Christopher Alipui v. Brian Byerson, No. 15-7019 (4th Cir. 2016)
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UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 15-7019 CHRISTOPHER ALIPUI, Plaintiff - Appellant, v. BRIAN BYERSON; JOHN DOE, White Male Officer; JOHN DOE, White Male Officer; JOHN DOE, Duty Sergeant; JOHN DOE, Lady Detective, Defendants - Appellees. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, at Alexandria. Claude M. Hilton, Senior District Judge. (1:14-cv-00103-GBL-JFA) Submitted: December 22, 2015 Before DUNCAN and Circuit Judge. KEENAN, Decided: Circuit Judges, January 20, 2016 and DAVIS, Senior Affirmed in part, vacated in part, and remanded by unpublished per curiam opinion. Christopher Alipui, Appellant Pro Se. Kimberly Pace Baucom, Assistant County Attorney, Jamie Marie Greenzweig, FAIRFAX COUNTY ATTORNEY’S OFFICE, Fairfax, Virginia, for Appellees. Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. PER CURIAM: Christopher Alipui appeals the district court’s order denying relief on his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (2012) complaint. Alipui asserts that the district court erred in granting Defendants’ motion to dismiss. We affirm in part, vacate in part, and remand. We review de novo a district court’s order dismissing a complaint for failure to state a claim, assuming that all wellpleaded, nonconclusory factual allegations in the complaint are true. SD3, LLC v. Black & Decker (U.S.) Inc., 801 F.3d 412, 422 (4th Cir. 2015). assert factual In order to state a claim, a complaint must allegations sufficient “to raise a right to relief above the speculative level” and have “enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555, 570 (2007). not accept facts, the or legal “accept conclusions unwarranted conclusions, or arguments.” plaintiff draws inferences, Bell We need from these unreasonable SD3, LLC, 801 F.3d at 422 (internal quotation marks omitted). Alipui’s claims arise from his arrest on state credit card theft charges. searched his belongings; Alipui cell and phone arrested alleged that and person; him without 2 Officer Brian seized a warrant Byerson his personal or probable cause. The state court later entered a nolle prosequi on the credit card charges. Alipui then pleaded guilty, pursuant to a written plea agreement, to federal charges of bank fraud and aggravated Alipui’s identity claims in theft. the The present district case were court barred held by that Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477 (1994), because success on his claims would necessarily imply the invalidity of his federal convictions. Under Heck, if a prisoner’s successful § 1983 claim “‘would necessarily sentence,’” imply the “‘demonstrate[s] the claim is that the been invalidated.’” invalidity not of his cognizable conviction or conviction unless the sentence or prisoner already has Young v. Nichols, 413 F.3d 416, 418-19 (4th Cir. 2005) (quoting Heck, 512 U.S. at 487). However, “civil claims based on unreasonable searches do not necessarily imply that the resulting criminal convictions were unlawful.” Covey v. Assessor of Ohio Cnty., 777 F.3d 186, 197 (4th Cir. 2015). “[A] civil-rights claim does not necessarily imply the invalidity of a conviction or sentence if (1) the conviction derives from a guilty plea rather than a verdict obtained with unlawfully obtained evidence and (2) plead facts inconsistent with guilt.” 3 the Id. plaintiff does not We conclude that on the record currently before us success on Alipui’s claims would not necessarily imply the invalidity of his federal evidence convictions. seized during Because Alipui’s it is arrest not on clear state that credit the card theft charges was used to secure his federal convictions for bank fraud and aggravated identity theft, success on his search and seizure claims would not necessarily imply that his federal convictions were invalid. Additionally, Alipui did not plead facts in his § 1983 complaint that are inconsistent with his guilty pleas to the federal charges. 197. See Covey, 777 F.3d at Finally, success on Alipui’s claim that Byerson lacked probable cause to arrest him for credit card theft would not necessarily imply that his later federal convictions for bank fraud and aggravated identity theft, for which he was separately arrested, were invalid. in forma pauperis, Accordingly, we grant leave to proceed vacate the district court’s dismissal of Alipui’s false arrest and illegal search and seizure claims, and remand for further proceedings. Turning to Alipui’s remaining claims, we have reviewed the record and find no reversible dismissal of those claims. error in the district court’s We therefore affirm the district court’s order dismissing his remaining claims and denying his motion to appoint counsel for the reasons stated by the district 4 court. Alipui v. Byerson, No. 1:14-cv-00103-GBL-JFA (E.D. Va. June 2, 2015). dispense with contentions are We deny Alipui’s motion to appoint counsel and oral argument adequately because presented in the the facts and legal materials before this court and argument would not aid the decisional process. AFFIRMED IN PART, VACATED IN PART, AND REMANDED 5
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