Source: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-cand-3_07-cv-03978/USCOURTS-cand-3_07-cv-03978-1/pdf.json

Nature of Suit Code: 555
Nature of Suit: Prisoner - Prison Condition
Cause of Action: 42:1983 Prisoner Civil Rights

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United States District Court

For the Northern District of California

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United States District Court

For the Northern District of California

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

In Re.

JAMES PATRICK GONZALES,

Plaintiff. /

No. C 07-2373 MHP (pr)

No. C 07-3166 MHP (pr)

No. C 07-3289 MHP (pr)

No. C 07-3517 MHP (pr)

No. C 07-3691 MHP (pr)

No. C 07-3978 MHP (pr)

No. C 07-4019 MHP (pr)

No. C 07-5427 MHP (pr)

ORDER OF DISMISSAL

On January 22, 2008, the court ordered plaintiff, James Patrick Gonzales, to show

cause why pauper status should not be denied and these eight actions should not be dismissed

under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g), which provides that a prisoner may not bring a civil action in

forma pauperis "if the prisoner has, on 3 or more prior occasions, while incarcerated or

detained in any facility, brought an action or appeal in a court of the United States that was

dismissed on the grounds that it is frivolous, malicious, or fails to state a claim upon which

relief may be granted, unless the prisoner is under imminent danger of serious physical

injury." The order identified four prior dismissals that appeared to count under § 1915(g),

and explained that Gonzales could show one or more dismissals did not count under §

1915(g), or he could pay the filing fee, or he could show that he came within the imminent

danger exception to avoid dismissal. The court noted that Gonzales had included in several

complaints allegations that he was in imminent danger and said that it would consider those

statements in addition to any written response to the OSC. 

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United States District Court

For the Northern District of California

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Gonzales filed a response to the OSC. He did not show that any of the prior

dismissals could not be counted as dismissals under § 1915(g). The court now finds that the

four prior dismissals identified in the order to show cause count as dismissals for purposes of

§ 1915(g). Gonzales did not opt to pay the filing fee and did not dispute that he was the same

person as the plaintiff in each of the prior dismissals. Gonzales' only argument against

dismissal was that he fit within the imminent danger exception, which allows a prisonerplaintiff who otherwise would be not be allowed to proceed as a pauper to proceed with his

complaint if he "is under imminent danger of serious physical injury." 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g).

To fit within that exception, Gonzales had to make plausible allegations that he faced

imminent danger of serious physical injury at the time of filing each complaint. See

Andrews v. Cervantes, 493 F.3d 1047, 1055 (9th Cir. 2007). Gonzales contended that prison

officials had been trying to murder him since 1995. The details of that alleged campaign to

harm/kill him were such that they made the assertion of imminent danger simply not

plausible. 

Gonzales stated in his OSC response that problems started in 1996 when he was

exposed to radiation, a claim this court dismissed long ago in Gonzales v. U.S.A., No. C 98-

3060 MHP, but that he continues to insist "really did happen" and is "the tip of a humgeous

[sic] deep 'ice berg'" that has caused him to endure immeasurable suffering. OSC response,

p.2. The court described Gonzales' allegations about his radiation claim:

Plaintiff's complaint alleges, among other things, the following story. Plaintiff has a

special genetic structure he inherited as the son of a man who participated in a genetic

experiment while in the U.S. Army. As a result of his special genetic structure, he has

not been killed despite having several encounters (including two car accidents, a

throat slashing and food poisonings) that would have resulted in death for a normal

person. The government is attempting to "eliminate him" because it does not want

other persons or foreign governments to learn about plaintiff''s special genetic

structure. Word has leaked out to the community about plaintiff's special genetic

structure and people have tried to get plaintiff to sire offspring so they could obtain

similarly powered infants. Plaintiff was irradiated in 1996 by radioactive smoke

which caused his body to emit a fluorescent green glow. "As soon as the radiation

settled in his bones, government scientists were able to observe plaintiff on a

computer anywhere in the world via a satellite from outer space." (Complaint, p. 21.) 

The government has been monitoring plaintiff throughout his life, and has disrupted

his relationships with other people. Due to the government's depiction of plaintiff as a

"lunatic," the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society has abandoned him. (Id. at 22.) 

Some of the alleged misdeeds occurred in this judicial district. Plaintiff seeks

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United States District Court

For the Northern District of California

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damages from the government and a court order requiring the Watchtower Bible and

Tract Society to provide him with spiritual guidance.

Gonzales v. USA, No. C 98-3060 MHP, Order of Dismissal, pp. 1-2 (emphasis added). The

1998 allegations are relevant insofar as Gonzales relied on them to explain the contours of

the alleged imminent danger he faced in 2007. That is, he was still relying on the radiation

allegations as the foundation for his story that he has been and was being targeted for harm. 

Gonzales made utterly incredible allegations of being poisoned. Gonzales has now

alleged that people were trying to poison him by slipping bleach and medications into his

food and that the poisonings happened in at least three different prisons (Tehachapi, Mule

Creek, and Salinas Valley) and had been going on for more than a decade, yet he remained

alive. One particularly striking example of the unbelievable was Gonzales' statement, "I

allege that every correctional officer that has ever served me a tray in ad-seg D8, has hurt me,

assaulted me, injured my body by serving me poisoned food or medicated food, and it is

getting worse. Every meal I get has something in it that one of these D8 officers puts in my

food to make me sick." Motion for Summary Judgment/TRO in Case No. C 07-2373 MHP,

p. 2. 

Gonzales also alleged that he has been assaulted by other inmates several times during

his lengthy tenure in the prison system. Apparently he was stabbed in 1995, but that stabbing

did not show imminent danger at the time these actions were filed in 2007. He also alleged

that in 2007 he was taunted by being called a child molester by other inmates and a guard,

but his complaint in C 07-3289 indicated that inmates (rather than correctional staff) started

the name-calling and that it happened several months before the first of these actions was

filed. As with his contentions of being poisoned, the details of the campaign to kill him

showed his allegations to be no less than implausible. He offered a convoluted and

delusional tale in Case No. C 07-2373 MHP to explain why other prisoners targeted him: 

Gonzales stated that his father was killed by his stepmother (who brought home a syringe

contaminated with hepatitis that his father used for an insulin injection), then word of that got

around the inmate population, then Richard Allen Davis killed Polly Klaas to convey a

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message because Klaas resembled the wife of Gonzales' father's friend, and that set off the

chain of events that led to Gonzales being blamed for the Three Strikes law and being

targeted for assault. See Motion to consolidate, pp. 1-3 in Case No. C. 07-2373 MHP

(docket # 8). Rather than making a plausible case of an inmate in imminent danger,

Gonzales' filings showed an inmate acting under a delusion. 

Finally, one might wonder why an inmate would invent a story of a campaign to harm

him. Gonzales provided the answer in his OSC response, as he made it abundantly clear that

his goal was to be transferred out of the California prison system into federal custody or

another state's custody, and he had even gone so far as mailing bomb threats from prison and

jail in 1998 to try to get such a transfer, see OSC response, pp. 3-5. His blunt explanation of

his goal leads one to question whether the allegations of a campaign to harm him might be

part of a renewed effort to reach that goal. 

The court concludes that Gonzales did not fit within the exception for an inmate under

imminent danger of serious physical injury at the time he filed any of the complaints. 

Section 1915(g) applies and bars pauper status for Gonzales in these actions. 

For the foregoing reasons, Gonzales' in forma pauperis application in each action is

DENIED and each action is DISMISSED. The dismissal is without prejudice to Gonzales

asserting his claims in an action for which he pays the full filing fee at the time he files his

complaint. All other pending motions are dismissed as moot in light of the dismissal of these

actions. The clerk shall close the file.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

Dated: March 4, 2008 _____________________

 Marilyn Hall Patel

United States District Judge

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