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Jonathan Lee Riches
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jonathan Lee Riches is a 30 year individual currently incarcerated at Federal Correctional Institution (FCI)
Williamsburg in Salters, South Carolina (inmate #40948-018) for his involvement in an identity theft ring.
He is known for filing rambling, paranoid lawsuits alleging outlandish conspiracies against him in various
federal district courts. While his actual mental health status is not publicly known, the recurring
conspiratorial paranoia reflected in his frivolous lawsuits are consistent with an individual with paranoid
schizophrenia who has stopped taking their medication. It has also been suggested that Riches may simply
be bored and using the suits to amuse himself. He is scheduled for release on March 23, 2012. [1]
Background and Conviction
Jonathan Lee Riches was convicted in 2004 for his role in a multi-state wire-fraud scam. His co-defendants, Riches
Jason Michael Carpenter, Stephanie Costley Doyle, Michael Scott Pesce, Bernarnd Duzinski, and others
were sentenced to terms between 21 months to 12 years for their part in the conspiracy along with orders to make restitution. Timothy
Riches, 49, and Donna Riches, 50, both of West Chester, Pennsylvania, were also charged with conspiracy to launder money.
In the conspiracy Carpenter received confidential identification from an unnamed juvenile who had created a "spam" computer program
which generated an e-mail message alleging to be from America Online (AOL) and asking for personal information. This information
was then sent by Carpenter to Riches who used the information to obtain new credit cards without the consent of the person(s) whose
name appeared on the card.[2][3]
Pesce and Duzinski provided Riches with fraudulent driver's licenses in the names of the credit card victims to make it easier to use the
fraudulently obtained credit cards. Doyle was Riches' girlfriend and participated in purchasing items although she was aware she was
committing a fraud.
When Riches' home was searched on February 25, 2003 he was found to be in possession of more than 20 counterfeit and/or
unauthorized access devices.
Federal lawsuits issued after incarceration
Riches has filed at least 36 lawsuits in Federal Court since January 8, 2006. [4]
On January 27, 2006, Riches (while incarcerated at FCI Bennettsville) filed a lawsuit against the Bureau of Prisons seeking a
temporary restraining order to prevent his transfer to FCI Williamsburg. In the complaint Riches states "transfer to FCI
Williamsburg poses immediate danger and risk to his safety, from named and unnamed associates of co-defendants currently at
FCI Williamsburg." The text of this suit appears relatively coherent and understandable, even if tinged with slight paranoia. [5] By
February 14, 2006 Riches had been transferred to FCI Williamsburg. [6] On March 20, 2006 this lawsuit was dismissed. [7]
Following his transfer to FCI Williamsburg, the nature of Riches' lawsuits took a marked turn into the realm of paranoia, revolving
around a never-ending string of bizarre and absurd perceived conspiracies and threats against him. Most of the conspiracies and
paranoias alleged by Riches closely follow the programming or news stories that would have been available on televisions in the prison at
the time they were filed, and in at least one of his filings, Mr. Riches even asks the court to remove specific programing from "FCI
Willamsburg T.V. Sets" [8] . While the summaries of his claims may appear as a comical source of amusement to some, an actual reading
of his hand-written texts seem to show a mentally tortured individual who is suffering severely as a result of untreated mental illness. It
is unknown if Mr. Riches is actually mentally ill, or if he is simply finding a unique way to occupy his time while incarcerated. However,
the nature, intensity, and volume of his delusional paranoid writings since his transfer to FCI Williamsburg appear consistent with those
of an individual suffering from untreated paranoid schizophrenia. Indeed, in his order dismissing a lawsuit filed by Riches on September
21, 2007 (against O.J. Simpson and Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs), U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell commented "The whole thing
reads like a cross between Billy Joel’s 'We Didn’t Start the Fire' and a Dr. Bronner’s soap label, if Dr. Bronner had been a first-year law
student with untreated paranoid schizophrenia." [9]
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It is unknown if there has been any change in the medication or medical health care provided to (or accepted by) Riches since his
conviction for his crime, or his arrival at FCI Williamsburg. However, it should be understood that in the United States, several court
rulings have held that convicted prisoners generally cannot be forcibly medicated for conditions such as paranoid schizophrenia unless
they pose a direct threat to themselves or others. For example, in the 1990 case Washington v. Harper, [494 U.S. 210 U.S.][1]
(http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=494&invol=210) , the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a policy that prison
authorities can forcibly medicate an incarcerated individual against their will if it is demonstrated that the individual poses a direct threat
to themselves or others and the treatment is in their best interest. It is critical to understand that a common pitfall for paranoid
schizophrenics is that while on medication, their symptoms disappear, making the individual feel cured and "no longer sick", at which
point they stop taking their medication since it is "no longer needed". In paranoid schizophrenia, a support network of family and friends
is therefore often critical in keeping the mentally ill individual on their medication regimen, and a stressful or isolating situation -- such
as confinement in a Federal Prison -- could easily be an impetus for an individual to go "off meds". Complicating these natural
tendencies to go "off-meds," it is common for paranoid schizophrenics to create, as a byproduct of their disease, a paranoid belief that the
psychiatric medication prescribed to them is itself part of the "conspiracy" against them. Therefore, once "off-meds", it can be extremely
difficult to get a mentally ill paranoid schizophrenic to restart a psychiatric medication regimen, and often requires intense commitment
on the part of people the patient intimately trusts. Therefore, unless Mr. Riches were to demonstrate a propensity towards violence or
harm against himself or others, he could understandably refuse to accept medications to treat a disorder such as paranoid schizophrenia,
and by law, the federal prison authorities would be unable to forcibly medicate him to treat his illness.
On March 8, 2006, Riches (AKA Gino Romano) filed a lawsuit against DEF CON and 2600.com claiming the defendants had
"joined alliance with Al-Qaeda, Irish Republican Army, Nigerian Janjaweeds, and Colombian FARC." The lawsuit also claims that
Mr. Riches is an "underground hacker superhero" and that "DEF CON's annual computer hacker convention has my name and
picture, and statue on event tickets and baloons (sic)". On May 7, 2007 this lawsuit was dismissed. [10]
On March 9, 2006, Riches filed his most famous [11] and largest lawsuit. The civil rights lawsuit naming George W. Bush et al. as
defendants. The "et al." list continues for 56 more pages and includes 783 defendants (both living, dead, and non-entities) such as
the survivors of the Holocaust, Pizza Hut, Dane Cook, Three Mile Island, Paris Hilton, Dennis Hopper, Mount Rushmore, the Ming
Dynasty, Mein Kampf, "Various Buddhist Monks", Medieval Times, The Da Vinci Code, and the celestial object Pluto. [12]
On May 20, 2006, Jonathan Lee Riches was featured on a CNN Presents documentary entitled "How to Rob a Bank." The
transcript of the television program states that "Riches bragged he could access databases illegally and could look up anything on
anybody", "Riches bought this $6,000 four-wheeler, this $6,600 jet ski, and all this jewelry, including a $9,000 engagement ring
for his girlfriend", and that "[h]e charged computers, cameras and clothes to sell on eBay. He charged Western Union money
transfers, using fake I.D.s to claim the cash. And he charged cash advances with a cock and bull story in several banks."
Furthermore, the transcript alleges that "[o]ne of the stories that he used was that, you know, they were on their honeymoon and
they had to divert because his grandmother was ill and they needed the money to help care for medical expenses" and "Riches
scammed enough to pay cash ($107,000) for this house with $37,000 more stashed inside." The CNN Presents transcript also
alleges that when arrested by the FBI "Riches got very sick, very nauseous to his stomach and threw up several times." [13]
On July 16, 2007 Riches filed a lawsuit against the Mossad, Central Intelligence Agency, and Larry King Live claiming the
"defendants are in a vast conspiracy to hijack my torso, three toes, and my constitutional rights and ship them to a secret
headquarters in Concord, NH." Riches also alleges that the "Mossad told me personally on April 20, 2007 that they are going to
hang me on a cross next to Jesus Christ.", that "Larry King Live is a voodoo witch doctor who stole my identity on February 25th,
2003 and purchased lead paint, Chips Ahoy!, Planter's Peanuts, and Ziploc bags under my identity. Distributed them to the CIA to
microwave test my DNA", and that "The CIA on January 4, 2006, plead allegiance to Al-Qaeda.." [14] The court refused to docket
the case because the court did not receive a filing fee from Riches.[15]
Also on July 16, 2007, Riches filed a lawsuit against the Federal Judicial System, all United States Federal Judges, United States
Marshals, and Tiger Woods. This lawsuit claims that "Tiger Woods is touring the PGA golf courses with my identity in his pocket.
He will not answer my prison phone calls - this continues today." and that "U.S. Marshals laugh at me through the prison
ventilation system." In the lawsuit, Riches misspelled ventilation and marshals. [16]
On July 17, 2007, Riches filed a lawsuit against Identity Theft Inc, Computer Hackers L.L.C, and telephone phreakers claiming
that George W. Bush and Jeb Bush "pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda on November 11, 2005" and that "my mind is being hacked
into". This particular lawsuit also claims that the defendants "put a computer virus into my body to make me sick" (citing bowel
and weight-loss problems as evidence). In the lawsuit, Riches misspelled bowel. [17]
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On July 18, 2007, Riches filed a lawsuit against Cindy Sheehan and Nancy Pelosi. [18] The complaint was dismissed as
frivolous.[19]
On July 23, 2007, Riches filed a lawsuit against Michael Vick asking for damages of "$63,000,000,000 billion" backed by gold
and silver, to be delivered to the front gate of FCI Williamsburg via Sandy Springs-based UPS (which he erroneously states as the
"United States Parcel Service"). Riches alleges that Vick stole two white mixed pit bull dogs from his home in Holiday, Fla., and
used them for dogfighting operations in Richmond, Va. The complaint goes on to allege that Vick sold the dogs on eBay (which
violates eBay terms of agreement) and “used the proceeds to purchase missiles from the Iran government.” The complaint also
alleges that Vick would need those missiles because he pleaded allegiance to Al-Qaeda on February 10, 2007. In the lawsuit,
Riches misspelled allegiance and missiles. He also uses the term "pleaded" as opposed to "pledged". The complaint continues to
allege that Michael Vick stole Riches' identity in-order to sell "Mr. Riches" merchandise (including hats, mugs, and t-shirts) and to
open accounts at PetSmart and "doggie warehouse" to purchase dog food for dogfighting operations. Further complaints alleged
against Michael Vick state that "Michael Vick used drugs in school zones." and subjected Riches to microwave testing.[20]
Also on July 23, 2007, Riches filed a lawsuit against "Guantanamo Bay, The Hague, Abu Grab Prison, Soviet Gulag Archipelago,
Bellevue Hospital, Tehran Iran’s Evin Prison, Riker’s Island, United States Penitentiary Coleman Florida, Auschwitz
Concentration Camp, San Quentin, Chester County Prison Pennsylvania, Geneva Convention, My Lai Massacre, Attica
Correctional Facility, Cool Hand Luke, Cook County Jail, Robbins Island, Bataan Death March, Alcatraz Penitentiary, Geo Group,
Navy Brig Charleston S.C., “TDCJ” Texas Department Criminal Justice, Hillsborough County Jail Tampa Florida, Shawshank
Redemption, Correction Corp. Of America “CCA”". The lawsuit is for 728 trillion dollars in gold and silver.
Riches claims that the defendants are "in a vast conspiracy to kidnap my mind" and that their headquarters are located "where the
Detroit Tigers play football." (The Detroit Tigers are a baseball team.) The plaintiff also claims the defendants made him dig
tunnels from February 14, 1994 until September 4, 2006, used Riches' credit and identity to purchase missiles, and was punished by
being forced to eat live rats and to roll around in kitty litter. Riches claimed that he had a Jewish cellmate, was subjected to
fluoride poisoning, and microwave testing. The plaintiff also claims that the defendants bankrupted Enron. [21] On August 8, 2007
this lawsuit was dismissed. [22]
On August 3, 2007, Riches filed a second lawsuit against Michael Vick and other defendants including the Atlanta Falcons NFL
team, PETA, and Jason Michael Carpenter seeking 662,000,000,000,000 trillion dollars in British gold delivered by J.B. Hunt
Trucking to the front-gate of FCI Williamsburg. This lawsuit claims that "Michael Vick and my co-defendant Jason Michael
Carpenter from my Houston criminal case, hacked into my court records in Pennsylvania. Carpenter under Vick's orders sent a
botnet trojan into my records at Chester County Court of Common Pleas (in West Chester, PA) and put false information in my
dockets to make me look evil." Riches also claims "Michael Vick was also involved with the Pan Am Flight 103 explosion in
Scotland." (it should be noted that Vick was only 8 years old at the time) and that "Michael Vick had a sexual relationship with my
co-defendant Jason Michael Carpenter." [23] This civil case was terminated on August 16, 2007. [24]
Furthermore, in a motion for recusal filed on August 6, 2007 (for his original lawsuit against Michael Vick), Riches claims that
Michael Vick "threw snowballs" at his car, has "hired robotic guards" at FCI Williamsburg, and sold Riches' name to CNN
producer Andy Segal. The document also states that "Michael Vick attended the Kentucky Derby wearing a Jonathan Lee Riches
skull cap." [25]
On August 7, 2007, Riches filed a lawsuit against Jon Swartz, Ed Mierzwinski, cardcops.com, creditcards.com, phishing and the
world wide web. Mr. Riches claims that Jon Swartz provided Cho Seung-Hui "the credit card to buy handguns to shoot Virginia
Tech", "Swartz showed Cho how to boost his credit score", and that "Swartz also showed Cho how to commit identity theft and
phishing over the WWW." [26] On August 13, 2007, this lawsuit was dismissed. [27]
On August 14, 2007, Riches (AKA The White Suge Knight) filed a lawsuit against "Barry Bonds, Allan H "Bud" Selig, and Hank
Aaron's Bat" seeking "42,000,000.00 million dollars in Swiss Francs." Among the counts against the defendants are claims that
Bonds used Hank Aaron's Bat to crack the Liberty Bell, Bonds sold steroids to nuns, and that "Bonds gave mustard gas to Saddam
Hussein. Part of the Oil for Food Scandal." [28]
On August 16, 2007, Riches filed a lawsuit against LeBron James et al. The "et al" list names Michael Vick, Wayne Gretzky,
Michael Jordan, Joe Montana, Tony Montana, Mickey Mantle and Allen Iverson as defendants. This lawsuit claims that "Joe
Montana is in business with gangster Tony Montana", that "Defendants failed to build an anti-UFO defense system at FCI
Williamsburg", and that Mickey Mantle attempted to obtain credit at J. C. Penney using Riches' name. The lawsuit continues to
allege that "I dunked over Mr. (Michael) Jordan in high-school." and that "Defendants broke into Watergate in the 1970's." In this
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lawsuit Riches erroneously refers to wildfires as "wire fires" and misspelled the words tried and licenses. The plaintiff even
claimed that the defendants picked on him in high-school and "fought in the Battle of Hastings 1066 with the Duke of Normandy."
In the lawsuit the plaintiff seeks $83 billion collectively from defendants to be donated to Greensburg Kansas tornado victims,
Kent State massacre victims, Richard Jewel, 2600.com (which Mr. Riches had previously sued), coal miners and the Skid Row
section of Los Angeles. [29]
On August 20, 2007, Riches filed a lawsuit against the I-35W Bridge, among other defendants. [30]
On August 28, 2007, Riches filed a lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc [31] and another lawsuit against Don Imus. [32]
On August 31, 2007 Riches filed a lawsuit against Elvis Presley and Neverland Ranch. [33]
On September 12, 2007, Riches filed a lawsuit against Jeff Gordon, Barry Bonds and Michael Vick. [34]
On September 20, 2007, Riches filed a lawsuit against Bill Belichick, Tom Brady, and Randy Moss for "Illegally Spying on My
Life". Riches also alleged that Belichick sells bathroom videos to Larry Craig, Randy Moss placed a "radio shack recording
device" on the San Diego Chargers' Shawn Merriman during an NFL game, and that before the 2005 Super Bowl Tom Brady "put
a recording device in Donovan McNabb's Chunky Soup. He ate it." [35]
On September 21, 2007, Riches filed a lawsuit against O.J. Simpson and Steve Jobs.[36]
Riches usually files each suit in a different federal court jurisdiction. It has been suggested that he does so to avoid sanctions against
people filing multiple frivolous lawsuits in the same jurisdiction. A reading of each individual handwritten text reveals that in most cases,
some aspect of the paranoid delusion Riches describes has some connection to the jurisdiction in which the case was filed. For example,
in the case filed on July 16, 2007 against the Mossad, the CIA and Larry King Live which he filed in the federal district of New
Hampshire, Mr. Riches believes the conspiracy involves "a secret headquarters in Concord New Hampshire".[37]
Furthermore, Riches does not always file in a different jurisdiction. The case filed on September 21, 2007, against O.J. Simpson and
Steve Jobs was the second Riches filed in that particular court, and was dismissed by the same judge (U.S. District Judge Gregory
Presnell) as his prior case had been. [38]
References
1. ^ http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/InmateFinderServlet?
Transaction=NameSearch&needingMoreList=false&LastName=Riches&Middle=Lee&FirstName=Jonathan&Race=U&Sex=U&Age=&x=335&y=297
2. ^ http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=2004_3776207
3. ^ http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0605/20/cp.02.html
4. ^ http://news.justia.com/cases/jonathan-lee-riches/
5. ^ http://casedocs.justia.com/south-carolina/scdce/6:2006cv00194/138647/1/0.pdf
6. ^ http://casedocs.justia.com/south-carolina/scdce/6:2006cv00194/138647/5/0.pdf
7. ^ http://casedocs.justia.com/south-carolina/scdce/6:2006cv00194/138647/7/0.pdf
8. ^ http://casedocs.justia.com/indiana/inndce/3:2007cv00375/51741/1/0.pdf
9. ^ http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/09/25/inmates_suit_claims_o_j_simpson_is_hitman_for_steve_jobs.html
10. ^ http://casedocs.justia.com/nevada/nvdce/2:2006cv00293/47295/1/0.pdf
11. ^ http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2006-04-13/fineprint2.shtml
12. ^ http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2006-04-13/NC_FP_Lawsuit.pdf
13. ^ http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0605/20/cp.02.html
14. ^ http://casedocs.justia.com/new-hampshire/nhdce/1:2007fp00212/31173/1/0.pdf
15. ^ http://casedocs.justia.com/new-hampshire/nhdce/1:2007fp00212/31173/2/0.pdf
16. ^ http://casedocs.justia.com/maine/medce/2:2007cv00124/35051/1/0.pdf
17. ^ http://casedocs.justia.com/kentucky/kywdce/3:2007cv00376/62096/1/0.pdf
18. ^ http://news.justia.com/cases/427867/
19. ^ http://casedocs.justia.com/california/candce/3:2007cv03695/194199/3/0.pdf
20. ^ http://casedocs.justia.com/virginia/vaedce/3:2007cv00434/219999/1/0.pdf
21. ^ http://casedocs.justia.com/michigan/miedce/2:2007cv13041/222743/1/0.pdf
22. ^ http://casedocs.justia.com/michigan/miedce/2:2007cv13041/222743/4/0.pdf
23. ^ http://casedocs.justia.com/georgia/gandce/1:2007cv01858/145065/1/0.pdf
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24. ^ http://news.justia.com/cases/441190/
25. ^ http://casedocs.justia.com/virginia/vaedce/3:2007cv00434/219999/4/0.pdf
26. ^ http://casedocs.justia.com/virginia/vawdce/7:2007cv00379/65889/1/0.pdf
27. ^ http://casedocs.justia.com/virginia/vawdce/7:2007cv00379/65889/3/0.pdf
28. ^ http://casedocs.justia.com/indiana/inndce/3:2007cv00375/51741/1/0.pdf
29. ^ http://casedocs.justia.com/ohio/ohndce/1:2007cv02486/145363/1/0.pdf
30. ^ http://casedocs.justia.com/iowa/iasdce/4:2007cv00369/34576/1/0.pdf
31. ^ http://casedocs.justia.com/arkansas/aredce/4:2007cv00780/69274/1/0.pdf
32. ^ http://casedocs.justia.com/new-mexico/nmdce/6:2007cv00843/147921/1/0.pdf
33. ^ http://casedocs.justia.com/florida/flmdce/6:2007cv01378/204584/1/0.pdf
34. ^ http://casedocs.justia.com/north-carolina/ncwdce/3:2007cv00384/50188/1/0.pdf
35. ^ http://casedocs.justia.com/massachusetts/madce/1:2007cv11817/111784/1/0.pdf
36. ^ http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/09/25/inmates_suit_claims_o_j_simpson_is_hitman_for_steve_jobs.html
37. ^ http://casedocs.justia.com/new-hampshire/nhdce/1:2007fp00212/31173/2/0.pdf
38. ^ http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/09/25/inmates_suit_claims_o_j_simpson_is_hitman_for_steve_jobs.html
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Categories: Articles needing additional references from August 2007 | Living people | American prisoners and detainees | Litigants in
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