Thomas v. Gabriel

Filing 4

MEMORANDUM OPINION & ORDER: (1) Thomas's Fourth Amendment claim against Officer Gabriel is DISMISSED without prejudice. (2) This action is DISMISSED and STRICKEN from the Court's docket. (3) A corresponding Judgment will be entered this date. Signed by Judge Danny C. Reeves on January 2, 2018.(AWD) cc: Pla via US Mail

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
EASTERN DISTRICT OF KENTUCKY
CENTRAL DIVISION
(at Lexington)
JAMMAL THOMAS,
Plaintiff,
v.
JACK GABRIEL,
Defendant.

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Civil Action No. 5: 17-508-DCR

MEMORANDUM OPINION
AND ORDER

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Inmate Jammal Thomas is currently confined at the Bourbon County Regional Detention
Center in Paris, Kentucky. Proceeding without a lawyer, Thomas filed a civil rights complaint
against Kentucky State Police Officer Jack Gabriel. [Record No. 1]. Thomas claims that, during
a traffic stop, Officer Gabriel found drugs on his person by virtue of an illegal search and seizure
in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. [Record No. 1 at 3-4, 11-12]. While Thomas is still
a pretrial detainee awaiting trial on related state criminal charges, he contends that he has already
“suffered several losses” and, therefore, is seeking “recompensation” for his current situation.
[Record No. 1 at 5].
The Court will dismiss, without prejudice, Thomas’s Fourth Amendment claim against
Officer Gabriel pursuant to the doctrine announced in Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37 (1971). That
doctrine provides that a federal court should generally abstain from interfering in an ongoing state
court action that involves an important state interest, and provides an adequate opportunity to raise
constitutional challenges. See Fieger v. Cox, 524 F.3d 770, 775 (6th Cir. 2008) (discussing

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Younger abstention). Here, the state criminal case against Thomas is ongoing,1 and that matter
obviously involves an important state interest. Further, Thomas has the opportunity to raise
challenges to the charges against him during that criminal proceeding. Therefore, this Court will
abstain from interfering in Thomas’s criminal case, just as it “has abstained from meddling in . . .
[other] state court criminal actions.” Stevenson v. Motors, No. 5: 16-cv-421-KKC, 2017 WL
512750, *3 (E.D. Ky. 2017) (collecting cases). Accordingly, it is hereby
ORDERED as follows:
1.

Thomas’s Fourth Amendment claim against Officer Gabriel is DISMISSED,

without prejudice.
2.

This action is DISMISSED and STRICKEN from the Court’s docket.

3.

A corresponding judgment will be entered this date.

This 2nd day of January, 2018.

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The Court takes judicial notice of the publically available docket sheet in Commonwealth of Kentucky v. Jammal
Thomas, No. 17-CR-00055 (2017).

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