Federal judge moves to declare Alaska plaintiff a vexatious litigant

U.S. District Judge Sharon L. Gleason dismissed lawsuits against the U.S. Air Force and Gov. Mike Dunleavy with prejudice on Aug. 28. She told the plaintiff, identified as Lewis, that the court intends to declare her a vexatious litigant.

A third suit, Lewis v. Beisline, ended the same way that day. The docket lists Judge Aaron Christian Peterson as the assigned judge, but the order itself was signed by Gleason, a discrepancy the record does not explain. All pending motions in the three cases were denied.

Each order gave Lewis 30 days to show why she should not be deemed a vexatious litigant. The orders in Lewis v. U.S. Air Force and Lewis v. Dunleavy carry the same language.

The notices follow an earlier round involving a different plaintiff. On June 2, Judge Ralph R. Beistline dismissed with prejudice four cases filed by a plaintiff identified as Lewis-Junge against Bartlett Regional Hospital and three other defendants, without a vexatious litigant notice. It is not clear from the record whether Lewis-Junge is related to the Lewis named in the August cases.

The notices are not the final order. That decision still rests with the court.