Plaintiff fined $500 for filing federal lawsuit against Butler County judge

A $2 million federal lawsuit accusing Butler County Common Pleas Judge Noah Powers of “criminal treason” among other unusual allegations has been tossed out, and the plaintiff was fined $500 for filing a “vexatious” complaint.

Lorin-Kal Buckner sued Powers for $2 million on Feb. 4, and Magistrate Judge Stephanie Bowman recommended the case be dismissed and a sanction be imposed three days later.

Buckner filed a civil rights lawsuit “involving wrongful foreclosure and having a pecuniary interest, laundering of money through loan activity” against the judge and Butler County, saying he was deprived of his “rights, liberty and freedom.” He also claimed in a court filing he suffered “physical (loss of the gall bladder) and emotional cruelty.”

He attached Powers’ financial disclosure statement with the Ohio Supreme Court as evidence.

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Despite the fact Bowman found the lawsuit frivolous, she went through a lengthy recitation of all the reasons the court shouldn’t consider the case. One of the biggest reasons is Powers can’t be sued for actions he takes in his judicial capacity.

The foreclosure proceeding against Buckner began in 2010 and is still going on with this latest lawsuit.

The docket in the common pleas case shows pages and pages of filings Buckner made trying to stop the proceeding or get Powers to change his mind.

“The court indicated via a decision as well as an entry dated February 9, 2017, that it would no longer consider any additional filings by defendant Buckner in which he attempts to collaterally attack the judgment entered on April 30, 2010,” Powers wrote in one of the entries. “However, defendant continued to harass both the plaintiff and the court with numerous filings.”

He has taken the matter to the federal courts four times and that court has gone to the extreme measure of imposing a $500 sanction.

“The instant lawsuit is so obviously without merit and vexatious in nature that the undersigned recommends the imposition of $500 as a monetary sanction payable to this court,” Bowman wrote. “Along with the entry of an order that explicitly precludes plaintiff Buckner from initiating any further civil lawsuit in a United States District Court that is based upon or arises out of any claims alleged in the four referenced cases previously filed.”

U.S. District Court Judge Susan Dlott must sign off on Bowman’s recommendation.

Powers said he cannot ethically discuss the case. Buckner could not be reached for comment.

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