Ettienne-Modeste v. Hartford Police Dept.

Background

Dexter Ettienne-Modeste filed this civil action without paying the filing fees or submitting a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization. The opinion states that he is incarcerated at the Metro West Detention Center in Dorel, Florida, and is representing himself.

Filing-fee requirements

The court explained that a prisoner filing a civil action must either pay $402—the $350 filing fee and $52 administrative fee—or request permission to proceed without prepaying fees. A prisoner seeking that permission must submit a signed application and an authorization directing the correctional facility to deduct the $350 filing fee from the prisoner's account in installments and send the court certified account statements for the previous six months. The $52 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted permission to proceed without prepaying fees.

Order

Within 30 days of the order, Ettienne-Modeste must either pay the $402 in fees or submit the application and prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 22-CV-10324. No summons will issue at this time. If he complies, the case will be processed under the Clerk's Office procedures; if he does not comply within the allowed time, the action will be dismissed.

Judge Laura Taylor Swain certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for purposes of an appeal. The order did not address the merits of the underlying lawsuit. It also cautioned that certain future dismissals of a prisoner's federal civil action can count as strikes under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g).