Gomez v. Alameda County Sheriff's Department

CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedFebruary 8, 2021
Docket3:20-cv-01592
StatusUnknown

This text of Gomez v. Alameda County Sheriff's Department (Gomez v. Alameda County Sheriff's Department) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gomez v. Alameda County Sheriff's Department, (N.D. Cal. 2021).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 JUVENCIO GOMEZ, 7 Case No. 20-cv-01592-JSC Plaintiff, 8 ORDER GRANTING MOTION FOR v. SUMMARY JUDGMENT 9 ALAMEDA COUNTY SHERIFF’S 10 DEPARTMENT, et al., Re: ECF No. 16 11 Defendants.

12 INTRODUCTION 13 Plaintiff, a former inmate at the Santa Rita County Jail (“SRJ”), filed this pro se civil rights 14 complaint under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department, Sheriff 15 Gregory Ahern, and Deputy M. Vargas. Plaintiff claims that the Defendants assigned him to the 16 jail’s administrative separation unit without justification, and that jail officials have obstructed and 17 interfered with his legal mail and phone calls with his attorney. The Court reviewed the complaint 18 and found that, when liberally construed, the allegations were sufficient to state a claim for relief 19 under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. (ECF No. 5.) Defendants filed a motion for summary judgment.1 (ECF 20 No. 16.) Plaintiff, whose mail has been returned as undeliverable, (see ECF Nos. 7, 14, 15), did 21 not file an opposition.2 Defendants filed a reply brief. (ECF No. 26.) For the reasons discussed 22 below, the motion for summary judgment is GRANTED. 23 BACKGROUND 24 Plaintiff was detained at SRJ from November 6, 2019, through March 16, 2020. (Vargas 25 Decl. ⁋ 6.) SRJ maintains classification files on its inmates to ensure that inmates are 26 27 1 The parties consented to the jurisdiction of a magistrate judge pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(c). (ECF Nos. 4, 9.) 1 appropriately housed based on individual circumstances, as well as safety and security. (Id. ⁋ 3.) 2 Inmates are placed in administrative separation for the safety and security of the inmate, as well as 3 other inmates and staff. (Id. ⁋ 5.) While at SRJ, Plaintiff was placed in administrative separation 4 out of concern that he may have been a gang member in bad standing with his gang. (Id. ⁋ 6.) 5 Plaintiff’s classification file indicates that he is active in the Norteños gang, but states that Plaintiff 6 is not sure whether he is in good or bad standing. (Mot. for Summ. J. (MSJ) Ex. B, ECF No. 18 at 7 41; Vargas Decl. ⁋ 3.) Gang members who are in bad standing with their gang are often targeted 8 for violence or encouraged to commit violence to return to good standing. (Vargas Decl. ⁋ 7.) 9 Prior to Plaintiff’s incarceration at SRJ, an inmate advised staff that Plaintiff was in bad standing 10 with the Norteños gang, and an alert was placed in Plaintiff’s classification file. (Id. ⁋ 6.) 11 SRJ records show that Plaintiff made thirteen phone calls while at SRJ. (Key Decl. ⁋ 3; 12 MSJ Exs. C, D.) Two of those calls were made to the public defender’s office and were not 13 recorded. (Key Decl. ⁋ 4; MSJ Ex. D, ECF No. 18 at 48.) SRJ’s phone system is pre-programmed 14 with the telephone number of the public defender’s office, and the time and date of such calls are 15 recorded but not the calls themselves. (Id.) Plaintiff’s remaining calls were recorded. (Id. ⁋ 5.) 16 Recorded calls are preceded by a prompt that the calls may be monitored or recorded. (Id.) SRJ 17 Policy and Procedure 17.04.II.D states: “The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office reserves the 18 authority to monitor, including recording, conversations on any telephone within its facilities. 19 Attorney/Client telephone calls will not be recorded. Use of the telephones constitutes consent to 20 monitoring.” (MSJ Ex. G, ECF No. 18 at 57.) 21 While at SRJ, Plaintiff received one envelope of mail from the United State District Court. 22 (Semmel Decl. ⁋ 4.) The envelope was marked legal mail, signed by a deputy in the presence of 23 Plaintiff, and signed by Plaintiff. (MSJ Ex. E, ECF No. 18 at 50.) SRJ Policy and Procedure 24 17.01, requires that legal mail (other than mail from judges) be stamped, and opened and inspected in the presence of the inmate. (MSJ Ex. H, ECF No. 18 at 70–71.) If no contraband is found, the 25 mail is surrendered to the inmate and the envelope is kept on file for six months. (Id.) Non-legal 26 mail is opened outside the inmate’s presence, to ensure it does not contain contraband. (Semmel 27 1 ⁋ 7.) For outgoing legal mail, an inmate must notify the Housing Unit Deputy that the letter is 2 legal mail. (Id.) The deputy makes a visual inspection of it without reading the contents, then 3 verifies that the inmate’s name and identification number are correctly on the return address. (Id.) 4 The deputy seals the envelope in the presence of the inmate, initials it, and marks it confidential. 5 (Id.) Deputies followed this procedure for Plaintiff’s outgoing legal mail. (MSJ Ex. F, ECF No. 6 18 at 52–54.) Officials never mark outgoing mail, legal or non-legal, as undeliverable. (Id. ⁋ 6.) 7 Only the United States Post Office marks any undeliverable incoming legal mail. (Id.) 8 In his verified complaint, Plaintiff states that Defendant Vargas received information from 9 a confidential source that Plaintiff sold drugs at his last place of confinement but was never 10 caught. (Compl. at 3.) Plaintiff further states that Defendant Vargas placed him in administrative 11 separation because Plaintiff is in danger with enemies at SRJ. (Id.) The complaint also states that 12 the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department and SRJ officials unlawfully placed individuals in 13 administrative separation. (Id. at 5.) Plaintiff identifies seven other inmates whom he claims 14 suffered the same violations of their rights. (Id. at 4.) Finally, the complaint states that SRJ 15 illegally monitored, listened to, blocked, and hung up on calls to attorneys, and illegally removed 16 documents from legal mail, and falsely stamped it as undeliverable. (Id.) 17 DISCUSSION 18 I. Standard of Review 19 A district court may not grant a motion for summary judgment solely because the opposing 20 party has failed to file an opposition. See Cristobal v. Siegel, 26 F.3d 1488, 1494–95 & n.4 (9th 21 Cir. 1994) (unopposed motion may be granted only after court determines that there are no 22 material issues of fact). The Court may, however, grant an unopposed motion for summary 23 judgment if the movant’s papers are themselves sufficient to support the motion and do not on 24 their face reveal a genuine issue of material fact. See United States v. Real Property at Incline 25 Village, 47 F.3d 1511, 1520 (9th Cir. 1995) (local rule cannot mandate automatic entry of 26 judgment for moving party without consideration of whether motion and supporting papers satisfy 27 Fed. R. Civ. P. 56), rev’d on other grounds sub nom, Degen v. United States, 517 U.S. 820 (1996). 1 is “no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a 2 matter of law.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c). Material facts are those which may affect the outcome of 3 the case. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242,248 (1986). A dispute as to a material 4 fact is genuine if there is sufficient evidence for a reasonable jury to return a verdict for the 5 nonmoving party. Id.

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Bluebook (online)
Gomez v. Alameda County Sheriff's Department, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gomez-v-alameda-county-sheriffs-department-cand-2021.