Opinion
Case No. 14 C 4100
06-09-2014
SAMUEL CINTRON SR., Plaintiff, v. GARRY MCCARTHY, etc., et al., Defendants.
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER
Samuel Cintron Sr. ("Cintron") has used the form of printed 42 U.S.C. § 1983 Complaint provided by the Clerk's Office for use by persons in custody to sue Chicago Police Superintendent Gary McCarthy and "Ten Unknown Named Chicago Police Officers" for the claimed violation of his constitutional rights by those officers. Cintron has accompanied his Complaint with an In Forma Pauperis Application ("Application") and a Motion For Appointment of Counsel ("Motion"), each of which has also utilized a Clerk's-Office-supplied form. Because the conduct complained of by Cintron preceded (although it led to) Cintron's time in detention, 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a) does not stand in the way as a precondition to his filing this lawsuit.
But because Cintron is now in custody at the Cook County Department of Corrections ("County Jail"), the provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 1915 ("Section 1915") control the treatment of his Application. For that purpose this Court has treated the filing date of this action under the "mailbox rule" (see Houston v. Lack, 487 U.S. 266 (1988)) as May 22, 2014 (the date of the certificate of the County Jail's authorized officer that is affixed at the end of the Application) even though Cintron's documents bear a ten-days-later date stamp from the Clerk's Office.
Based on that presumptive filing date, the average monthly deposits to Cintron's trust fund account at the County Jail for the relevant six-month period under Section 1915(a)(2) and (b)(1)(A) amounted to $87.67, 20% of which (id.) is $17.53. Accordingly Cintron is assessed that initial partial filing fee of $17.53, and the County Jail trust fund officer is ordered to collect that amount from Cintron's trust fund account there and to pay it directly to the Clerk of Court ("Clerk"):
Office of the Clerk
United States District Court
219 South Dearborn Street
Chicago IL 60604
Attention: Fiscal Department
After such payment the trust fund officer at County Jail (or at any other correctional facility where Cintron may hereafter be confined) is authorized to collect monthly payments from his trust fund account in an amount equal to 20% of the preceding month's income credited to the account. Monthly payments collected from the trust fund account shall be forwarded to the Clerk each time the amount in the account exceeds $10 until the full $350 filing fee is paid. Both the initial payment and all future payments shall clearly identify Cintron's name and the 14 C 4100 case number assigned to this action. To implement these requirements, the Clerk shall send a copy of this order to the County Jail trust fund officer.
This opinion now turns to the substance of Cintron's Complaint. In that respect Police Superintendent McCarthy would appear quite certain to be a candidate for dismissal under Monell principles, but under the circumstances here his presence is needed at the outset to enable the lawsuit to go forward through the identification of the presently unknown officers. To that end this Court finds Cintron's Motion adequate to call for the designation of a member of this District Court's trial bar to represent him pro bono publico, and the trial bar procedures have resulted in the designation of the following counsel for that purpose:
Randolph E. RuffFinally, this Court is contemporaneously issuing its customary initial scheduling order, and the designated counsel will be expected to move forward on the case appropriately in the interim.
Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C.
155 North Wacker Drive
Suite 4300
Chicago, IL 60606
(312)558-1228
Email: randolph.ruff@odnss.com.
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Milton I. Shadur
Senior United States District Judge