Filed: May 03, 2011
Latest Update: Feb. 22, 2020
Summary: UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 10-7734 RISHARD LEWIS GETER, Plaintiff – Appellant, v. OFFICER TAHARRA, Jailer, Spartanburg County Detention Center, Defendant – Appellee, and LARRY POWERS, Warden, Spartanburg County Detention Center; TERESA SPELLER, Captain, Spartanburg County Detention Center, Defendants. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, at Anderson. J. Michelle Childs, District Judge. (8:07-cv-03849-JMC) Subm
Summary: UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 10-7734 RISHARD LEWIS GETER, Plaintiff – Appellant, v. OFFICER TAHARRA, Jailer, Spartanburg County Detention Center, Defendant – Appellee, and LARRY POWERS, Warden, Spartanburg County Detention Center; TERESA SPELLER, Captain, Spartanburg County Detention Center, Defendants. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, at Anderson. J. Michelle Childs, District Judge. (8:07-cv-03849-JMC) Submi..
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UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 10-7734
RISHARD LEWIS GETER,
Plaintiff – Appellant,
v.
OFFICER TAHARRA, Jailer, Spartanburg County Detention
Center,
Defendant – Appellee,
and
LARRY POWERS, Warden, Spartanburg County Detention Center;
TERESA SPELLER, Captain, Spartanburg County Detention
Center,
Defendants.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of
South Carolina, at Anderson. J. Michelle Childs, District
Judge. (8:07-cv-03849-JMC)
Submitted: April 19, 2011 Decided: May 3, 2011
Before NIEMEYER, MOTZ, and DAVIS, Circuit Judges.
Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.
Rishard Lewis Geter, Appellant Pro Se. Andrew Todd Darwin,
HOLCOMBE, BOMAR, GUNN & BRADFORD, PA, Spartanburg, South
Carolina, for Appellee.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
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PER CURIAM:
Rishard Lewis Geter appeals a jury verdict in his 42
U.S.C. § 1983 (2006) action against Officer Taharra of the
Spartanburg County Detention Center. On appeal, Geter
challenges several rulings of the district court and alleges the
ineffectiveness of the attorney appointed to assist him. We
affirm.
We review evidentiary rulings by the district court
for an abuse of discretion. United States v. Basham,
561 F.3d
302, 325 (4th Cir. 2009). An abuse of discretion occurs when
“the district court judge acted arbitrarily or irrationally in
admitting [or excluding] evidence.”
Id. at 326 (internal
quotation marks omitted). Having reviewed the informal briefs
of the parties and the record before us, we perceive no such
abuse of discretion in the challenged rulings of the district
court.
Geter also challenges the effectiveness of counsel.
However, there is no right to appointment of counsel in a civil
case, and allegations of appointed counsel’s ineffectiveness are
not sufficient to raise a valid claim for relief on appeal. See
Glick v. Henderson,
855 F.2d 536, 541 (8th Cir. 1988);
Sanchez v. United States Postal Serv.,
785 F.2d 1236, 1237
(5th Cir. 1986). Therefore, these claims entitle Geter to no
relief.
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Geter also alleges that he has new evidence that
entitles him to a new trial. However, the material submitted to
the court is not new, and therefore warrants no retrial. United
States v. Custis,
988 F.2d 1355, 1359 (4th Cir. 1993) (“The
standard for granting a new trial is well established in this
circuit: [first,] the evidence must be, in fact, newly
discovered, i.e., discovered since the trial.”).
Geter’s claims entitle him to no relief, and we
therefore affirm the judgment of the district court imposed on
the jury verdict. We dispense with oral argument because the
facts and legal contentions are adequately presented in the
materials before the court and argument would not aid the
decisional process.
AFFIRMED
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