Geritano v. AUSA Office for The E.D.N.Y.

Background

Battista Geritano filed this action without a lawyer under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that his rights were violated while he was held in federal custody at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. The court had previously allowed him to proceed without paying the filing fee up front. Geritano was then in New York State custody at Five Points Correctional Facility.

Geritano named the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, Lindsay K. Gerdes, the assistant United States attorney who prosecuted him, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Metropolitan Correctional Center, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and Judge Sterling Johnson, Jr. He alleged that he was transferred from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn to the Metropolitan Correctional Center because of false separation orders that kept him in solitary confinement. He also alleged that the Metropolitan Correctional Center had mold, insects, rodents, clogged toilets, and inadequate cleaning supplies, and that he was denied prescribed heart supplements for 18 months.

Geritano also sought a reduction of the 78-month sentence imposed in a 2019 criminal proceeding. The opinion states that he had filed a motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 challenging that conviction, and that an earlier Section 2255 motion concerning a separate proceeding remained pending.

Court’s analysis

The court screened the complaint under the Prison Litigation Reform Act. That law requires courts to dismiss a prisoner’s complaint, or part of it, if it is frivolous, malicious, fails to state a legally sufficient claim, seeks money from an immune defendant, or falls outside the court’s jurisdiction. Although courts read complaints filed without lawyers generously, the complaint still must provide enough facts to make a claim plausible.

Sentence and conviction claims

The court held that Geritano could not use this civil-rights action to obtain a modification of his sentence. A challenge to the sentence had to be brought in his pending motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255. The same procedure applied to his allegation that his guilty plea was involuntary or unconstitutional.

Immunity and dismissed defendants

The court dismissed the claims against Judge Johnson because judges are protected from damages claims for conduct within their judicial responsibilities. It dismissed the claims against Assistant Gerdes because prosecutors are protected from damages claims for prosecutorial acts closely connected to the judicial phase of a criminal case.

The court also dismissed the claims against the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, the Eastern District of New York, and the Metropolitan Correctional Center. It explained that federal agencies and entities are generally protected from lawsuits by sovereign immunity unless that protection has been waived.

Federal Tort Claims Act claim

The court treated Geritano’s allegations about prison conditions and denied medical care as potentially asserting a claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act, which permits certain injury claims based on wrongful conduct by federal employees. The proper defendant for such a claim is the United States, not the agencies or individual defendants named in the complaint.

Before filing a Federal Tort Claims Act lawsuit, a claimant must submit a claim for money damages to the appropriate federal agency and receive that agency’s final written decision. Geritano alleged that he filed grievances at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, but he did not allege that he filed a claim for money damages with the Bureau of Prisons or received a final written decision. The court therefore dismissed this claim without prejudice to filing a Federal Tort Claims Act action against the United States after completing the required administrative process.

Bivens claims and leave to amend

The court construed the allegations about denied medical care as potentially asserting a claim under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics. A Bivens action is a constitutional claim for damages against individual federal officials in certain limited circumstances. The court noted that Geritano was no longer housed at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, so a claim seeking relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 about conditions at that facility would be moot.

Because Geritano was proceeding without a lawyer, the court gave him leave to amend his complaint to name individual correctional staff at the Metropolitan Correctional Center who allegedly denied him medical treatment. The amended complaint had to identify each defendant, describe what that person did or failed to do, provide dates and locations when possible, explain the injuries, and state the requested relief. Unknown defendants could be identified as “John Doe” or “Jane Doe,” but the court warned that doing so would not pause the three-year limitations period.

Disposition

The court granted Geritano leave to file an amended complaint asserting Bivens claims within 60 days. It dismissed from the action the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, the Eastern District of New York, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Metropolitan Correctional Center, Judge Johnson, and Assistant Gerdes. No summons would issue at that time. If Geritano did not timely amend and could not show good cause, the complaint would be dismissed for failure to state a claim.