Gary M. Purcell
Court record, service history and public docket data for Judge Purcell.
Judge Purcell no longer sits on this court. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled here.
About Judge Purcell
Gary Morgan Purcell served as a U.S. magistrate judge for the Western District of Oklahoma from 1993 until his death in 2023. He sat in Oklahoma City and previously served as a special district judge in Cleveland County, Oklahoma.
How Judge Purcell decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In Rigsby, Purcell found that Arkansas and Oklahoma were not proper defendants under Section 1983.
“neither the State of Arkansas nor the State of Oklahoma is properly named as a Defendant by virtue of the Eleventh Amendment nor is either a 'person' for purposes of 1983 liability.”
Procedural preferences
In Williams v. Hale, Purcell assessed an exhaustion argument under Rule 12(b)(6) after the defendant used a dismissal motion instead of an available limited summary-judgment motion. The district judge observed that the dismissal standard was more favorable to the plaintiff and adopted the recommendation as modified.
“And Judge Purcell’s choice to consider Defendant’s argument under the standard for a motion to dismiss, rather than to convert Defendant’s motion to one for summary judgment, resulted in a more favorable standard for Plaintiff.”
Cautions
His recommendations did not become final district-court dispositions until an Article III judge reviewed and adopted them; the reviewed orders expressly identify that adoption step.
“the Report and Recommendation [Doc. No. 7] is ADOPTED as set forth herein.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss (Doc. No. 27) is GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART.”
During sua sponte preliminary screening under Section 1915A, Purcell recommended dismissing without prejudice a pro se pretrial detainee's Section 1983 complaint because the state defendants, Arkansas and Oklahoma, were barred by the Eleventh Amendment and were not 'persons' under Section 1983, and the public-defender defendant did not act under color of state law. District Judge David L. Russell adopted the recommendation over the plaintiff's objection and dismissed the case without prejudice. This screening disposition did not resolve an adversarial party motion.
On in forma pauperis screening, Purcell's R&R recommended denying the application because the plaintiff had sufficient funds to pay the $400 fee. The plaintiff paid during the objection period, so District Judge Charles Goodwin adopted the recommendation and denied the application as moot.
On in forma pauperis screening under Section 1915(b), Purcell's R&R recommended dismissal without prejudice for a pro se prisoner's failure to pay a $2.32 initial partial filing fee. District Judge Timothy D. DeGiusti adopted the recommendation as modified, credited evidence of timely but delayed trust-account disbursement attempts, and gave the prisoner 21 more days to pay before dismissal. The order illustrates a screening recommendation narrowed by the district judge.
Pending matters in the official report
Judge Purcell was last listed in the Civil Justice Reform Act report as of September 30, 2023.
| Motions pending more than six months | 0 |
| Bench trials submitted more than six months | 0 |
| Bankruptcy appeals pending more than six months | 0 |
| Social Security appeals pending more than six months | 0 |
| Civil cases pending more than three years | 0 |
| Report | Motions over six months | Cases over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2023 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2023 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2022 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2022 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2021 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2021 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2020 | 0 | 0 |
A snapshot on that date: matters listed may since have been decided or reassigned. A motion referred to a magistrate judge is counted for both judges. Motions in multidistrict litigation, section 2255 cases and Social Security appeals are not counted, and a very large three-year count is generally a multidistrict docket. Source: Appendix A of the report (PDF); about the report.
A historical record
Judge Purcell no longer sits on this court. This profile stays available as a record of how they ruled here. If you're preparing for a matter, start from the court's current bench.