Lewis v. Mullen

Filing 8

MEMORANDUM Opinion and Order. Signed by the Honorable James B. Zagel on 10/2/2013. Mailed notice(ep, )

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
EASTERN DIVISION

DENNIS LEE LEWIS,
Plaintiff,
No. 13 CV 06746
Judge James B. Zagel

v.

JUDGE MARGARET J. MULLEN,
Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER
Plaintiff Dennis Lee Lewis filed this suit against Margaret J. Mullen, a circuit judge on
the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit Court of Lake County, Illinois. Doc. 1 at 1-7. Lewis alleges
Mullen failed to intervene to protect plaintiff from violation of plaintiff's civil rights and acted in
conspiracy with the Chicago Police Department by Mullen's failure to enter a default judgment
against Defendants in Lewis's prior lawsuit, Dennis Lee Lewis v. Chicago Police Department,
Case No. 05 C 287. In that case, Lewis filed a complaint against the Chicago Police Department
in the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit Court of Lake County, Illinois; the case was subsequently
moved to federal court at the Northern District of Illinois and dismissed with prejudice. Plaintiff
Lewis now files a motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis in the present case. This
motion is granted, but this case is dismissed with prejudice.
Judges are absolutely immune from damages claims for acts committed in the exercise of
their judicial duties. See Forrester v. White, 484 U.S. 219, 227-28 (1988); see also Coleman v.
Dunlap, 695 F.3d 650, 652 (7th Cir. 2012). All of Mullen's alleged misdeeds concern judicial
actions she took as the judge presiding over Lewis's earlier case. Lewis argues that Mullen did
not enter a default judgment against Defendant in the prior case and acted in conspiracy with the

Chicago Secret Service, but "[a judge] will be subject to liability only when he has acted in the
clear absence of all jurisdiction." Stump v. Sparkman, 435 U.S. 349, 356-67 (1978) (internal
quotation marks omitted); see also Brokaw v. Mercer Cnty., 235 F.3d 1000, 1015 (7th Cir. 2000).
It cannot possibly be said that Mullen acted "in the clear absence of all jurisdiction" in
dismissing a case that she had been assigned to handle.
Because all of Lewis's claims fail as a matter of law, and because Lewis cannot cure the
flaw in those claims by re-pleading, his suit is dismissed with prejudice. See Richardson v.
United States, 516 F. App'x 2 (D.C. Cir. 2013); Redmond v. Manfredi, 417 F. App'x 111, 112-13
(3d Cir. 2011); Vincent v. United States, No. 11-1381 (7th Cir. Mar. 15, 2011 (unpublished
order) (affirming the dismissal of a prior suit by Vincent, reasoning that her "entire case is
premised on the alleged wrongdoing of Judge Leinenweber, but he has judicial immunity")
(citing Dawson v. Newman, 419 F.3d 656, 660-61 (7th Cir. 2005).

ENTER:

James B. Zagel
United States District Judge

DATE: October 2, 2013

2