Bonilla v. Hamilton

Background

Steven Wayne Bonilla, identified as a state prisoner and a condemned prisoner, filed multiple civil-rights complaints without a lawyer under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The complaints were filed in the related case numbers listed in the caption. They presented nearly identical claims against various federal and state judges and other officials and sought relief concerning Bonilla’s underlying conviction or the handling of his other cases in state and federal court.

The opinion states that Bonilla had a pending federal petition challenging his confinement in this court with appointed counsel and was also represented by counsel in state-court proceedings. The court also noted his history of filing similar cases.

Reasons for dismissal

The court held that Bonilla was disqualified from proceeding without paying the filing fee under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g), unless he showed that he was in immediate danger of serious physical injury when he filed the complaints. The court found that the allegations did not show that kind of danger.

The court further stated that, even if an application to proceed without paying fees had been granted, the lawsuits would be barred under Heck v. Humphrey, Younger v. Harris, Demos v. U.S. District Court, or Mullis v. U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The opinion did not separately describe the application of each cited decision to each complaint.

The court rejected any suggestion that the judge’s impartiality could reasonably be questioned because of the repetitive and frivolous filings. A footnote states that Bonilla named the judge as a defendant in one of the cases.

Disposition

The court dismissed the cases with prejudice. It directed the clerk to terminate all pending motions and close the cases, and to return without filing any further documents Bonilla submitted in the closed cases. Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton signed the order.