Thigpen v. United States of America

Filing 4

MEMORANDUM Order Signed by the Honorable Milton I. Shadur on 3/9/2012:Mailed notice(srn, )

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
EASTERN DIVISION
DOUGLAS M. THIGPEN,
Petitioner,
v.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Respondent.

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No.

12 C 1642
(03 CR 1084)

MEMORANDUM ORDER
Douglas Thigpen (“Thigpen”) has just submitted a partly
typed, partly hand-printed document that he has captioned “Claim
for Return of Property, and Motion To Render Property to Power of
Attorney.”

Although that self-prepared document states that the

filing was made “pursuant to Title 28 U.S.C.S. §1738 of the
Federal Civil Procedure,” that statute clearly has no relevance
to Thigpen’s stated purpose of obtaining the return of certain
property that was assertedly taken from him at the time of his
arrest more than eight years ago (he lists the date as
November 13, 2003).

But in any event, Thigpen goes on to state

that he is in the process of using the Freedom of Information Act
to “determin[e] the actual whereabouts of the property,” and the
only request that he has made is that his motion be filed “and
that the proceedings be stayed until further notice” (emphasis in
original).
Under those circumstances, because there are no
“proceedings” of any nature before this Court, so that there is

nothing to be stayed, it is pointless for the Clerk’s Office to
have opened a civil case number for Thigpen’s claim.

This action

(if it can be termed an action at all) is therefore ordered
dismissed, without prejudice of course to the possibility that
some related matter may arise in the future that is within this
Court’s jurisdiction.

________________________________________
Milton I. Shadur
Senior United States District Judge
Date:

March 9, 2012

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