Miskovsky v. Jones, No. 10-6181 (10th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CasePrisoner (Defendant) Grover Miskovsky, a prisoner of the State of Oklahoma, brought claims under 42 U.S.C. 1983 in district court alleging that Justin Jones, Director of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections (ODOC), had violated his constitutional rights by seizing the money in his prison draw account. The district court granted Jones summary judgment on the constitutional claims, dismissed without prejudice Defendant’s challenge to his state sentence, and gave him leave to amend. After Defendant filed an amended complaint, which named additional defendants, the court dismissed his new claims. Defendant then brought this appeal. In 2000, and Oklahoma state court sentenced Defendant to consecutive terms of 84 years’ imprisonment for racketeering, 7 years’ imprisonment for indecent exposure, and 2 years’ imprisonment for attempted perjury by subordination. The court ordered that that he pay fines, compensation to victims, and costs by using his entire draw account. The prison made no payment from Defendant’s draw account for his state-court fines and costs until 2006. The prison made additional periodic payments toward the amount owed until 2007. In his appeal, Defendant alleged that ODOC’s use of his entire draw account to pay his fines and court costs violated the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment as well as the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees of due process and equal protection. A federal magistrate judge recommended that the complaint be dismissed. The district court adopted the recommendation, dismissing most claims with prejudice, although it dismissed without prejudice Defendant’s state-law claims and some claims not factually related to the alleged misuse of his draw account. Upon review, the Tenth Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision to dismiss Defendant’s case.
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