Case ID: f-appx_623/html/0496-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Melinda Gabriella VALENZUELA, fka Enrique Mendez, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Charles L. RYAN; et al., Defendants-Appellees.
    No. 15-15741.
    United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.
    Submitted Nov. 18, 2015.
    
    Filed Nov. 27, 2015.
    Melinda Gabriella Valenzuela, Florence, AZ, pro se.
    Before: TASHIMA, OWENS, and FRIEDLAND, Circuit Judges.
    
      
       The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision without oral argument. See Fed. R.App. P. 34(a)(2).
    
   MEMORANDUM

Melinda Gabriella Valenzuela, an Arizona state prisoner, appeals pro se from the district court’s judgment in her 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action alleging that she was sexually assaulted by prison staff. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We reverse and remand.

The district court erred in dismissing Valenzuela’s action because, even in light of her previous lawsuits, the allegations in Valenzuela’s complaint were not factually frivolous. See Denton v. Hernandez, 504 U.S. 25, 32-33,112 S.Ct. 1728, 118 L.Ed.2d 340 (1992) (explaining that “a court may dismiss a claim as factually frivolous only if the facts alleged are clearly baseless, a category encompassing allegations that are fanciful, fantastic, and delusional” and a complaint “may not be dismissed ... simply because the court finds the plaintiffs allegations unlikely”).

REVERSED and REMANDED. 
      
       This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3.