Belander v. Pedro

Opinion

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5 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 6 WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT TACOMA 7 DAMIAN BELANDER, CASE NO. C23-6132-BHS-DWC 8 Petitioner, ORDER 9 v. 10 DEAN MASON, 11 Respondent. 12

13 This matter is before the Court on pro se petitioner Damian Belander’s Motion for 14 an Extension of Time, Dkt. 17, and on Respondent David Pedro’s Motion to Substitute 15 Respondent, Dkt. 19. 16 On April 12, 2024, Magistrate Judge David W. Christel entered a Report and 17 Recommendation (R&R), Dkt. 16, recommending that the Court deny Belander’s 28 18 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas petition and decline to issue a certificate of appealability. Five days 19 after Judge Christel entered the R&R, Belander filed a motion for an extension of time, 20 seeking an additional 180 days to reply to Pedro’s response, Dkt. 13, to the habeas 21 petition. Pedro interprets this motion as seeking an extension of time to object to the 22 1 R&R and does not oppose such an extension. Dkt. 18. The R&R was noted for 2 consideration for May 3, 2024.

3 The deadline to reply to Pedro’s response has expired, and Judge Christel entered 4 the R&R before Belander sought an extension of time to file a reply. The Court 5 accordingly interprets Belander’s motion as seeking an extension of time to object to the 6 R&R. The motion for an extension of time, Dkt. 17, is GRANTED in part. Belander 7 shall file any objections to the R&R on or before Wednesday, July 5, 2024. If, by that 8 date, Belander has still been unable to receive his “legal documents,” Dkt. 17 at 3, he

9 may seek an additional extension. The R&R is RENOTED for July 19, 2024. 10 The motion to substitute seeks to substitute the respondent in this matter from 11 Pedro, the Superintendent of the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution, to Dean Mason, 12 the Superintendent of the Washington Corrections Center. Dkt. 19 at 1. The motion 13 explains that, when Belander filed his habeas petition, he was confined in Oregon

14 pending his return to Washington to serve his Washington sentence. Id. While Belander 15 was in Oregon, Pedro was his immediate custodian. Id. Belander has since been 16 transferred to Washington, and his immediate custodian is now Mason. Id. 17 “[T]here is generally only one proper respondent to a given prisoner’s habeas 18 petition. This custodian . . . is ‘the person’ with the ability to produce the prisoner’s body

19 before the habeas court.” Rumsfeld v. Padilla, 542 U.S. 426, 434–35 (2004); accord 20 Stanley v. California Supreme Court, 21 F.3d 359, 360 (9th Cir. 1994) (“A petitioner for 21 habeas corpus relief must name the state officer having custody of him or her as the 22 respondent to the petition.”). 1 The motion to substitute, Dkt. 19, is GRANTED. The Clerk shall substitute the 2 respondent in this matter from David Pedro to Dean Mason.

3 IT IS SO ORDERED. 4 Dated this 6th day of May, 2024. A 5 6 BENJAMIN H. SETTLE 7 United States District Judge 8

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