Filed: Aug. 24, 2015
Latest Update: Mar. 02, 2020
Summary: NOT PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT _ No. 15-1052 _ ANTONIO JENKINS, Appellant v. DARYLE YOUNG; JOHN J. LANGAN, JR., individually, and in his official capacity as Judge in the Superior Court of NEW JERSEY LAW DIVISION - CIVIL PART BERGEN COUNTY; JAMES E. DOW, JR., individually, and in his official capacity as Judge in the Englewood City Municipal Court in The State of New Jersey; JUDGE JOSE L. FUENTES; JUDGE ELLEN KOBLITZ; JUDGE MICHAEL J. HAAS, individually, in
Summary: NOT PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT _ No. 15-1052 _ ANTONIO JENKINS, Appellant v. DARYLE YOUNG; JOHN J. LANGAN, JR., individually, and in his official capacity as Judge in the Superior Court of NEW JERSEY LAW DIVISION - CIVIL PART BERGEN COUNTY; JAMES E. DOW, JR., individually, and in his official capacity as Judge in the Englewood City Municipal Court in The State of New Jersey; JUDGE JOSE L. FUENTES; JUDGE ELLEN KOBLITZ; JUDGE MICHAEL J. HAAS, individually, in ..
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NOT PRECEDENTIAL
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT
___________
No. 15-1052
___________
ANTONIO JENKINS,
Appellant
v.
DARYLE YOUNG; JOHN J. LANGAN, JR., individually, and in his official
capacity as Judge in the Superior Court of NEW JERSEY LAW DIVISION - CIVIL
PART BERGEN COUNTY; JAMES E. DOW, JR., individually, and in his official
capacity as Judge in the Englewood City Municipal Court in The State of New
Jersey; JUDGE JOSE L. FUENTES; JUDGE ELLEN KOBLITZ;
JUDGE MICHAEL J. HAAS, individually, in their official capacity as Judges in
in the Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey;
JUDGE JAYNEE LAVECCHIA, individually and in her official capacity as Judge
in the SUPREME COURT of New Jersey; THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY,
Department of Law and Public Safety Office; JEFFREY S. CHIESA,
OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY
____________________________________
On Appeal from the United States District Court
for the District of New Jersey
(D.C. Civil Action No. 2-13-cv-02466)
District Judge: Honorable Esther Salas
____________________________________
Submitted Pursuant to Third Circuit LAR 34.1(a)
August 21, 2015
Before: FISHER, KRAUSE and VAN ANTWERPEN, Circuit Judges
(Opinion filed: August 24, 2015)
___________
OPINION*
___________
PER CURIAM
Antonio Jenkins appeals the District Court’s order, which granted Appellee
Young’s motion to dismiss and denied Jenkins’s motion for reconsideration of an earlier
order granting the other Appellees’ motions to dismiss. For the reasons below, we will
affirm the District Court’s order.
The procedural history of this case and the details of Jenkins’s claims are well
known to the parties, set forth in the District Court’s thorough opinion, and need not be
discussed at length. Briefly, Young, the former principal at a school where Jenkins had
been a teacher,1 filed a police report against Jenkins for harassment. Jenkins countered
by filing a charge that Young had filed a false police report. Appellee Judge Dow
dismissed both sets of charges. Jenkins brought claims of defamation against Young in
another suit in New Jersey state court. A jury determined that Jenkins failed to prove that
Young’s statements to police were defamation. See Jenkins v. Young, No. A-3419-10T1,
2012 WL 2030125, at *2 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. June 7, 2012). Jenkins filed an
unsuccessful appeal, and the Supreme Court of New Jersey denied his petition for
*
This disposition is not an opinion of the full Court and pursuant to I.O.P. 5.7 does not
constitute binding precedent.
1
Young had previously brought discipline charges against Jenkins for refusing to allow
five second-grade students to use the restroom, causing them to wet themselves. An
2
certification. In his complaint filed in the District Court, Jenkins reasserted his state court
claims against Young and argued that the New Jersey state court judges involved in his
cases violated his constitutional rights. The District Court granted the Appellees’
motions to dismiss, determining that the judges were entitled to judicial immunity and
that res judicata barred his claims against Young.2 Jenkins appealed.
We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and review the District Court’s
order de novo. See Gallas v. Supreme Court of Pa., 211 F.3d 760, 768 (3d Cir. 2000).
Jenkins argues that Appellees are not protected by immunity because they improperly
used the New York arbitrator’s opinion as evidence at trial and put the burden of proof on
him for his defamation claims. We agree with the District Court that the Judicial
Appellees and Appellee Judge Dow were entitled to judicial immunity from Jenkins’s
claims for monetary damages. See Stump v. Sparkman,
435 U.S. 349, 356-57 (1978)
(judges not civilly liable for judicial acts). Their actions in handling and adjudicating
Jenkins’s state court cases were clearly judicial acts.
Id. at 362.
Jenkins also requested that the Judicial Appellees be directed to enter judgment in
his favor, grant him a new trial, prosecute Appellee Young, and release all those who
have been found guilty of lying to the police. To the extent Jenkins sought District Court
review and invalidation of the New Jersey state courts’ decisions, the District Court
arbitrator found Jenkins culpable of the charges.
2
As noted by the District Court, Jenkins did not make any claims against the State of
New Jersey and Jeffrey Chiesa in his complaint.
3
lacked jurisdiction under the Rooker-Feldman doctrine.3 No citizen has an enforceable
right to insist on the initialization of criminal proceedings. Linda R.S. v. Richard D., 410
U.S. 614, 619 (1973). As a layman in a civil action, Jenkins cannot litigate a habeas
claim requesting the release of a third party. See Preiser v. Rodriguez,
411 U.S. 475, 500
(1973) (writ of habeas corpus is the sole remedy when release from imprisonment is
sought); cf. Osei-Afriyie v. Med. Coll. of Pa.,
937 F.2d 876, 882-83 (3d Cir. 1991) (non-
lawyer parent cannot represent interests of his children).
We agree with the District Court that Jenkins’s claims against Young are barred
by res judicata. This doctrine bars claims that have been or could have been litigated in a
prior case between the same parties and based on the same set of facts. See Blunt v.
Lower Merion Sch. Dist., 767 F.3d 247, 276-77 (3d Cir. 2014). The New Jersey state
court case involved a final judgment on the merits involving the same parties and the
same basis of facts as Jenkins’s current claims against Young.4 Moreover, the Appellate
3
The Rooker-Feldman doctrine deprives a District Court of jurisdiction to review,
directly or indirectly, a state court adjudication. See D.C. Court of Appeals v. Feldman,
460 U.S. 462 (1983); Rooker v. Fidelity Trust Co.,
263 U.S. 413 (1923). The Supreme
Court has explained that this doctrine is narrow and confined to cases, such as this one,
“brought by state-court losers complaining of injuries caused by state-court judgments
rendered before the district court proceedings commenced and inviting district court
review and rejection of those judgments.” Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Saudi Basic Indus.
Corp.,
544 U.S. 280, 284 (2005).
4
In challenging the District Court’s res judicata ruling, Jenkins mistakenly compares the
claims against Appellee Young with the claims against the judges and declares that the
merits, parties, and facts involved are different. However, the comparison involved in the
res judicata analysis is between the prior case against Young and the current claims
against her.
4
Division noted that publication of statements in criminal complaints is absolutely
privileged. See Jenkins, 2012 WL 2030125 at *4 (citing Pitts v. Newark Bd. of Educ.,
766 A.2d 1206, 1209 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. 2001)). Thus, even if they were not
barred by res judicata, Jenkins’s defamation claims based on Young’s complaint of
criminal harassment would fail.
For the above reasons, as well as those set forth by the District Court, we will
affirm the District Court’s judgment.
5
