Constitutional Law

Litigious prisoner barred from filing new legal claims

By By The Associated Press

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A federal judge is calling a halt to new legal actions by a prison inmate who has filed more than 5,000 lawsuits and targeted the famous, the infamous and even the long-dead.

Under an order issued Oct. 18 by U.S. District Judge Karl F. Forester, the Bureau of Prisons can review and reject any legal mail sent by Jonathan Lee Riches, an inmate at the federal prison in Lexington.

Forester also barred Riches from using legal mail, which is generally sent without detailed inspection by prison officials, or the names of other people to submit ?frivolous, fraudulent, or malicious? documents to the federal courts and from using anyone else?s name to submit the documents to a court.

Anything deemed to be worthy of further consideration by Bureau of Prisons personnel may be forwarded to the courts, Forester ruled.

?In the present case, Riches is not only engaging in a widespread practice of harassment against different people, but also against numerous courts across the country,? Forester wrote.

Federal prosecutors requested the unusual order last month after becoming fed up with persistent filings by Riches.

Since 2006, Riches has filed legal actions in almost every jurisdiction in the country. Nearly all of them were quickly dismissed by judges, court documents show. The inmate, who dubbed himself ?Lawsuit Zeus? in one of his thousands of court cases, has filed up to four of his handwritten petitions a day in Kentucky courts alone. Prosecutors initially said Riches had filed more than 3,800 lawsuits. Forester?s opinion said the total was more than 5,000.

The 33-year-old inmate has sued New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, former President George W. Bush, then-Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick and even Somali pirates.

Lawsuits can be refused under the federal ?three strikes? rule aimed at stopping people from clogging the legal system with nonsensical lawsuits.

Multiple federal judges invoked the rule in an effort to prevent Riches from filing more lawsuits. Forester noted that Riches skirts the rule by filing motions to intervene in other cases, such as a batch of lawsuits stemming from a Comair plane crash in Lexington in 2006 that killed 49 people.

In those filings on July 25, 2008, Riches claimed that Comair planes were flying too low over the federal prison.

?Some Comair planes fly too low when I?m running in the rec yard,? Riches wrote. ?The FAA allows this for intimidation on inmates.?

In another case, filed in April in Illinois and later transferred to Kentucky, Riches sued Yoga Journal on behalf of former American Idol judge Simon Cowell.

?The defendants are responsible for secretly shipping me to a yoga refuge camp in Springfield, Illinois, so I can learn to flex my muscles and pose properly for my audition on the American Idol on Fox,? Riches wrote.

Forester noted that the suit was dismissed as ?delusional, factually frivolous and ... a waste and abuse of this court?s time and resources.?

Riches has been in prison nearly a decade after pleading guilty in Texas to using AOL e-mail to scam credit card numbers from online users. He?s scheduled for release in March 2012.

The Bureau of Prisons did not respond to a request to interview Riches in time for this story.

Full post as published by First Amendment Center on October 19, 2010 (boomark / email).