Opinion
1:22CV1132
10-10-2023
JASON TWARDZIK, Petitioner, v. NORTH CAROLINA, Respondent.
ORDER AND RECOMMENDATION OF UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE
Joi Elizabeth Peake, United States Magistrate Judge.
Petitioner, a pretrial detainee facing charges in Orange County, North Carolina, but currently housed in a mental health facility after being found incompetent to stand trial, submitted a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 for a writ of habeas corpus by a person in state custody together with the five-dollar filing fee. For the following reasons, the Petition cannot be further processed.
1. Petitioner's claims are unclear. He seeks to challenge his pending charges and claims it is somehow unconstitutional that he cannot challenge them while being incompetent to stand trial. However, it is not clear how this violates his rights as he does not appear to challenge the finding of incompetency or claim that he cannot challenge it in the state courts. Petitioner also seeks to raise a challenge related to medication, claiming that he is being threatened with forced medication that may have serious side effects. However, this appears to be an attempt to raise a civil rights claim, and if Petitioner intends to assert such a claim he should exhaust his state court remedies and set out his claims in a complaint pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Finally, Petitioner also mentions persons arrested in other states more than a decade ago and/or somehow related to President Joseph Biden. It is not clear how these persons or events relate to his cases or claims.
Because of these pleading failures, the Petition should be filed and then dismissed, without prejudice to Petitioner filing a new petition on the proper forms with the filing fee, or a completed application to proceed in forma pauperis, and otherwise correcting the defects noted. To further aid Petitioner, the Clerk is instructed to send Petitioner a new application to proceed in forma pauperis, new § 2241 forms, and instructions for filing a § 2241 petition, which Petitioner should follow. The Clerk will also return the five-dollar filing fee to Petitioner. If Petitioner seeks to assert a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, he may request those forms from the Clerk instead.
In forma pauperis status will be granted for the sole purpose of entering this Order and Recommendation.
IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that In forma pauperis status is granted for the sole purpose of entering this Order and Recommendation. The Clerk is instructed to return the five-dollar filing fee to Petitioner and to send Petitioner § 2241 forms, instructions, and a current application to proceed In forma pauperis.
IT IS RECOMMENDED that this action be filed, but then dismissed sua sponte without prejudice to Petitioner filing a new petition which corrects the defects of the current Petition.