Maritza Dominguez Braswell
How Judge Braswell rules, drawn from 6 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
How Judge Braswell decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
Treats PLRA administrative exhaustion as a threshold issue suited to an early, exhaustion-only summary-judgment motion: an unexhausted claim is dismissed without prejudice before the merits are reached.
“Defendants' Early Motion for Summary Judgment Based on Plaintiff's Failure to Exhaust Administrative Remedies [Doc. 82] is GRANTED in part ... Claim Two is DISMISSED without prejudice for failure to exhaust his administrative remedies”
Procedural preferences
Enforces Rule 4(m) service deadlines strictly: she will recommend denying a default-judgment motion and dismissing (without prejudice) a defendant who was never timely served, absent a showing of good cause.
“since the deadline to serve Deputy Morse has passed and Mr. Nesmith has not shown good cause for his failure to timely effectuate proper service, his case should be dismissed without prejudice pursuant to Rule 4(m).”
Cautions
In high-volume pro se litigation she issues a combined 'Recommendation and Order': recommending the dispositive disposition to the district judge while disposing of the many ancillary/non-dispositive motions herself; a litigant who floods the docket should expect those side motions denied as part of the same package.
“ORDERED that the Recommendation and Order of United States Magistrate Judge [Docket No. 216] is ACCEPTED. ... [numerous plaintiff motions] DENIED.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“ORDERED that Defendant's Motion to Dismiss Third Amended Complaint Pursuant to F.R.C.P. 12(b)(6) [Docket No. 76] is GRANTED. ... ORDERED that plaintiff's claims against defendant are DISMISSED with prejudice.”
“ORDERED that Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment Under Rule 56(a) [Docket No. 199] is DENIED.”
“Defendants' Early Motion for Summary Judgment Based on Plaintiff's Failure to Exhaust Administrative Remedies [Doc. 82] is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part; Claim Two is DISMISSED without prejudice for failure to exhaust his administrative remedies”
“Plaintiff[']s Motion for Summary Judgment Based on the Defendants Committing Perjury Under Oath [Doc. 110] is DENIED without prejudice”
“ORDERED that plaintiff's Motion Requesting Default Judgment [Docket No. 59] is DENIED. ... ORDERED that plaintiff's claims against Deputy Morse are DISMISSED without prejudice.”
“the Motion for Reconsideration is DENIED.”
“ORDER it is ORDERED that the Application for a Writ of Habeas Corpus Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2241 (ECF No. 1 ) is GRANTED. It is further ORDERED that Petitioner shall be released from custody within 24 hours of this Order. It is furtherORDERED that Respondents may impose on Petitioner reasonable conditions of release or supervision.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the Court RECOMMENDS the Plaintiffs’ Motion for Default Judgment (as to Defendant John Matheny Only). (Doc. No. 72) be GRANTED.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
The directly assigned cases are almost entirely pending 2026 filings, so no terminated-case duration distribution is available. Her broader work also includes referral matters and terminated consent cases not represented in this caseload snapshot.
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