Wilson v. People of the State

Filing 6

MEMORANDUM Opinion and Order Signed by the Honorable Milton I. Shadur on 4/14/2015.(gcy, )

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
EASTERN DIVISION
DUPREE WILSON, In Propria Persona,
Plaintiff,
v.
PEOPLE OF THE STATE,
Defendant.

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Case No: 15 C 3105

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER
It is not always easy for even a licensed lawyer to deal with courts or issues with which
he or she is unfamiliar -- and understandably that task is even more daunting for the nonlawyer
who seeks to represent himself or herself without benefit of counsel. Just so here, where pro se
plaintiff Dupree Wilson ("Wilson") might perhaps appear to have the possibility of bringing a
federal action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 at some point, 1 but he has instead filed what he
erroneously labels a "Counterclaim/Counter Sue," a label that he has coupled with a meaningless
hand-printed additional caption reading "Notice of Removal From the 18th Judicial Circuit To
the Northern District Pursuant 18 U.S.C. § 241."
It is difficult to know just where to begin in recounting the fundamental flaws in Wilson's
filing -- to borrow a famous sentence from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's love poem to Robert
Browning in Sonnets From the Portuguese:
Let me count the ways.

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This Court is not of course voicing a finding or holding in that respect -- the hedges
"might perhaps" and "at some point" have been employed deliberately here.

To begin with, for example, he targets the "People of the State" as his defendant, heedless of the
sovereign immunity that insulates the State of Illinois from such lawsuits. Another indicium of
Wilson's hubris might be gleaned from his having tendered the Clerk's-Office-supplied form of
Motion for Attorney Representation, but having filled it in with the statement "I am standing in
propria persona, representing myself" and having completed that section of the form by stating
(the portion without underlining is quoted from the form, while the handwritten response is
underlined):
but I am unable to find an attorney because: I am not looking for an attorney.
Most significantly, though, Wilson has tendered an additional 14-page submission (exclusive of
exhibits from the Illinois state court misdemeanor complaint in which Wilson is named as the
defendant) that is nothing more than a hodgepodge that graphically discloses the bizarre legal
universe in which Wilson seeks to place himself.
It is frankly hopeless to attempt to summarize Wilson's approach to the attempted
creation of a currently viable federal action drawn out of the pending state prosecution in which
he is embroiled. It must instead be read to be appreciated (or, more accurately, unappreciated).
In brief, this Court concludes that Wilson's attempted lawsuit is frivolous in the senses conveyed
by Neitzke v. Wilson, 490 U.S. 319 (1989) and Denton v. Hernandez, 504 U.S. 25 (1992).
Hence this action is dismissed and Wilson's accompanying In Forma Pauperis Application is
denied as moot.

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Milton I. Shadur
Senior United States District Judge
Date: April 14, 2015
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