United States District Court, D. New Hampshire
John R. Griffin, Jr.
v.
Jennifer Walters, Irena Catovic, Kevin Valenti, Mark Hastbacka, and Kent Smith[1]
John
R. Griffin, Jr., pro se Francis Charles Fredericks, Esq. John
A. Curran, Esq. Robert J. Rabuck, Esq.
REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION ON DOC. NOS. 28, 46,
48
ANDREA
K. JOHNSTONE UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE
Before
the court, and addressed in this Report and Recommendation
("R&R"), are three motions filed by plaintiff,
John R. Griffin, Jr.:
• two motions seeing to join Merrimack County, the
Office of the New Hampshire Public Defender
("NHPD"), and Attorney Eleanor Spottswood as new
defendants (Doc. Nos. 28, 48) to this action; and
• a motion seeking to charge defendants with a violation
of 18 U.S.C. § 241 (Doc. No. 46).
Defendants have not responded to these motions. The motions
have been referred to the magistrate judge for preliminary
review, pursuant to LR 4.3(d)(1) and 28 U.S.C. § 1915A.
Background[2]
In
March 2016, Griffin was paroled to the community from the
sentence imposed on his underlying state conviction. While on
parole, in May 2016, Griffin mailed a letter ("May 2016
Letter"), addressed to a prosecutor at the Hillsborough
County Attorney's Office, regarding a state habeas
proceeding he was litigating. The prosecutor's
supervisor, Attorney Kent Smith, considered the May 2016
Letter to be threatening, and referred the matter to the FBI
for investigation.
While
on parole, Griffin had lived at a residence called,
"Helping Hands, " until he was evicted on May 10,
2016. New Hampshire Department of Corrections
("DOC") parole officers, unaware of the eviction,
unsuccessfully attempted to find Griffin at Helping Hands on
May 19, 2016. The Adult Parole Board ("APB") issued
a warrant for Griffin's arrest for a parole violation on
May 27, 2016, and parole officers arrested Griffin pursuant
to that warrant.
Griffin
appeared personally and through appointed counsel at a June
21, 2016 parole revocation hearing. Parole Officer Kevin
Valenti also appeared at that hearing. The APB revoked
Griffin's parole upon finding that he had failed to be
"of good behavior, " N.H. Admin. R. Par
401.02(b)(7), and that he had not obtained his parole
officer's permission before changing his residence,
id. 401.20(b)(3).
Griffin
filed this action to challenge, as retaliatory and invalid,
his parole revocation, and the investigations and arrest
underlying the revocation, relating to the May 2016 Letter.
This court conducted a preliminary review of Griffin's
complaint and allowed a First Amendment retaliation claim for
damages to proceed in this action, under 42 U.S.C. §
1983, against multiple defendants, as follows:
Assistant Hillsborough County Attorney Kent Smith; DOC Parole
Officers Jennifer Walters, Irena Catovic, and Kevin Valenti;
and FBI Agent Mark Hastbacka initiated investigations, an
arrest, and/or parole revocation proceedings against Griffin,
in retaliation for Griffin's writing and mailing the May
2016 Letter, which was conduct protected by the First
Amendment.
See Jan. 25, 2017 R&R (Doc. No. 19)
("January 2 5 R&R"), approved by Feb. 24, 2017
Order (Doc. No. 32) ("February 24 Order").
...