Thomas v. Barker.

U.S. District Court

HABEAS CORPUS RELIEF

Thomas v. Barker, 371 F.Supp.2d 636 (M.D.Pa. 2005). A jail inmate brought a pro se civil rights suit seeking to challenge the propriety of charges of escape and other crimes. The district court dismissed the case, finding that the inmate could not seek release from custody in a [section] 1983 action. The court noted that to the extent that the jail inmate was challenging the fact or duration of his confinement by attacking a sheriff's filing of charges against him, the claims had to be brought in a habeas corpus petition, rather than a civil rights action. The court also held that any claim for monetary damages based on a civil rights claim for allegedly unconstitutional imprisonment based on vindictive prosecution would not accrue in the inmate's favor under the Heck rule until such time as the charges were dismissed or convictions were reversed on direct appeal, expunged by a state tribunal, or called into question by the issuance of a federal writ of habeas corpus. The court found that the claims were legally frivolous and subject to dismissal under the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA). (State Correctional Institution-Retreat, Pennsylvania)