Ballinger v. Cedar County, MO, No. 14-3576 (8th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff filed suit against defendants, alleging a deprivation of his constitutional rights after he spent approximately one year in administrative segregation while awaiting a transfer. Plaintiff was serving an eight-year sentence when a state court judge granted plaintiff's motion to vacate and set aside his conviction and sentence. The state court judge ordered that plaintiff be remanded to the custody of the sheriff's department. While waiting this transfer, he was placed in the administrative segregation at issue here. The district court dismissed plaintiff’s lawsuit for failure to state a claim. Because the state court judge's order was stayed by the appeal and plaintiff's conviction and sentence were not in fact vacated, the court concluded that he remained a prisoner while the appeal was pending and did not regain the status of a pretrial detainee. Consequently, as a prisoner, plaintiff has not sufficiently alleged he was deprived of a liberty interest under the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process clause. Accordingly, the court affirmed the district court's dismissal of plaintiff's claims against the county and the sheriff. The court reversed in part and remanded with instructions to dismiss without prejudice plaintiff's claims against the John and Jane Does.
Court Description: Riley, Author, with Bye and Gruender, Circuit Judges] Civil case - Civil rights. Where plaintiff's Missouri conviction was overturned in a Rule 29.15 proceeding and the state appealed, during the period of the state's appeal, the order vacating plaintiff's judgment and sentence was stayed, and plaintiff remained a prisoner and did not regain the status of a pretrial detainee; plaintiff's detention in solitary confinement during this period was not an atypical or significant hardship such that his due process rights were violated.
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