed. See Petrini v. Howard, 918 F.2d 1482, 1483 n.4 (10th Cir. 1990) (“A

federal appellate court, as a general rule, will not reverse a judgment on the basis of

issues not presented below.”).

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IV. CONCLUSION

We affirm the district court’s judgment. 5

Entered for the Court

Harris L Hartz Circuit Judge

5 We grant Weinert’s motion for leave to proceed on appeal without prepayment of costs or fees. We remind Weinert he must continue making partial payments until the filing fee is paid in full.