IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS

EASTERN DIVISION

ROBERT DUNBAR, )

)

Plaintiff, )

)

v. ) No. 12 C 1295

)

OFC. GRODE, et al., )

)

Defendants. )

MEMORANDUM ORDER

Robert Dunbar (“Dunbar”) has just tendered a 42 U.S.C. §1983

(“Section 1983”) Complaint against Cook County Sheriff Thomas

Dart and four members of his staff at the Cook County Department

of Corrections (“County Jail”), seeking to hold them responsible

for injuries that he sustained at the hands of fellow inmate

Natal Williams (“Williams”) on April 25, 2011. This memorandum

order deals with several problems in connection with that filing.

To begin with, Dunbar has submitted only an original set of

documents, lacking (1) enough copies of the Complaint (which he

prepared on the printed form supplied by the Clerk’s Office for

use by persons in custody) to provide for service on the

defendant or defendants and (2) as part of his In Forma Pauperis

Application (“Application,” which was also prepared on a Clerk’sOffice-provided form), the required printout showing transactions

in his trust fund account at the County Jail for the period from

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June 30, 2011 through February 23, 2012. As for the necessary 1

copies of the Complaint, nothing will be done by this Court until

it is determined (a) whether the action can go forward at all and

(b) against whom Dunbar can proceed. As for the trust fund

printout, Dunbar is ordered to provide that on or before

March 20, 2012, with the 12 C 1295 case number to be designated

on the submission (although to facilitate that aspect this Court

is contemporaneously transmitting a copy of this memorandum order

to the fiscal personnel at the County Jail in the hope that they

may be able to cooperate by sending a copy of the printout

directly to this District Court’s Clerk’s Office.

As for the substance of the Complaint, it is clear that

Sheriff Dart cannot be sued via Section 1983 under the principle

established by Monell v. Dep’t of Social Servs. of City of New

York, 436 U.S. 658, 691 (1978). And as to the Lieutenant and two

Sergeants whom Dunbar has listed in the case caption, nothing in

the Complaint’s allegations implicates them--and the “Relief”

that he seeks in Complaint ¶V is solely a judgment against

Correctional Officer Grode, who is involved in Dunbar’s

 That period of more than six months has been selected 1

because it is not possible from Dunbar’s filing to determine just

when he mailed the papers or delivered them to prison authorities

for that purpose. In that regard, Dunbar did not date the

Complaint at all, and while he did date the Application

December 30, 2011, the “Filed” stamp by the Clerk’s Office shows

that the papers did not arrive there until February 23,

2012--nearly two months later.

2

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substantive allegations. Accordingly, if the action is to

proceed at all, the sole defendant will be Officer Grode.

But there is a precondition to suit that Dunbar must

address, but has not, before anything further can take place. 

Under 42 U.S.C. §1997e(a) Dunbar must have exhausted all

administrative remedies available at the County Jail before he

can file this lawsuit, and the Complaint says not a word on that

score. Accordingly Dunbar is ordered also to file an amendment

to the Complaint on or before March 20 addressing the subject of

available administrative remedies and showing that he has

exhausted them, failing which the Complaint and this action will

be dismissed.2

________________________________________

Milton I. Shadur

Senior United States District Judge

Date: March 1, 2012

 If such dismissal is ordered, Dunbar may still be liable 2

for payment of the filing fee in future installments pursuant to

28 U.S.C. §1915(b)(1), so that the earlier portions of this

memorandum order dealing with furnishing the printout of his

trust fund account must still be carried out.

3

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