Bassford v. Mesa, City of

CourtDistrict Court, D. Arizona
DecidedJuly 16, 2025
Docket2:25-cv-01034
StatusUnknown

This text of Bassford v. Mesa, City of (Bassford v. Mesa, City of) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bassford v. Mesa, City of, (D. Ariz. 2025).

Opinion

1 WO 2 3 4 5 6 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA 8 9 Gabriel J. Bassford, No. CV-25-01034-PHX-JAT (ESW) 10 Plaintiff, ORDER 11 v. 12 Mesa, City of, et al., 13 Defendants.

14 15 In this civil rights action, Plaintiff sued the City of Mesa and two Mesa Police 16 Officers alleging violations of his constitutional rights after he was arrested for trespassing 17 at a convenience store. The Court ordered service of the Complaint on April 3, 2025 (Doc. 18 7). In that Order, the Court also addressed Plaintiff’s motion challenging the designation 19 of this case as a “prisoner civil rights” action and assigning it a Nature of Suit code of 550.1 20 Between June 26, 2025 and July 15, 2025, Plaintiff filed more than sixty separate 21 motions or notices requesting multiple forms of relief. The Court will address each 22 category of request below.2 There is little doubt, however, that the number of the filings 23 and their frivolous nature reflect a vexatious motion practice that impedes the Court’s 24 ability to manage its caseload. Such flagrant abuse of the litigation process will not be 25 allowed to continue. Plaintiff will be permitted to file one motion or notice per week. If 26 27 1 The Court will not repeat the reasons why this action was properly categorized or reiterate why that categorization has no substantive impact on the adjudication of Plaintiff’s 28 action, which was addressed in a prior Order, Doc. 7. 2 The Court takes no action on the myriad Notices or Declarations filed by Plaintiff. 1 Plaintiff chooses to continue his current path, the Court will dismiss this action for failure 2 to comply with the Court’s Orders. See Ferdik v. Bonzelet, 963 F.2d 1258, 1260-61 (9th 3 Cir. 1992) (a district court may dismiss an action for failure to comply with any order of 4 the Court). 5 I. Requests for Recusal and Accusations of Bias (Docs. 14, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 45, 48) 6 7 The Court will first address Plaintiff’s requests for recusal and accusations of bias. 8 In his requests for recusal, Plaintiff alleges that the “conduct of Judge Teilborg in this 9 matter reflects actual bias, or at a minimum, creates a strong appearance of partiality 10 inconsistent with the Code of Conduct for United States Judges, the judicial oath of 11 office, and the Constitution of the United States.” (Doc. 31 at 2 (emphasis in original).) 12 Motions to disqualify or recuse a federal judge fall under two statutory provisions, 13 28 U.S.C. §§ 144 and 455. Section 144 provides for recusal where a party files a “timely 14 and sufficient affidavit that the judge before whom the matter is pending has a personal 15 bias or prejudice either against him or in favor of any adverse party.” The affidavit must 16 state the facts and reasons for the belief that the bias or prejudice exists. 28 U.S.C. § 144. 17 If the judge finds the affidavit timely and legally sufficient, the judge must proceed no 18 further and another judge must be assigned to hear the motion. Id.; United States v. Sibla, 19 624 F.2d 864, 867 (9th Cir. 1980). Section 455, on the other hand, is self-enforcing on the 20 judge and requires a judge to recuse himself “in any proceeding in which his impartiality 21 might reasonably be questioned,” where he “has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a 22 party,” or when he is “a party to the proceeding.” 28 U.S.C. § 455(a), (b)(1), and (b)(5)(i); 23 see also Sibla, 624 F.2d at 867-68. 24 When a litigant becomes unhappy with a judge’s rulings in a case, a litigant might 25 seek to force the judge to recuse himself by filing a lawsuit against the judge. But a “‘judge 26 is not disqualified merely because a litigant sues or threatens to sue him.’ Such an easy 27 method for obtaining disqualification should not be encouraged or allowed.” Ronwin v. 28 State Bar of Arizona, 686 F.2d 692, 701 (9th Cir. 1981) (citation omitted), rev’d on other 1 grounds sub nom. Hoover v. Ronwin, 466 U.S. 558 (1984). Similarly, “[w]here a claim 2 against the undersigned judge is so wholly frivolous that there is no jurisdiction, the 3 assigned judge should be able to decline to recuse and proceed with dismissing the case.” 4 Snegirev v. Sedwick, 407 F. Supp. 2d 1093, 1095 (D. Alaska 2006); see also Reddy v. 5 O’Connor, 520 F. Supp. 2d 124, 131 (D.D.C. 2007) (“recusal is not required where the 6 claim asserted is ‘wholly frivolous’ or a litigant has named a judicial officer as a defendant 7 to force him out of the case and hence obtain assignment of a judge the litigant considers 8 more desirable.” (quoting Snegirev, 407 F. Supp. 2d at 1095)). 9 The same is true here. The undersigned was not named in Plaintiff’s original 10 complaint. Rather, Plaintiff filed an amended complaint after rulings Plaintiff believes 11 were incorrect. Such is not a basis for recusal. 12 As for recusal under § 144, the undersigned must initially determine whether 13 Plaintiff has filed a legally sufficient affidavit. See United States v. Azhocar, 581 F.2d 735, 14 738 (9th Cir. 1978) (“the judge against whom an affidavit of bias is filed may pass on its 15 legal sufficiency”) (citing Berger v. United States, 255 U.S. 22 (1921)). He has not. “An 16 affidavit filed pursuant to [28 U.S.C. § 144] is not legally sufficient unless it specifically 17 alleges facts that fairly support the contention that the judge exhibits bias or prejudice 18 directed toward a party that stems from an extrajudicial source.” Sibla, 624 F.2d at 868. 19 Plaintiff’s Affidavit does not contain any facts to support the conclusion that the 20 undersigned has exhibited bias or prejudice that stems from an extrajudicial source. Again, 21 the only articulated basis for recusal is Plaintiff’s dissatisfaction with the undersigned’s 22 rulings. Thus, the undersigned is not required to assign the recusal request to another judge. 23 See Azhocar, 581 F.2d at 738 (“Only after the legal sufficiency of the affidavit is 24 determined does it become the duty of the judge to ‘proceed no further’ in the case.”). 25 Under §§ 144 and 455, recusal is appropriate where “a reasonable person with 26 knowledge of all the facts would conclude that the judge’s impartiality might reasonably 27 be questioned.” Pesnell v. Arsenault, 543 F.3d 1038, 1043 (9th Cir. 2008) (quoting United 28 States v. Hernandez, 109 F.3d 1450, 1453 (9th Cir. 1997)), abrogated on other grounds by 1 Simmons v. Himmelreich, 576 U.S. 621 (2016). In nearly all cases, the source of any 2 alleged bias must be extrajudicial. Liteky v. United States, 510 U.S. 540, 544-56 (1994). 3 “[J]udicial rulings alone almost never constitute a valid basis for a bias or partiality 4 motion.” Id. at 555. 5 Plaintiff does not allege the undersigned has an extrajudicial bias against him.

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