Case Title: State ex rel. Richard v. Seidner

Citation: 1996-Ohio-349

Docket Number: 19961174

State: ohio

Court: Ohio Supreme Court

Date: 1996-11-06T00:00:00Z

Document:
The State ex rel. Richard, Appellant, v. Seidner, Warden, Appellee. 
[Cite as State ex rel. Richard v. Seidner (1996),    Ohio St.3d      .] 
Habeas corpus not not available to challenge either the validity or the 
sufficiency of an indictment. 
 
(No. 96-1174 -- Submitted September 10, 1996 -- Decided November 6, 
1996.) 
 
Appeal from the Court of Appeals for Lorain County, No. 95CA006216. 
 
Appellant, Donald L. Richard, Sr., an inmate at Lorain Correctional 
Institution under the custody of appellee, Warden Larry Seidner, filed a petition 
for a writ of habeas corpus in the Court of Appeals for Lorain County. In 
Richard’s petition and subsequent motions to amend his petition, he raised several 
claims, including that his indictment was defective because it lacked an allegation 
that the charged offense of felonious assault was committed within the territorial 
jurisdiction of his sentencing court.  The court of appeals granted Seidner’s 
motions and dismissed the cause.   
 
The cause is now before this court upon an appeal as of right. 
____________________ 
 
Donald L. Richard, Sr.,  pro se. 
 
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Betty D. Montgomery, Attorney General, and Charles L. Wille, Assistant 
Attorney General, for appellee. 
____________________ 
 
Per Curiam.  Richard asserts in his sole proposition of law that the court of 
appeals erred in dismissing his habeas corpus petition, since his indictment did not 
allege that he committed the charged offense of felonious assault within the 
jurisdiction of his sentencing court, i.e., the Cuyahoga County Court of Common 
Pleas.  R.C. 2941.03(D).  However, Richard’s claim challenges the validity or 
sufficiency of his indictment, is nonjurisdictional in nature, and should have been 
raised on appeal of his criminal conviction rather than in habeas corpus.  State ex 
rel. Wilcox v. Seidner (1996), 76 Ohio St.3d 412, 414-415,  667 N.E.2d 1220, 
1222; Luna v. Russell (1994), 70 Ohio St.3d 561, 562, 639 N.E.2d 1168, 1169, 
certiorari denied (1995), 513 U.S. ___, 115 S.Ct. 759, 130 L.Ed.2d 658.  Further, 
the indictment attached to Richard’s petition expressly alleged that the charged 
offense occurred within Cuyahoga County.  Finally, res judicata precludes 
Richard’s filing of successive habeas corpus petitions.  See Freeman v. Tate 
(1992), 65 Ohio St.3d 440, 605 N.E.2d 14; State ex rel. Richard v. Seidner (1996), 
76 Ohio St.3d 149, 666 N.E.2d 1134; State ex rel. Richard v. Seidner (1996), 74 
 
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Ohio St.3d 634, 660 N.E.2d 1175; Richard v. Hills (1991), 62 Ohio St.3d 155, 580 
N.E.2d 774. 
 
For the foregoing reasons, the court of appeals properly dismissed Richard’s 
habeas corpus petition.  The judgment of the court of appeals is affirmed. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Judgment affirmed. 
 
MOYER, C.J., DOUGLAS, RESNICK, F.E. SWEENEY, PFEIFER, COOK and 
STRATTON, JJ., concur.