Derello v. Romero

District Court, D. Arizona·Decided November 17, 2021·No. 2:21-cv-00129·Unknown

Opinion

1 MDR 2 WO 3 4 5 6 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA 8 9 Douglas Wayne Derello, Jr., No. CV 21-00129-PHX-MTL (JFM) 10 Plaintiff, 11 v. ORDER 12 Christopher Romero, et al., 13 Defendants.

14 15 Plaintiff Douglas Wayne Derello, Jr., is confined in the Arizona State Prison 16 Complex-Eyman (ASPC-Eyman), is proceeding pro se, and has been granted permission 17 to proceed in forma pauperis. Pending before the Court is Plaintiff’s Second Amended 18 Complaint (Doc. 25).1 The Court will order Defendant Romero to answer the threat-to- 19 safety claim in Count One and the retaliation claims regarding Defendant Romero’s alleged 20 incitement of inmates in Counts One and Two, and will dismiss the remaining claims and 21 Defendants. 22 I. Statutory Screening of Prisoner Complaints 23 The Court is required to screen complaints brought by prisoners seeking relief 24 against a governmental entity or an officer or an employee of a governmental entity. 28 25 U.S.C. § 1915A(a). The Court must dismiss a complaint or portion thereof if a plaintiff 26

27 1 The Court dismissed Plaintiff’s original Complaint because it did not comply with 28 Rule 8 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Rule 3.4 of the Local Rules of Civil Procedure, and dismissed Plaintiff’s First Amended Complaint because he had failed to state a claim. 1 has raised claims that are legally frivolous or malicious, that fail to state a claim upon which 2 relief may be granted, or that seek monetary relief from a defendant who is immune from 3 such relief. 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b)(1)–(2). 4 A pleading must contain a “short and plain statement of the claim showing that the 5 pleader is entitled to relief.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2) (emphasis added). While Rule 8 does 6 not demand detailed factual allegations, “it demands more than an unadorned, the- 7 defendant-unlawfully-harmed-me accusation.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 8 (2009). “Threadbare recitals of the elements of a cause of action, supported by mere 9 conclusory statements, do not suffice.” Id. 10 “[A] complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a 11 claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’” Id. (quoting Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 12 550 U.S. 544, 570 (2007)). A claim is plausible “when the plaintiff pleads factual content 13 that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the 14 misconduct alleged.” Id. “Determining whether a complaint states a plausible claim for 15 relief [is] . . . a context-specific task that requires the reviewing court to draw on its judicial 16 experience and common sense.” Id. at 679. Thus, although a plaintiff’s specific factual 17 allegations may be consistent with a constitutional claim, a court must assess whether there 18 are other “more likely explanations” for a defendant’s conduct. Id. at 681. 19 But as the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has instructed, courts 20 must “continue to construe pro se filings liberally.” Hebbe v. Pliler, 627 F.3d 338, 342 21 (9th Cir. 2010). A “complaint [filed by a pro se prisoner] ‘must be held to less stringent 22 standards than formal pleadings drafted by lawyers.’” Id. (quoting Erickson v. Pardus, 551 23 U.S. 89, 94 (2007) (per curiam)). 24 II. Second Amended Complaint 25 In his two-count Second Amended Complaint, Plaintiff alleges his Eighth 26 Amendment rights were violated and seeks monetary damages from Defendants Lieutenant 27 Duron, Special Security Unit (SSU) Sergeant Christopher Romero, Sergeant Griggs, 28 Disciplinary Coordinator Hiatt, and Officers Bustillos, Diaz, Ortiz, and Maydon. 1 In Count One, Plaintiff alleges that on June 9, 2020, Defendant Romero tried to 2 solicit Plaintiff to become an informant, but Plaintiff declined and subsequently informed 3 a correctional officer. The correctional officer wrote an incident report and attempted to 4 get Plaintiff moved to a yard where Defendant Romero did not work, but the correctional 5 officer’s attempt failed. Plaintiff then filed a grievance against Defendant Romero. 6 Plaintiff claims that on July 20, 2020, he was moved to ASPC-Eyman’s Cook Unit. 7 When he arrived, other prisoners told him that he could not stay on the unit because SSU 8 had revealed that Plaintiff was “telling” and “filing grievances against [Defendant] 9 Romero.” Plaintiff asserts that several prisoners on the Cook Unit have provided 10 declarations stating that before Plaintiff arrived, Defendant Romero had called inmates to 11 the SSU, told them about Plaintiff’s grievance, and instructed them to “provide [Defendant 12 Romero] with a reason for [Plaintiff] not to be placed on the yard.” In addition, Defendant 13 Romero allegedly admitted to Plaintiff in August 2020 that he knew the prisoners had 14 approached Plaintiff, claimed “SSU put out[] that [Plaintiff] was a snitch,” and stated that 15 “he put in place that Plaintiff would not be jumped by a group of [p]risoners all at once.” 16 Plaintiff contends Defendant Romero incited a threat to Plaintiff’s safety as 17 retaliation for Plaintiff filing a grievance, did nothing to protect Plaintiff, and allowed 18 Plaintiff to be “set[ ]up with a knife by prisoner to get [Plaintiff] off [the] Cook Unit yard.” 19 He alleges this resulted in “long[-]term segregation placement.” 20 Plaintiff also claims Defendant Romero knew of Plaintiff’s medical condition and 21 knew Plaintiff was in a vulnerable, high-risk group to contract COVID-19, yet placed 22 Plaintiff in a housing unit he knew was infected with COVID-19. Plaintiff claims he 23 contracted the virus, became ill, and suffered unnecessarily. 24 In Count Two, Plaintiff alleges Defendant Romero “told[] prisoners to come[ ]up 25 with a reason to get [P]laintiff off of [the] Cook Unit,” knew prisoners were “going to plant 26 a knife to frame [P]laintiff,” but did not inform Plaintiff, did not stop the prisoners, and 27 allowed the prisoners to plant a knife near Plaintiff because Plaintiff had filed a grievance 28 against him. He claims Defendants Romero and Hiatt purposely failed to secure the 1 videotape that would have proved Plaintiff “did not know that [the] knife was there,” 2 denied Plaintiff the protection of the disciplinary policy, and violated the disciplinary 3 policy “out of retaliation.” Plaintiff alleges he did not receive a hearing to prove his 4 innocence; Defendant Hiatt did not provide him with “all the eviden[ce]”; Defendant Hiatt 5 deliberately violated the disciplinary policy to prevent Plaintiff from proving his 6 innocence; Defendants Romero and Hiatt “falsified documents to conceal their malicious 7 acts”; and Defendant Hiatt destroyed Plaintiff’s appeal. 8 III. Discussion of Second Amended Complaint 9 Although pro se pleadings are liberally construed, Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 10 520-21 (1972), conclusory and vague allegations will not support a cause of action. Ivey 11 v. Bd. of Regents, 673 F.2d 266, 268 (9th Cir. 1982).

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