Thomas-El v. Kekic

Background

Soloman Thomas-El filed a civil action concerning a Minnesota state criminal case. Hennepin County authorities charged him with possessing a firearm after a conviction for a crime of violence. A jury convicted him, and the state trial court sentenced him to 60 months’ imprisonment. The opinion states that Thomas-El appears to be appealing the conviction in Minnesota’s appellate courts.

The amended complaint named Tarek Kekic and Nhia Thor, identified as police officers with the City of Brooklyn Center, based on their role in Thomas-El’s January 2024 arrest. The complaint primarily challenged the search of his vehicle, which uncovered the firearm involved in the conviction. It also appeared to argue that Thomas-El was not subject to Minnesota’s jurisdiction because of his claimed status as a “freeborn Moorish-American sovereign and Masonic member.” He sought $1.5 million in damages. The amended complaint did not include allegations explaining what Hennepin County Self-Insured did or failed to do.

Court’s analysis

The court granted the motion to amend under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(a), which allowed Thomas-El to amend once as a matter of course. The amended complaint, and only that complaint, became the operative pleading.

Because Thomas-El sought to proceed without prepaying fees, the court reviewed the amended complaint under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2). That statute permits dismissal of an action at any time if it is frivolous or fails to state a claim. The court concluded that the claims against Hennepin County Self-Insured were frivolous because the amended complaint contained no allegations about that entity. It also concluded that the argument that Thomas-El was exempt from Minnesota’s jurisdiction based on a sovereign-citizen-type theory was frivolous.

For the remaining claims, the court applied the favorable-termination rule from Heck v. Humphrey. That rule generally prevents a plaintiff from obtaining damages under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for conduct that would undermine an existing conviction or sentence unless the conviction or sentence has been reversed, expunged, declared invalid, or otherwise called into question through the specified legal processes. The court determined that Thomas-El’s claims arose from the traffic stop and search leading to his firearms conviction and that nothing in the amended complaint showed a favorable termination of that conviction.

Disposition

The court ordered that Thomas-El’s first application to proceed without prepaying fees or costs was denied as moot. It granted the motion to amend and made the amended complaint the operative pleading.

The court recommended that the amended complaint be dismissed with prejudice as frivolous to the extent it sought claims against Hennepin County Self-Insured or argued that Thomas-El was not subject to Minnesota state-court jurisdiction. It recommended that the amended complaint otherwise be dismissed without prejudice under § 1915(e)(2) for failure to state a claim for which relief could be granted. It also recommended denying the second fee application and pending motions as moot, ordering Thomas-El to pay the remaining statutory filing fee, stated as $313.00, under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(2), and directing the Clerk to notify the authorities at the institution where he was confined.

Magistrate Judge Shannon G. Elkins stated that the report and recommendation was not a district-court order or judgment and was not directly appealable to the Court of Appeals. The notice allowed specific written objections within 14 days after service, with a further period for responses to objections.