Gardner v. Central Intelligence Agency

Filing 3

MEMORANDUM. Signed by Judge Catherine C. Blake on 11/26/2013. (c/m 11/26/2013 aos, Deputy Clerk)

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF MARYLAND
LAEL GARDNER

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v.

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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

CIVIL ACTION NO. CCB-13-3397

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MEMORANDUM
On November 14, 2013, plaintiff, a resident of Baltimore, Maryland, filed this selfrepresented complaint which appears to invoke this court’s civil rights jurisdiction. The following
claims are raised:
On April 16, 2012 I Lael Gardner called the Central Intelligence Agency to speak to
the Director of the Agency for which I have always known as Leon Penetta. Rep of
Agency ask me to explain what the nature of the call was for. I told her I need to
speak to Mr. Leon Penetta with concerns of misconduct of employees or agents of
year of Abuse of myself & children, property damage, violating civil rights,
survellence [sic] in home etc. Rep from Central Intelligence says she will send a
officer to my home which I told her not to. A little while late[r] a man in
government uniform knock at my door says (are you Lael Gardner) I says yes I am
he says did you call Central Intelligence. I says yes I did he says what did u call for.
I says to speak to Leon Penetta the director, he says what do u need to speak to him
for and I says I need to report. Report was my last words, the Officer snatched my
right arm and says you are going with me. My 7 yrs old son was screaming Put
black handcuffs on me. I was screaming & crying, me and son [and] several other
agent in government uniform come in my home. Officer says u are going with me.
Put me in a police car. Put the front seat heavly [sic] on my knees. Put my son in
another car says he was going to take him to Dept of Social Service if I did not have
someone to watch him. Picked my 15 yr old daughter up from Carver High School
to stay with him. I was taken to Johns Hopkins Psych Ward were I was held down in
a cell and they put a long needle with medicine in my body 2X. I was held from
April 16-April 19th 2012, against my will on a locked unit. Later sent a bill over
$4,000 to me.
(ECF No. 1 at 2.) Plaintiff seeks $25,000,000.00 in damages and $5,000,000.00 in damages for her
children and moves for leave to proceed in forma pauperis. (See id. at 3; see also ECF No. 2.) The
motion to proceed without paying a filing fee shall be granted.

In Neitzke v. Williams, 490 U.S. 319 (1989), the United States Supreme Court determined
that a district court may dismiss the complaint of a pro se litigant when the complaint lacks “an
arguable basis either in law or in fact.” Id. at 324-25. Additionally, under Denton v. Hernandez,
504 U.S. 25 (1992), a court may dismiss as frivolous in forma pauperis complaints whose factual
allegations are fanciful, fantastic, delusional, irrational, or wholly incredible, but not those which are
simply unlikely. Id. at 32-33; see also Brock v. Angelone, 105 F.3d 952, 953-54 (4th Cir.1997).
Plaintiff’s factual statement of her claims even construed liberally, do not support any claim
under the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States or Maryland. Because the alleged
factual basis for plaintiff’s lawsuit is plainly irrational, the case is subject to summary dismissal as
frivolous. The civil rights allegations against the Central Intelligence Agency shall be summarily
dismissed under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B). A separate Order follows.

Date: November 26, 2013

__________/s/____________________
Catherine C. Blake
United States District Judge

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