Opinion
03-CV-0382Sc
May 15, 2003
ORDER
Petitioner, an inmate at the McConnell Unit Correctional Facility in Beeville, Texas, has brought this proceeding under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Petitioner was originally convicted in Taylor County, Texas, and the petition challenges parole revocation proceedings in Texas. It appears that the only relationship between this District and the action is that the parole revocation warrant was executed in New York and extradition proceedings were held in Erie County. Thus, the Court finds that the Northern District of Texas, Abilene Division, would be a more convenient forum for this action because all of the records relating to the petitioner's underlying criminal conviction and parole revocation proceedings are located in that district. See Braden v. 30th Judicial Circuit Court of Kentucky, 410 U.S. 484, 499, n. 15, (1973). The determination of the petitioner's motion for permission to proceed in forma pauperis has been left to the Northern District of Texas, Abilene Division.
The Court notes that, the while the request to proceed in forma pauperis was signed by petitioner, the petition was originally signed on behalf of petitioner by Christine Evanoff, a resident of Lackawanna, New York. On May 8, 2003, this Court mailed the petition back to Ms. Evanoff and explained to her that she could not proceed on petitioner's behalf and that he would have to sign the petition. Some five days later, on May 13, 2003, the petition was returned to the Court with a new signature which purports to be petitioner's. The Court questions whether it is even possible for the petition to have been received in Lackawanna, sent to petitioner in Texas, returned to Ms. Evanoff in Lackawanna, and then re-sent to this Court during that five-day period of time. Further, a comparison between petitioner's signature on the motion to proceed in forma pauperis, Ms. Evanoff's signature on the petition, and the signature on the petition which purports to be petitioner's makes it apparent that it is Ms. Evanoff and not petitioner who signed the petition. The Court wishes to warn both petitioner and Ms. Evanoff that, if the petition was not being transferred, the Court would have sanctioned both petitioner and Ms. Evanoff.
IT HEREBY IS ORDERED, that the case is transferred to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Abilene Division, P.O. Box 1218, Abilene, Texas 79604-1218.
SO ORDERED.