by Chuck Sharman

In an amended complaint filed under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa on December 17, 2025, state prisoner Nersius Adonliel Artisani, also known as Roger Joseph Hoffert, Jr., accused officials with the state Department of Corrections (DOC) of denying him adequate mental healthcare, in violation of his Eighth Amendment guarantee of freedom from cruel and unusual punishment.

But Artisani, who is not only mentally ill but also indigent, would not have been able to make the filing without the ability to proceed in forma pauperis (IFP), which grants him the right to pay the $605 filing fee over time, as provided under 28 U.S.C. § 1915g. As amended by the Prison Litigation Reform Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1997e, that statute bars a grant of IFP to any Plaintiff bringing suit in federal court who has already brought three others that were dismissed for an enumerated list of reasons.

When Artisani filed his initial complaint in March 2025, the district court denied his IFP motion, citing three “strikes” under § 1915g; specifically, he had been granted IFP in three cases previously filed pro se in the Northern District of Iowa, each of which had been dismissed. However, in two of those cases, the district court granted Defendants summary judgment, and § 1915g recognizes a “strike” only for dismissals granted because a federal court found the claim “frivolous,” “malicious,” or constituted “failure to state a claim.”

Artisani turned to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, which reversed the denial of IFP. In an extremely brief 178-word ruling on August 14, 2025, the appellate Court agreed that dismissal “following the adverse grant of summary judgment” in the two cases “did not constitute strikes.” Since that left the prisoner below the three-strike threshold, denial of his IFP motion was vacated and the case remanded to the district court. A request for rehearing before the full Eighth Circuit en banc was also denied on September 18, 2025. See: Artisani v. Keller, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 21267 (8th Cir.); and 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 24319 (8th Cir.).

The Two Summary Judgments

In addition to this case, Artisani has filed 11 cases in the Northern District of Iowa, dating back to 2013, after a conviction for theft in Black Hawk County. He blamed officials with the County and the nonprofit Black Hawk-Grundy Mental Health Center for setting in motion the chain of events that led to the conviction when they refused him free placement in a residential treatment facility, despite his diagnosed mental illness, in violation of his civil rights and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. ch.126 § 12101, et seq.

The district court, however, noted that he presented no evidence to establish an “affirmative right” to the free treatment, finding it was reasonably denied because of Artisani’s history of violence. Moreover, he presented no evidence to show that the denial was a result of an official County policy, which was predicate to extending liability to the County under Monell v. Dep’t of Soc. Servs., 436 U.S. 658 (1978). Summary judgment was, therefore, granted to Defendants on January 2, 2015. See: Hoffert v. Floyd Cty. Cent. Point of Coordination, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 320 (N.D. Iowa).

After getting caught in that Catch-22—too violent for mental health treatment that might alleviate his violent outbursts—Artisani unsurprisingly was arrested again, this time for assault, and he was taken to be held pretrial in the Black Hawk County Jail. Found there still in possession of his prescription mental health medication, Seroquel, he was charged with smuggling a controlled substance. On advice of counsel, he pleaded guilty and was given a probated sentence. But he ended up incarcerated again when the probation was revoked. His postconviction appeal was successful, and the charges were eventually dismissed in December 2019. However, his motions for a finding of ineffective assistance of counsel and a declaration of actual innocence were denied, a decision affirmed by the state Court of Appeals on July 21, 2021. See: Hoffert v. State, 965 N.W.2d 619 (Iowa Ct. App. 2021)

Meanwhile, Artisani sued Black Hawk County Sheriff Phillip Wendling and several of his jailers for malicious prosecution and related civil rights violations. The district court dismissed all the claims, but the Eighth Circuit reinstated the malicious prosecution claim on March 29, 2021. Back at the district court, the claim was again denied, and Defendants were granted summary judgment on March 7, 2021. See: Hoffert v. Westendorf, 854 F. App’x 93 (8th Cir. 2021); and USDC (N.D. Iowa), Case No. 6:19-cv-02063.

Pending Cases

As these cases show, mentally ill prisoners and detainees face a tough road in federal court. Sadly, the same is often true in other areas of their lives. After his release, Artisani landed a job in the kitchen of a Dubuque restaurant. But in August 2021, he got into a physical altercation with another employee that left the latter injured and Artisani facing another assault charge.

Locked up again in the Black Hawk County Jail, he got into another fight that left a fellow detainee seriously injured in September 2023. Artisani argued he was shielded by the state’s “stand your ground” statute. But a jury found him guilty of willfully causing bodily harm, and he was sentenced to 15 years in state prison, including a habitual offender enhancement. The state Court of Appeals agreed that the record regarding the jury’s stand-your-ground instruction was a “mess,” but nevertheless determined that the issue hadn’t been preserved and denied Artisani’s appeal on July 2, 2025. See: State v. Artisani, 24 N.W.3d 774 (Iowa Ct. App. 2025).

Now held at Iowa State Prison, Artisani filed four more cases in the Northern District of Iowa in 2025. Two were dismissed on January 30, 2026, for failure to state a claim—so he now has three “strikes” that will prevent filing another federal case without full payment of the filing fee up front. See: Artisani v. Dubuque Cty., 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19897 (N.D. Iowa).

Another case in the same district court against Black Hawk County Jail mental healthcare contractor NaphCare, Inc. was dismissed in September 2025; Artisani’s pending appeal to that was filed at the Eighth Circuit in time to receive IFP status. See: Artisani v. NaphCare, USCA (8th Cir.), Case No. 25-2898. His case in the Southern District of Iowa also remains pending. See: Artisani v. Keller, USDC (S.D. Iowa), Case No. 4:25-00114.

Artisani is to be commended for battling through his disability, pro se, and not letting the threat of filing fees dissuade him from pursuing his rights.  

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