DeRoo v. Holinka
DeRoo v. Holinka
Opinion of the Court
ORDER
Aaron DeRoo, a federal inmate, appeals from the denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus, 28 U.S.C. § 2241, arguing that two disciplinary decisions to revoke good-time credits were not based on sufficient evidence. Because the evidence in the disciplinary record amply supports those two decisions, we affirm.
Nine years later, a hearing officer expunged from DeRoo’s record the first violation from June 2000. The Bureau of Prisons reheard that incident because for several years it failed to provide a statement of reasons for its decisions. As we concluded in Deroo v. Holinka, 373 Fed.Appx. 617, 618-19 (7th Cir. 2010), this failure did not offend due process because the Bureau, after being sued, provided the missing statement of reasons to DeRoo and allowed him to pursue a rehearing. Upon rehearing, the hearing officer found no evidence of guilt and expunged the violation.
DeRoo later petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus, claiming that the Bureau violated his right to due process by relying on the now-expunged June 2000 violation to justify revoking 67 total days of good-time credit for the February and May 2001 violations. The district court denied the petition. The court concluded that in both proceedings the prison had complied with due process by providing timely notice, a fair hearing, and a written statement of reasons. Moreover, the court reasoned that because DeRoo confessed to each charge, the prison’s decisions—of both guilt and punishment—were supported by sufficient evidence.
On appeal DeRoo concedes that his confessions constitute sufficient evidence of guilt but argues that the district court erred in concluding that the confessions by themselves supported the Bureau’s decision to revoke good-time credits. He argues that the district court misread our decision in Scruggs v. Jordan, 485 F.3d 934, 940-41 (7th Cir. 2007), as saying that a prisoner’s confession justifies not only a finding of guilt but any punishment that the prison sees fit. But even if DeRoo is correct that his confession alone does not necessarily validate the revocation of good-time credits, we review de novo the district court’s judgment, not its reasoning, and may affirm on any basis supported by the record. Jones v. Cross, 637 F.3d 841, 845 (7th Cir. 2011). In attacking the judgment, DeRoo complains that the hearing officer was not justified in revoking any good-time credits for the second violation in February 2001 because the officer asserted, incorrectly DeRoo says, that “this [was his] fourth charge for this offense.” According to DeRoo, there is evidence to support only three of those charges, given that the violation from June 2000 has since been expunged. The hearing officer’s report, however, shows that the officer made the “fourth charge” comment and relied upon the now-expunged June 2000 violation only when revoking commissary privileges, not the good-time credits. DeRoo does not have a liberty interest in those privileges, so due process was not offended when the hearing officer relied upon the expunged violation to rescind them. See Sandin v. Conner, 515 U.S. 472, 484, 115 S.Ct. 2293, 132 L.Ed.2d 418 (1995); Thomas v. Ramos, 130 F.3d 754, 762 n. 8 (7th Cir. 1997).
AFFIRMED.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Aaron DeROO v. Carol HOLINKA
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published