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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO

WESTERN DIVISION AT DAYTON

DUSTIN GLENN,

Petitioner, : Case No. 3:17-cv-435

- vs - District Judge Walter H. Rice

Magistrate Judge Michael R. Merz

PREBLE COUNTY SHERIFF

DEPARTMENT AND STATE OF 

OHIO

:

Respondent.

DECISION AND ORDER

This habeas corpus case under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 is before the Court on Petitioner’s Motion 

to delete the Warden at Warren Correctional Institution as a respondent in the case because 

Petitioner is not challenging the judgment on which he is in the custody of that official. The 

Motion is well-taken and is hereby GRANTED. The Clerk shall delete the Warden at W.C.I. as a

party.

Petitioner also moves to stay these proceedings pending exhaustion of state court remedies 

for removal of his requirement to register as a sex offender. Attachments to the Motion show that 

he currently has one or more open state court proceedings seeking that relief.

District courts have authority to grant stays in habeas corpus cases to permit exhaustion of 

state court remedies in consideration of the AEDPA’s preference for state court initial resolution 

of claims. However, in recognizing that authority, the Supreme Court held:
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[S]tay and abeyance should be available only in limited 

circumstances. Because granting a stay effectively excuses a 

petitioner's failure to present his claims first to the state courts, stay 

and abeyance is only appropriate when the district court determines 

there was good cause for the petitioner's failure to exhaust his claims

first in state court. Moreover, even if a petitioner had good cause for 

that failure, the district court would abuse its discretion if it were to 

grant him a stay when his unexhausted claims are plainly meritless. 

Cf. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(b)(2) ("An application for a writ of habeas 

corpus may be denied on the merits, notwithstanding the failure of 

the applicant to exhaust the remedies available in the courts of the 

State"). . . .

Rhines v. Weber, 544 U.S. 269, 277-278 (2005). “Staying a federal habeas petition frustrates 

AEDPA’s objective of encouraging finality by allowing a petitioner to delay the resolution of 

federal proceedings. Id.

Although Petitioner may not have received it yet, the Magistrate Judge has filed a Report 

and Recommendations recommending that the Petition be dismissed because (1) Mr. Glenn is not 

in the custody of the Sheriff of Butler County on his sexual offender registration requirement to 

give this Court jurisdiction over the case, (2) in any event cannot grant relief from a sexual offender 

registration obligation, and (3) any challenge to the 2013 conviction is barred by the statute of 

limitations (ECF No. 4). None of those reasons for dismissal are impacted at all by the pendency 

of the state court proceedings. The purpose of the exhaustion doctrine is to allow state courts to 

decide first any federal constitutional questions involved with a conviction before a federal habeas 

court becomes involved. But because the relief sought here is relief this Court cannot grant in 

habeas, there is no reason to stay the proceedings.
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Accordingly, the Motion to Stay is DENIED.

January 4, 2018.

 s/ Michael R. Merz

 United States Magistrate Judge