TIMOTHY J. CORRIGAN, District Judge.
This case is before the Court on Petitioner Steven Eugene Passmore's second motion for relief from judgment under Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b). (Civ. Doc. 23, Second Rule 60(b) Motion).
In September 1998, Petitioner pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and cocaine base, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846 (Count One of the Second Superseding Indictment), and one count of money laundering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1956(a)(1)(B)(i) and 2 (Count Two of the Second Superseding Indictment). (Crim. Doc. 117, Plea Agreement). Petitioner moved to withdraw his guilty plea a few months later (Crim. Doc. 129), but the Court denied the motion (Crim. Doc. 132). In 1999, the Court sentenced Petitioner to 360 months in prison as to Count One and 240 months in prison as to Count Two, both terms to run concurrently. (Crim. Doc. 139, Judgment). Petitioner appealed the judgment, arguing (among other things) that the Court erred in denying his motion to withdraw the guilty plea "because his plea was the result of improper threats and coercion by both his attorneys and the Government." (Crim. Doc. 150, USCA Opinion at 3). On October 27, 1999, the Eleventh Circuit rejected each of Petitioner's arguments and affirmed his conviction and sentence.
More than seven years later, on January 25, 2007, Petitioner filed a counseled motion to vacate, set aside, or correct sentence under 28 U.S.C. § 2255. (Civ. Doc. 1, § 2255 Motion; Civ. Doc. 2, Counseled Memorandum; Civ. Doc. 2-2, Pro Se Memorandum). In Ground One, Petitioner argued that
(Civ. Doc. 1 at 3). In Ground Two, Petitioner raised a bevy of other claims, including that the indictment did not allege the drug quantity involved and that there were various irregularities in the plea process.
Dissatisfied with the result, nearly two years later Petitioner moved to have the presiding judge (the Honorable Harvey Schlesinger) recused or disqualified (Civ. Doc. 10), and filed his first motion for relief from judgment under Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b) (Civ. Doc. 11, First Rule 60(b) Motion). Citing Rules 60(b)(4) and 60(b)(6), Petitioner claimed that the Court should revisit the order denying § 2255 relief because the Court violated
Next, Petitioner appealed the denial of the First Rule 60(b) Motion and the motion to disqualify. But in a substantive 4-page order entered on March 4, 2010, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals denied Petitioner a COA yet again. (Civ. Doc. 22, Second USCA Order Denying COA). The Eleventh Circuit explained:
Eight and a half years after the Eleventh Circuit entered the above order, Petitioner filed the pending Second Rule 60(b) Motion and the case was transferred to the undersigned. Citing Rule 60(b)(4), Petitioner claims once again that the Court should reconsider the 2007 order denying § 2255 relief because the Court did not resolve the claims raised in Ground Two of the § 2255 Motion. (Civ. Doc. 23 at 1-2). In particular, Petitioner insists that the Court should have addressed his claim that the Court lacked jurisdiction to sentence him because the plea colloquy violated Fed. R. Crim. P. 11.
This argument is repetitious because it has been rejected already by this Court (Civ. Doc. 13) and the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals (Civ. Doc. 22). As both courts have explained, this Court did not address the merits of the claims raised in Ground Two because the § 2255 Motion, as a whole, was untimely. Therefore, the Court appropriately resolved all claims for § 2255 relief. Additionally, even if Petitioner had fairly presented his jurisdictional claim in the Second Rule 60(b) Motion, "such a motion may not be used to challenge mistakes of law that could have been raised on direct appeal." (Civ. Doc. 22 at 2) (citation omitted).
In any event, Petitioner's Second Rule 60(b) Motion is untimely as well. Rule 60 provides that "[a] motion under Rule 60(b) must be made within a reasonable time— and for reasons (1), (2), and (3) no more than a year after the entry of the judgment or order or the date of the proceeding." Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(c)(1). Petitioner did not file the Second Rule 60(b) Motion until 11 years after entry of the original order denying the § 2255 Motion. Petitioner's argument is that the 2007 order did not resolve all claims for relief. A Rule 60(b) motion that raises such an argument more than a decade after the fact is obviously not "made within a reasonable time." Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(c)(1). As such, the Second Rule 60(b) Motion is untimely as well as meritless.
Accordingly, in light of the foregoing, Petitioner Steven Eugene Passmore's Second Rule 60(b) Motion (Civ. Doc. 23) is