Frivolous Legal Actions

* (U.S. v. Bottoson): Bottoson, convicted of federal firearms charges and postal fraud, and faced state court charges for the kidnapping and murder of a female postal employee. The defendant sought post-conviction relief in the federal court, and in a letter to the court said: "This defendant is accused of murder in the state of Florida, this defendant goes to a church which believes in the raising of the dead, which is the defendants right under the Constitution of the United States. This defendant wrote a letter ... stating his religious belief that if the body of the deceased [postal employee] were to be taken from the ground and brought into the defendants church the Lord of life would bring back the deceased. ... The defendant feels his 'Religious Freedom' under the constitution were violated, anyone has the right to his/her own belief under Freedom of Religion. Defendant now asks this court to uphold his rights under the constitution of the United States."



* A suit by a prisoner who claimed that the Department of Corrections planted an electronic device in his brain. (Calif.)



* (Moody v. Miller): A Texas inmate filed twenty-two complaints, alleging civil rights violations, including violations of his right to use the telephone, his right not to be required to walk barefoot across a cold floor, his right not to be issued pants that are too small.



* A suit by Lee Barnett challenging the stamping of his mail to indicate it was sent from a state prison. (Calif.)



* A Georgia inmate filed petition alleging that he was a victim of a "Behavior Modification Program" conducted by the prison, and that the "controlling system is a watchful eye of the State through electronic suveillance of the human body ..." The system, he claimed, "combs" his body and "wantonly monitors and picks up sounds and voices, but is also tuned directly to plaintiff's brain." The plaintiff sought $500,000 in damages, claiming the State had "no right without any permission from plaintiff to probe his mind and body with electric current or parabolic sound waves." (Jones v. Ault)



* A prisoner in Idaho filed suit after guards refused to "tidy up" his cell after a search.



* (Gordon v. N.J.): The Inmate, a "certified candidate for the office of President of the U.S." filed suit claiming "that he was unlawfully arrested in December 1975 while campaigning in the New Hampshire primary, and unlawfully jailed until March 15, 1976, and accordingly claimed that the 1976 presidential election was fraudulent and that new "legal" elections had to be held for the office of President. He also claimed that "Had there been a free legal 1976 Presidential election, he would now be the President."



* Beaty v. Bury: A death-row inmate sues corrections officials for taking away his Gameboy electronic game. (Arizona)



* (Demos v. Kincheloe...): This inmate filed 184 separate actions in a little more than three yearsincluding ones alleging: all Washington State law is unconstitutional because statutes subsequent to the 1881 code were not ratified by Congress; a claim for damages because prison guards refused to address him by his Islamic name; a request to require Congress to redraft language in the Declaration of Independence; a claim of unlawful discrimination on the basis of sex because the State would not honor his request to be transferred to an all-women correctional institution; and a claim that the U.S. Treasury Dept violated his civil rights by discontinuing the practice of backing treasury notes by silver.



* Trice v. Reynolds: Ex-chef sues because the food was bad, yet he wanted bigger portions. (Oklahoma)



* Searight v. N.J.: Searight claimed he was taken to the Eye, Ear and Speech Clinic, where the State of New Jersey unlawfully injected him in the left eye with a radium electric beam, and that someone now talks to him on the inside of his brain. He sought $12 million in damages



* Murderer sues for $25,000, claiming a "defective" haircut resulted in lost sleep, headaches, and chest pains. (New York)



* Sir Keenan Kester Cofield an Alabame inmate was creative. Besides filing over a hundred actions against prison officials in various Alabama courts.. One court said "Cofield is an overly litigious fellow. Among the many suits he has brought from his jail cell are suits against both McDonald's and Burger King for using pork fat in the oil used to fry french fried potatoes, thereby poisoning his body, mind and soul. He has brought at least three libel actions against various newspapers for prematurely printing his obituary. He also brought an action against Coca-Cola alleging that a bottle of Coke he drank was filled with ground glass. He has threatened or sued various restaurants in various cities alleging food poisoning; it was later discovered that Cofield was incarcerated at the time he supposedly was eating in these restaurants."