Bonilla v. Placer County Court Clerk's Office

Background

Steven Wayne Bonilla filed multiple civil-rights complaints under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The order covers the related case numbers listed in the caption. Bonilla proceeded without a lawyer in these cases. The court described him as a state prisoner and a condemned prisoner. It also noted that he had a pending federal petition challenging his conviction in the same court with appointed counsel, and that he was represented by counsel in state-court proceedings concerning his conviction.

The complaints presented nearly identical claims. Bonilla sued numerous county clerks and federal judges and sought relief concerning his underlying conviction or the way his other state and federal cases had been handled.

Proceeding Without Prepaying Filing Fees

The court stated that Bonilla had previously been disqualified from proceeding in forma pauperis, meaning without prepaying filing fees, under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g). That restriction has an exception when a prisoner shows that he was in immediate danger of serious physical injury when the complaint was filed. The court found that the allegations did not show such danger. Bonilla therefore could not proceed without prepaying the fees.

Additional Bars and Disposition

The court further stated that, even if an application to proceed without prepaying fees had been granted, the lawsuits would be barred under the rules discussed in Heck v. Humphrey, Younger v. Harris, Demos v. U.S. District Court, or Mullis v. U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The opinion did not assign a separate one of those authorities to each individual case or claim.

The court dismissed the cases with prejudice. It also concluded that the repetitive and frivolous nature of the filings did not provide a valid basis to question the judge’s impartiality, so it did not recuse. Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton directed the clerk to terminate all pending motions, close the cases, and return without filing any further documents Bonilla submitted in those closed cases.