Cotton-Blackburn v. Leonard

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN
SOUTHERN DIVISION
DEVION GRANT
COTTON-BLACKBURN,
Plaintiff, 	Case No. 2:25-cv-12737
Hon. Susan K. DeClercq
v. 	United States District Court Judge
GERALD LEONARD,
Defendant,
___________________________________/
OPINION AND ORDER OF SUMMARY DISMISSAL
Plaintiff Devion Grant Cotton-Blackburn is an inmate currently confined at
the Saginaw Correctional Facility in Freeland, Michigan. Plaintiff filed a pro se civil
rights complaint along with an application to proceed without prepayment of fees.
ECF No. 2.
On September 4, 2025, Magistrate Judge David R. Grand signed a deficiency
order, which required Plaintiff to provide a signed certification of his prisoner trust
account from an authorized prison official and a current computerized trust fund
account showing the history of the financial transactions in plaintiff’s institutional
trust fund account for the past six months. ECF No. 5. The order alternatively
allowed Plaintiff to pay the three hundred and fifty ($350.00) dollar filing fee plus
the fifty-five ($55.00) dollar administrative filing fee in full. Plaintiff was given
thirty days to comply. Id. 	To date, Plaintiff has neither paid the filing fee nor
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provided this Court with a signed certification of his prisoner trust account from an
authorized prison official and a current computerized trust fund account showing the
history of the financial transactions in his institutional trust fund account for the past
six months.
Title 28 of the United States Code, section 1915(a)(2), requires a prisoner who
seeks to proceed without prepayment of fees and costs in a civil complaint in federal
court to file a certified copy of the trust fund account statement for that prisoner for
the six month period immediately preceding the filing of the complaint or notice of
appeal, obtained from the appropriate official of each prison at which the prisoner is
or was confined. See McGore v. Wrigglesworth, 114 F.3d 601, 605 (6th Cir. 1997).
If a prisoner who does not pay the full filing fee fails to provide an affidavit
of indigency or a certified trust account statement, the district court is required to
advise the prisoner of the deficiency and the prisoner will then have thirty days from
the date of the deficiency order to correct the error or to pay the full filing fee.
McGore, 114 F.3d at 605. If the inmate fails to comply with the district court’s
directions, “[t]he district court must presume that the prisoner is not a pauper and
assess the inmate the full amount of fees.” Id. The district court must then order that
the case be dismissed for want of prosecution. Id.
Although 	Plaintiff 	has 	submitted 	an 	application 	to 	proceed 	without
prepayment of fees, the application does not include a certified trust account
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statement or a current computerized trust fund statement of account showing the
history of the financial transactions in his institutional trust fund account for the past
six months. Plaintiff’s complaint is deficient because he failed to provide the Court
with a certified account statement as well as copy of his computerized prison trust
fund account for the past six months. See Davis v. United States, 73 F. App’x 804,
805 (6th Cir. 2003).
Plaintiff failed to correct the deficiency order. Therefore, this Court will
dismiss the complaint without prejudice for want of prosecution based upon his
failure to comply with the deficiency order. See, e.g., Erby v. Kula, 113 F. App’x 74,
75–76 (6th Cir. 2004).
Accordingly, 	this 	Court 	DISMISSES 	WITHOUT 	PREJUDICE 	the
complaint under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(1) and (b)(1) and (2) for failure to comply with
the filing requirements of the Prison Litigation Reform Act. Nothing in this order
precludes Plaintiff from filing a new civil rights complaint under a new case number
so long as he pays the filing and administrative fees or provides the complete and
correct information necessary to proceed without prepayment of fees.
/s/Susan K. DeClercq
SUSAN K. DECLERCQ
United States District Judge
Dated: November 4, 2025
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