McKinnie v. United States of America

Filing 5

ORDER DIRECTING CLERK TO MODIFY DOCKET AND DIRECTING GOVERNMENT TO RESPOND TO PETITION. Signed by Judge J. Daniel Breen on 5/16/17. (mbm)

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE
EASTERN DIVISION

GARY MCKINNIE,
Petitioner,
v.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Case No. 1:17-cv-01011-JDB-egb
Case No. 1:14-cr-10103-JDB-1
Case No. 1:15-cr-10098-JDB-1

Respondent.

ORDER DIRECTING CLERK TO MODIFY DOCKET
AND
DIRECTING GOVERNMENT TO RESPOND TO PETITION

On January 17, 2017, Petitioner, Gary McKinnie, filed a pro se “Motion for Transfer of
Defendant’s Firearms to a Responsible Third Party.” (ECF No. 1.)
Although such motions are sometimes filed and litigated in a petitioner’s underlying
criminal case, a court may hear a defendant’s request for the return of his seized property in a
separate civil action and treat it as an initial civil pleading. See, e.g., Hill v. United States, No.
1:12CV92, 2013 WL 1192312, at *1 (N.D.W. Va. Mar. 22, 2013) (directing “the Clerk of Court
[to] remove[] [the] motion from [the] closed criminal case . . . and file[] it as the initial pleading in
[a] civil case.”) The Clerk is therefore DIRECTED to terminate the motion at docket entry ECF
No. 1 and designate the document as “Petition for Return of Property.”
The Court has made a preliminary review of the petition and finds that summary dismissal
is not warranted. Therefore, Respondent, United States of America, shall have twenty-eight (28)
days from the date of this order to file a response to the petition.

Petitioner shall have

twenty-eight (28) days after service of the response to file any reply that he may have.

IT IS SO ORDERED this 16th day of May 2017.
s/ J. DANIEL BREEN
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

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