Philippeaux v. United States
- Ronnie Abrams
- 1:18-cv-05974
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Philippeaux v. United States, Judge Abrams denied Philippeaux’s latest repetitive motions challenging his conviction and warned that duplicative filings would receive no response.
Philander Philippeaux’s latest collateral motions were denied. The Clerk of Court was directed to terminate docket entries 162 and 163 and mail him the order; the court also warned that it would not respond to further duplicative correspondence.
What happened
In Philippeaux v. United States, Philander Philippeaux asked the court to consider two more motions challenging his federal conviction and sentence. The court said these motions repeated his unsupported claim that the indictment was falsified or that no grand jury had charged him.
The court denied both motions. It stated that Philippeaux’s challenges had already been resolved on direct appeal and in his earlier sentence challenge, and that the cases had been closed.
Judge Ronnie Abrams warned that the court would not respond to further duplicative correspondence. She directed the Clerk to terminate docket entries 162 and 163 in the criminal case and mail Philippeaux a copy of the order.
The detailed version
- Philippeaux v. United States · No. 1:18-cv-05974
- Ronnie Abrams
- May 3, 2021
Background
Philander Philippeaux was convicted after a jury trial of conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine and conspiring to import cocaine. Judge Sweet sentenced him to 211 months in prison. The Second Circuit affirmed the conviction and sentence in 2017.
In 2018, Philippeaux, representing himself, filed a motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255, a procedure that allows a federal prisoner to challenge a sentence. The court denied that motion in March 2020 after adopting a magistrate judge’s report and recommendation. The court also stated that jurisdiction and venue in the criminal case were proper. The Second Circuit later dismissed Philippeaux’s appeal from that order.
Current Motions
After the § 2255 motion was denied, Philippeaux filed numerous additional motions in the criminal and sentence-challenge cases. The court said these filings repeatedly asserted, without factual support, that the indictment was “falsified” or “fake,” or that no grand jury had charged him. The court said it could find no factual basis for those assertions and that Philippeaux had provided none.
Ruling
In Philippeaux v. United States, Judge Ronnie Abrams denied Philippeaux’s latest two motions, identified as docket entries 162 and 163 in the criminal case. The court stated that both cases had been closed and that Philippeaux’s challenges to his conviction and sentence had been finally resolved by the Second Circuit. It warned that continued frivolous or meritless filings could lead to a filing sanction, but this order did not impose such a sanction. The court stated that it did not intend to respond to further duplicative correspondence, directed the Clerk to terminate docket entries 162 and 163, and directed the Clerk to mail Philippeaux a copy of the order.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.