PHILADELPHIA – A per curiam panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit agreed with a lower federal court, which had previously thrown out a civil rights case from a man who claimed the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas violated his rights, when he tried to expunge his criminal record.
On May 12, Third Circuit judges Theodore A. McKee, Robert E. Cowen and Jane R. Roth affirmed the case’s dismissal in favor of the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas, and against plaintiff Jason L. Brown.
In 2003, Brown was convicted in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas of robbery, aggravated assault and related offenses. Brown was then sentenced to a term of two-to-five years’ imprisonment.
In 2017, Brown filed several motions in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas challenging his 2003 conviction. His most recent motion, a motion to expunge his conviction, was denied in August 2018 – though Brown has since appealed that ruling to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania.
However, in July 2018, while his motion to expunge was still pending in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas, Brown filed a separate-but-related complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, claiming that his constitutional rights had been violated during proceedings on that motion to expunge.
Specifically, Brown claimed that the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas had violated his rights under: The Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution; Article 7, Article 1, Section 10, and Article 3, Section 2, clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution and 42 U.S.C. Section 1985.
Brown further claimed that two of the Delaware County district attorneys, “through the premises of the [Delaware County Court of Common Pleas],” had conspired to interfere with the dismissal of his criminal case. Brown sought damages and an order directing the Court of Common Pleas to “dismiss [his] criminal record history.”
In his federal court complaint, Brown named the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas as the only defendant.
“The District Court screened the complaint pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Section 1915(e)(2)(B) and dismissed it for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted,” the Third Circuit stated.
“Specifically, the District Court concluded that: (1) Brown failed to state a claim against the Court of Common Pleas because the court was entitled to Eleventh Amendment immunity, the court is not a person under Section 1983, and Brown did not allege any facts supporting a class-based conspiracy under Section 1985; (2) Brown’s claims for damages were foreclosed by Heck v. Humphrey; and (3) To the extent that Brown intended to state claims against the district attorneys who litigated his motion to expunge, they too would be immune from suit under Section 1983.”
The Third Circuit explained that it would affirm the District Court’s order, for substantially the reasons previously stated by that court – and that any prior amendment to the complaint would not have cured its deficiencies.
“In his brief, Brown also asks us to exercise our authority under the All Writs Act to expunge his criminal record. We do not have the authority to do so. Next, to the extent that Brown continues to argue that his state-court convictions should be set aside, his sole remedy in federal court lies in a habeas corpus petition,” the Third Circuit said.
“Lastly, Brown’s unsupported assertions that the District Court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the complaint and that venue was improper are meritless. Therefore, we will affirm the District Court’s order.”
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit case 18-2890
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania case 2:18-cv-3043
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com