Mata Rodriguez v. United States ( 2011 )

FILED
United States Court of Appeals
Tenth Circuit
December 23, 2011
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
Elisabeth A. Shumaker
TENTH CIRCUIT Clerk of Court
ADRIAN MATA RODRIGUEZ,
Petitioner - Appellant,
No. 11-3297
v. (D.C. No. 5:11-CV-03157-RDR)
(D. Kan.)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Respondent - Appellee.
ORDER AND JUDGMENT *
Before KELLY, HARTZ, and HOLMES, Circuit Judges. **
Defendant-Appellant, Adrian Mata Rodriguez, appeals the district court’s
dismissal of his 28 U.S.C. § 2241 petition challenging the legality of his
conviction for possession and distribution of methamphetamine, illegal possession
of a firearm, and unlawful reentry. Aplt. Br. 5-7. Jurisdiction is proper pursuant
to 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we affirm. See Memorandum and Order, Mata
*
This order and judgment is not binding precedent, except under the
doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. It may be cited,
however, for its persuasive value consistent with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 and 10th
Cir. R. 32.1.
**
After examining the briefs and the appellate record, this three-judge
panel has determined unanimously that oral argument would not be of material
assistance in the determination of this appeal. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a); 10th
Cir. R. 34.1(G). The cause is therefore ordered submitted without oral argument.
Rodriguez v. United States, No. 11-3157-RDR (D. Kan. Sept 8, 2011).
On January 30, 2010, Mr. Mata Rodriguez sold methamphetamine to a
police informant at an address in Kansas City, Kansas. Aplt. Br. 3. The
informant was a methamphetamine dealer who assisted the police to reduce
charges against himself. Aplt. Br. 2. Four days later, police executed a search
warrant of the house where the sale took place, and recovered methamphetamine
and firearms. See United States v. Mata-Rodriguez & Ponce-Acedo, Nos. 10-
3272, 10-3273, 2011 WL 5009858, at *1 (10th Cir. Oct. 21, 2011). Police
stopped Mr. Mata Rodriguez with his co-defendant in a car a few blocks away
from the house, and they were arrested; later, police found methamphetamine
stashed in a seatbelt hole in the patrol car used to transport him. Id.; Aplt. Br. 3-
4.
We review the district court’s dismissal of a § 2241 petition de novo. See
Garza v. Davis, 596 F.3d 1198, 1203 (10th Cir. 2010). Mr. Mata Rodriguez
argues that the case against him was based on information from an untested
informant who was trying to escape prosecution himself, and therefore unreliable.
Aplt. Br. 5-6. He also argues that, since he was merely a passenger in the car
where police found the drugs, the drugs cannot be automatically attributed to him.
Id. at 6-7.
We agree with the district court that Mr. Mata Rodriguez incorrectly
brought this action under 28 U.S.C. § 2241. This court recently stated that
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“Congress long ago decided that a federal prisoner’s attempt to attack the legality
of his conviction or sentence generally must be brought under § 2255, and in the
district court that convicted and sentenced him . . . . Meanwhile, § 2241 petitions
. . . are generally reserved for complaints about the nature of a prisoner’s
confinement . . . .” Prost v. Anderson, 636 F.3d 578, 581 (10th Cir. 2011).
Furthermore, a § 2241 petition must be filed in the district where the prisoner is
confined. See Bradshaw v. Story, 86 F.3d 164, 166 (10th Cir. 1996).
Here, Mr. Mata Rodriguez is incarcerated in New Jersey, and not in
Kansas. Further, in order to challenge the legality of his conviction, he must file
a § 2255 motion. The district court did not err in failing to construe his petition
as a § 2255 motion because it is left to the discretion of the district court to do so.
See Prost, 636 F.3d at 581. In fact, this court discourages district courts from
recharacterizing petitions as § 2255 petitions “largely out of concern that a
subsequent § 2255 motion would be considered successive and barred under
ADEPA . . . .” United States v. Torres, 282 F.3d 1241, 1245 (10th Cir. 2002)
(internal quotations omitted). Therefore, we AFFIRM.
Entered for the Court
Paul J. Kelly, Jr.
Circuit Judge
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