United States v. Swallers

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Indiana Child Protective Services removed Swallers’s daughter from his custody. Swallers responded with a deluge of federal filings and filed “Common Law Liens” (each $10,000,000) against all the judges in the Southern District of Indiana except Judge Young. Judge Pratt ordered the Marion County Recorder to expunge any liens that Swallers had filed against Judges Lawrence, Barker, Magnus‐Stinson, Pratt, and Young. Swallers was charged with filing a false lien and encumbrance against a federal judge, 18 U.S.C. 1521, and with possessing ammunition as a felon, 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(1). That case was assigned to Judge Young. Swallers moved for Judge Young’s recusal; 28 U.S.C. 455(a) requires recusal in any proceeding in which a judge's impartiality might reasonably be questioned, Judge Young denied the motion. Swallers pled guilty to the false lien charge; the felon‐in‐possession charge was dismissed. None of the judges named in Swallers’s liens submitted a victim‐impact statement. Judge Young imposed the agreed‐upon "time served" sentence. Swallers sought to vacate his conviction on the ground that Judge Young should have recused himself. The Seventh Circuit affirmed. Judge Young was not a victim of Swallers’s liens; there was little risk that his professional relationship with the victims would interfere with the case because the crime had little effect on them. This is not a case in which a well‐informed observer would perceive a significant risk that Judge Young would decide this case on a basis other than its merits. View "United States v. Swallers" on Justia Law