Washington v. Chatham County Police Department

Filing 11

ORDER directing the Clerk to file a copy the Order in case CV415-5, and CV415-68. Signed by Magistrate Judge G. R. Smith on 3/8/17. (wwp)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF GEORGIA
SAVANNAH DIVISION
IN RE:
MATTHEW WASHINGTON

)
)

MC417-003

ORDER
Matthew Washington’s serial litigation 1 has subjected him to
Special Case Management (SCM) by this Court.

Washington v. Chatham

County Police Dep’t ., CV415-005, doc. 7 (S.D. Ga. Apr. 28, 2015) (advising
that all future lawsuits be funneled into a Miscellaneous File, where the
presiding judge will review but “not necessarily enter an order addressing
that complaint.”), adopted, doc. 9 (S.D. Ga. May 27, 2015); In Re Matthew

Washington , MC417-003 (Miscellaneous File into which Washington’s
latest Complaint, Washington v. Deal (S.D. Ga. Feb. 27, 2017), has been
filed). Evidently seeking to circumvent that judicial prophylactic,
Washington has been filing letter requests 2 for judicial relief of different

1

See Washington v. Alaimo , 934 F. Supp. 1395, 1400 (S.D. Ga. 1996) (imposing Fed.
R. Civ. P. 11 sanctions, including a litigation bond, in response to Washington’s
vexatious filings and his infamous “motion to kiss my ass”); Washington v. Karpf ,
CV415-068; Washington v. Chatham County Police Dep’t. , CV415-005.
2

Parties should submit to this Court formal complaints, petitions, briefs and motions,
not letters. Letters also can get lost, while formal filings are filed in the record of each
case. This creates a public record of a matter presented for the Court's consideration.
See In Re: Unsolicited Letters to Federal Judges , 126 F. Supp. 2d 1073 (S.D. Ga. 2000).

sorts in a different, and closed , case ( Karpf, CV415-068), including one
interpreted by the Clerk as a motion for appointment of counsel.
CV415-068, doc. 9 (“I think that I am a victim of psychiatric abuse. I
need a lawyer.”). It has been referred to the undersigned and will now be
reached.
The motion is an attempted new lawsuit by another name.
Washington seeks to challenge, possibly via injunctive relief, forced
psychiatric treatment. His cynical attempt to elude the SCM is

DENIED . CV415-068, doc. 9. The Clerk is DIRECTED to file all
future Washington filings -- whether bearing another case caption or not
-- into this, In Re Matthew Washington , MC417-003, miscellaneous file.
For record-keeping purposes only, the Clerk shall also file a copy of this
Order in the CV415-005 and CV415-068 cases.

Motions also get placed on the Court’s “pending motions” list, while letters do not
(hence, they might be ignored). For that matter, the federal rules specifically require
that requests for a court order be made "by motion." Fed. R. Civ. P. 7(b)(1).
2

SO ORDERED , this 8th day of March, 2017.

UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF GEORGIA