Joyce v. Crawford

[NOT FOR PUBLICATION] UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIRST CIRCUIT No. 96-2027 ROBERT E. JOYCE, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. JAMES E. CRAWFORD, ETC., ET AL., Defendants, Appellees. APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS [Hon. Patti B. Saris, U.S. District Judge] Before Selya, Cyr and Boudin, Circuit Judges. Robert E. Joyce on brief pro se. Donald K. Stern, United States Attorney, and Roberta T. Brown, Assistant United States Attorney, on brief for appellees James Crawford, James Farmer, Steven Heymann and Janet Reno. Merita A. Hopkins, Corporation Counsel, and Susan M. Weise, Chief of Litigation, City of Boston Law Department, on brief for appellee Police Officer Coleman. April 22, 1997 Per Curiam. Robert Joyce appeals from the district court's denial of his motion to amend his complaint and its dismissal of his action under Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477 (1994). After careful review of the record, we affirm the judgment below substantially for the reasons given by the district court in its Memorandum and Order dated July 1, 1996, and in its Order dated August 2, 1996, but we modify the judgment of dismissal to be without prejudice. See Guzman-Rivera v. Rivera-Cruz, 29 F.3d 3, 6 (1st Cir. 1994) (indicating that claims dismissed under Heck are to be dismissed without prejudice for prematurity). Affirmed, but the judgment of dismissal is modified to be without prejudice. -2-