Blanch v. Cook County et al

Filing 7

MEMORANDUM Order: Plaintiff did not submit the court forms requested in the Order of 1/12/2016. This Court will give plaintiff Blanch one more chance -- it is again sending several copies of the Motion form to him, together with another copy of the original Order, so that he can carry out the responsibility identified in the Order. Status hearing set for 2/18/2016 is vacated. But if plaintiff Blanch has not "helped himself" by returning two properly-filled-out copies of the Motion f or Attorney Representation to the Clerk's Office on or before March 10, 2016, this Court will be constrained to dismiss his Complaint and this action for want of prosecution. (For further details see Memorandum Order) Signed by the Honorable Milton I. Shadur on 2/17/2016:Mailed notice & 3 copies of Motion for Attorney Representation.(clw, )

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
EASTERN DIVISION

ALLEN BLANCH (#2014-1126150),
Plaintiff,
v.
COOK COUNTY CERMAK
HEALTH SERVICES, et al.,
Defendants.

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Case No. 15 C 11480

MEMORANDUM ORDER
Well over 2500 years ago Aesop wrote:
The gods help them that help themselves.
That same aphorism has repeatedly been voiced over the intervening centuries -- by Aeschylus,
by Sophocles, by Euripides, by George Herbert, by Algernon Sidney and by Benjamin
Franklin -- the last source listed in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations), who put the same basic
wisdom in monotheistic terms:
God helps them that help themselves.
This Court surely has no illusions of divinity, but it shares the same frustration when, as here, its
effort to assist a pro se prisoner litigant goes entirely unheeded.
There is no need to repeat what this Court said in its January 12, 2016 memorandum
order ("Order"), in which it reviewed and revised materially the draft that had been prepared by a
staff attorney to deal with the pro se Complaint filed by pretrial detainee Allen Blanch
("Blanch") -- instead a copy of the Order is attached to this revised effort by this Court. One
important reason for the issuance of the Order, rather than the version that had been prepared by

staff counsel, is that the latter had proposed to recruit a member of this District Court's trial bar
to represent Blanch even though he himself had made no request for such representation and,
more critically as a legal matter, had made no effort to obtain counsel on his own (a precondition
imposed by our Court of Appeals before any such designation may be made). But as the Order
reflects, this Court voluntarily accompanied the Order with a transmittal to Blanch of (1) several
Clerk's-Office-supplied forms of a Motion for Attorney Representation ("Motion") together with
(2) a copy of the Order, which stated in unambiguous terms:
Blanch must first make some effort to secure counsel on his own so that he can
fill in a response to paragraph 2 of the Motion, for our Court of Appeals requires
such a showing before any such motion may be honored. As soon as Blanch
complies in that respect, this Court will take the appropriate action to obtain
counsel to represent him.1
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Designated counsel should then consider the possibility of amending
Blanch's self-prepared Complaint, which does not adequately identify which of
his named defendants is charged with which claimed violation of his
constitutional rights.
More than a month has elapsed since that January 12 transmittal, and Blanch has done
nothing at all. Meanwhile the initial status hearing that the Order had set for 9 a.m. February 18
"on the premise that Blanch's case will indeed go forward" is hard upon us, so that Blanch has
really wasted more than a month without "helping himself."
Prisoner litigation poses a host of problems at best, but it is particularly frustrating when
(as has occurred here) a prisoner's self-described claim is taken seriously by a court that
recognizes the truism that pro se litigation is always difficult, a difficulty that is compounded by
the pro se litigant's being in custody and thus having that much less ability to serve his own
interests, and when the prisoner simply ignores the court's effort to assist him. Nonetheless this
Court will give Blanch one more chance -- it is again sending several copies of the Motion form

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to him, together with another copy of the original Order, so that he can carry out the
responsibility identified in the Order (meanwhile, of course, vacating the February 18 initial
status hearing date). But if Blanch has not "helped himself" by returning two properly-filled-out
copies of the Motion to the Clerk's Office on or before March 10, this Court will be constrained
to dismiss his Complaint and this action for want of prosecution.

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Milton I. Shadur
Senior United States District Judge
Date: February 17, 2016

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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
EASTERN DIVISION

ALLEN BLANCH (#2014-1126150),
Plaintiff,
v.
COOK COUNTY CERMAK
HEALTH SERVICES, et al.,
Defendants.

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Case No. 15 C 11480

MEMORANDUM ORDER
Allen Blanch ("Blanch") has utilized the Clerk's-Office-supplied form of Complaint
Under the Civil Rights Act to assert a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 ("Section 1983") that charges that he
was the victim of improper medical treatment by Cook County Cermak Health Services, its
Medical Director Connie Mennella, two unidentified doctors and two named staff members
affiliated with Cermak Health Services. This Court has engaged in the initial screening called
for by 28 U.S.C. § 1915A (a) 1 in situations in which a prisoner such as pretrial detainee Blanch
"seeks redress from a governmental entity or officer or employee of a governmental entity," and
it has made the threshold determination that Blanch's allegations arguably advance a claim of
deliberate indifference to serious medical needs coming within the purview of Estelle v. Gamble,
429 U.S. 97 (1976), so that his action can go forward.

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All further citations to Title 28 provisions will take the form "Section --," omitting the
prefatory "28 U.S.C. §."
ATTACHMENT

As the first order of business, this Court has made the calculation called for by Section
1915(b)(1) and has determined that the average monthly deposits to Blanch's trust fund account
at the Cook County Department of Corrections ("Cook County Jail," where he is in custody)
during the six-month period ended December 15, 2015 (the Complaint's "filing" date under the
"mailbox rule") came to $103, 20 percent of which (id.) is $20.60. Accordingly Blanch is
assessed that initial partial filing fee of $20.60, and the County Jail trust fund officer is ordered
to collect that amount form Blanch's trust fund account there and to pay it directly to the Clerk of
Court ("Clerk"):
Office of the Clerk
United States District Court
219 South Dearborn Street
Chicago, IL 60604
Attention: Fiscal Department.
After such payment, the trust fund officer at Cook County Jail (or at any other
correctional facility where Blanch may hereafter be confined) is authorized to collect monthly
payments from his trust fund account in an amount equal to 20% of the preceding month's
income credited to the account. Monthly payments collected from the trust fund account shall be
forwarded to the Clerk each time the amount in the account exceeds $10 until the full $350 filing
fee is paid. Both the initial payment and all future payments shall clearly identify Blanch's name
and the 15C 11480 case number assigned to this action. To implement these requirements, the
Clerk shall send a copy of this order to the Cook County Jail trust fund officer.
To turn to the substance of Blanch's Complaint, even though it is both articulate and
detailed there is no question that he would be better served if he were represented by a member
of this District Court's trial bar -- and indeed, experience teaches that the defendants and this
Court would also be best served if legal counsel were involved on both sides of the "v." sign.

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But in that respect Blanch has not sought such representation, and for that purpose this Court is
sending him copies of another Clerk's-Office-supplied-form -- the Motion for Attorney
Representation ("Motion") -- together with a copy of this memorandum order, so that he may
complete and return two copies of the Motion to the Clerk's Office. Blanch must first make
some effort to secure counsel on his own so that he can fill in a response to paragraph 2 of the
Motion, for our Court of Appeals requires such a showing before any such motion may be
honored. As soon as Blanch complies in that respect, this Court will take the appropriate action
to obtain counsel to represent him. 2
In the meantime this action is being scheduled for an initial status hearing at 9 a.m.
February 18, 2016 on the premise that Blanch's case will indeed go forward. For that purpose
this Court is contemporaneously issuing its usual initial scheduling order.

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Milton I. Shadur
Senior United States District Judge
Date: January 12, 2016

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Designated counsel should then consider the possibility of amending Blanch's
self-prepared Complaint, which does not adequately identify which of his named defendants is
charged with which claimed violation of his constitutional rights.

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