Opinion
2:22-CV-384-JTM-APR
01-09-2023
RICHARD ALLAN JOESPH CROWLEY, Plaintiff, v. KIM, ALI, BOWER, Defendants.
OPINION AND ORDER
JAMES T. MOODY, JUDGE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
Richard Allan Joesph Crowley, a prisoner without a lawyer, filed an amended complaint with unrelated claims. (DE # 5.) “A document filed pro se is to be liberally construed, and a pro se complaint, however inartfully pleaded, must be held to less stringent standards than formal pleadings drafted by lawyers.” Erickson v. Pardus, 551 U.S. 89, 94 (2007) (quotation marks and citations omitted). Nevertheless, under 28 U.S.C. § 1915A, the court must review the merits of a prisoner complaint and dismiss it if the action is frivolous or malicious, fails to state a claim upon which relief may be granted, or seeks monetary relief against a defendant who is immune from such relief.
Crowley alleges Mrs. Kim, as his mental health advocate, oversaw his medications and placement in an unclean cell. He alleges Nurse Ali and Officer Bower were responsible for him twice receiving something to which he was allergic. These two claims are unrelated. “[U]nrelated claims against different defendants belong in different suits.” George v. Smith, 507 F.3d 605, 607 (7th Cir. 2007). Crowley can bring both of these claims, but they have to be in separate lawsuits. Merely because both alleged events happened to him at the Porter County Jail is not enough to make them legally related for the purposes of a lawsuit. He must decide which to bring in this case. See Wheeler v. Wexford Health Sources, Inc., 689 F.3d 680, 683 (7th Cir. 2012) (district courts may direct a plaintiff “to file separate complaints, each confined to one group of injuries and defendants”). Crowley needs to file an amended complaint using the form the clerk will send him.
For these reasons, the court:
(1) DIRECTS the clerk to place this cause number on a blank Pro Se 14 (INND Rev. 2/20) Prisoner Complaint form and send it to Richard Allan Joesph Crowley;
(2) GRANTS Richard Allan Joesph Crowley until February 9, 2023, to file an amended complaint on that form; and
(3) CAUTIONS Richard Allan Joesph Crowley if he does not respond by the deadline, the court will pick a claim for him and dismiss the unrelated claim.
SO ORDERED.