Wright v. Bronx Criminal Court

Background

Marcus Wright, who the opinion says was detained at the Rose M. Singer Center on Rikers Island, filed this action against the Bronx Criminal Court, the Department of Corrections, “Warden,” the Bronx Legal Aid Society, the Bronx Ryer Avenue Precinct, Susan Laurie Gans, and Michael Fineman. The opinion explains that Wright had previously filed an earlier related case, No. 24-CV-7923 (LTS), involving the alleged arrest on April 16, 2024, on charges of stealing clothing from a laundromat in Bronx County.

The court had dismissed the earlier complaint on January 6, 2025, while allowing 30 days to file an amended complaint. After Wright submitted letters stating that an amended-complaint form was unavailable, the court extended the filing deadline. On March 27, 2025, the court received a complaint naming the same defendants and opened it as this separate action. Wright wrote that the complaint concerned the earlier case and was intended to refile it.

Ruling

The court directed the clerk to file the complaint in this action as Wright’s amended complaint in the earlier related case. It dismissed this action without prejudice to Wright’s pursuing the claims in that earlier case. The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and therefore denied permission to appeal without paying the filing fee. It directed the clerk to enter a civil judgment.

Classification

This is a procedural order because the court resolved how the complaint should be docketed and dismissed this separate action without deciding the underlying allegations.