Bonilla v. Cheeks

Background

Steven Wayne Bonilla, identified by the court as a state prisoner, filed multiple civil-rights complaints without a lawyer under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The complaints were nearly identical and named various federal judges, state judges, state courts, and law-enforcement officials. Bonilla sought relief concerning his underlying conviction or the way his other cases had been handled by state and federal courts.

The court noted that Bonilla had a pending federal petition challenging his custody in the same court, with appointed counsel, and was represented by counsel in state-court proceedings concerning that petition. The opinion also stated that Bonilla had an extensive history of filing similar cases.

Ruling

The court ruled that Bonilla was disqualified from proceeding without paying the filing fees under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g), which generally bars a prisoner with a qualifying history of dismissed cases from proceeding without fees unless the complaint shows an immediate danger of serious physical injury. The court found that the complaints did not show such a danger when they were filed.

The court further stated that, even if an application to proceed without paying fees were granted, the lawsuits would be barred under the rules and precedents identified as Heck v. Humphrey, Younger v. Harris, Demos v. U.S. District Court, and Mullis v. U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The opinion did not provide a separate claim-by-claim analysis of those barriers.

Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton dismissed the cases with prejudice. The clerk was ordered to terminate all pending motions and close the cases, and to return without filing any further documents Bonilla submitted in the closed cases. The court also rejected the suggestion that the judge’s impartiality could reasonably be questioned because of the repetitive and allegedly frivolous filings.