For the third time, a federal judge has rejected an effort by the owner of the fire-ravaged building at 97 Mt. Ida Rd. to move his case from state Housing Court to federal court - this time with a warning for the man to knock it off.

Boston's Inspectional Services Department and James Dickey, who lives in Sudbury, have been battling for years over Dickey's property. ISD now wants permission from a Housing Court judge to just raze what's left of the boarded-up eyesore as a threat to public health and safety - neighbors complain it is infested with rats, and to then dun Dickey for the cost.

Dickey, in turn, has managed to keep winning delays in court as what's left of the structure continues to fall apart. Last year, he moved, for the second time, to have the Housing Court case transferred to US District Court in Boston. That won him a three-month reprieve while a federal judge considered the case before deciding the case belonged in local housing court and sent it back.

A housing-court judge was scheduled to consider the case in January, but called off the hearing because Dickey once again moved to transfer the case to federal court, alleging a conspiracy among city officials to deprive black Bostonians of their federal civil rights somehow.

In a ruling on Tuesday, US District Court Judge Richard Stearns sent the case back to Housing Court again and warned Dickey to stop showing "complete disregard of prior court orders" and leave the federal court system out of it:

"Accordingly, this court warns Dickey that any further frivolous filings in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts - whether removals or Complaints - will result in an injunction barring him from filing without prior permission of the court."