Guzman v. Jones

CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedJuly 2, 2020
Docket4:19-cv-03757-HSG
StatusUnknown

This text of Guzman v. Jones (Guzman v. Jones) 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
Guzman v. Jones, (N.D. Cal. 2020).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 7 MAYITO GUZMAN, Case No. 19-cv-03757-HSG

8 Plaintiff, ORDER OF PARTIAL SERVICE; DISMISSING CERTAIN CLAIMS 9 v. WITH LEAVE TOAMEND

10 Y. I. SAMARA, et al., 11 Defendants.

12 13 INTRODUCTION 14 Plaintiff, an inmate at California State Prison – Solano, filed this pro se civil rights action 15 pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 regarding events at San Quentin State Prison (“SQSP”), where he 16 was previously housed. His amended complaint (Dkt. No. 12) is now before the Court for review 17 under 28 U.S.C. § 1915A. 18 DISCUSSION 19 A. Standard of Review 20 A federal court must engage in a preliminary screening of any case in which a prisoner 21 seeks redress from a governmental entity, or from an officer or an employee of a governmental 22 entity. 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(a). In its review, the Court must identify any cognizable claims, and 23 dismiss any claims which are frivolous, malicious, fail to state a claim upon which relief may be 24 granted, or seek monetary relief from a defendant who is immune from such relief. See 28 U.S.C. 25 § 1915A(b) (1), (2). Pro se pleadings must be liberally construed. Balistreri v. Pacifica Police 26 Dep’t, 901 F.2d 696, 699 (9th Cir. 1990). 27 Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(a)(2) requires only “a short and plain statement of the 1 necessary; the statement need only ‘give the defendant fair notice of what the . . . . claim is and the 2 grounds upon which it rests.’” Erickson v. Pardus, 551 U.S. 89, 93 (2007) (citations omitted). 3 “[A] plaintiff’s obligation to provide the ‘grounds’ of his ‘entitle[ment] to relief’ requires more 4 than labels and conclusions, and a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not 5 do. . . . Factual allegations must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level.” 6 Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555 (2007) (citations omitted). A complaint must 7 proffer “enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Id. at 570. 8 To state a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a plaintiff must allege two elements: (1) that a 9 right secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States was violated; and (2) that the 10 violation was committed by a person acting under the color of state law. West v. Atkins, 487 U.S. 11 42, 48 (1988). 12 B. Amended Complaint 13 The amended complaint alleges that the CDCR’s NDPF policy is, in part, an effort to 14 remove all Northern California Hispanic inmates out of the SQSP NDPF population and that as 15 part of that effort, plaintiff was falsely accused of being in a position of authority to order the 16 assault of other inmates so that defendants could transfer him out of SQSP’s NPDF to a less 17 favorable prison, i.e. a prison that did not allow him to earn as many good-time credits as he could 18 earn at SQSP. 19 Plaintiff’s Transfer Away From SQSP. According to the amended complaint, from his 20 arrival at SQSP on April 26, 2017 until February 8, 2018, plaintiff was housed in the general 21 population Level 2 non-designated enhanced outpatient housing without incident. He was 22 employed at the Central Health Service Building (Main Hospital) and received positive 23 performance reviews, and also enrolled in two college programs. At a November 29, 2017, 24 classification committee removed plaintiff from C/C status, upgraded his job position, and elected 25 to retain him in his current housing. Dkt. No. 12 at 4. On February 8, 2018, named defendant 26 SQSP correctional lieutenant Dorsey authored a memo (CDCR Form 128-B) identifying plaintiff 27 as being in a position of authority in the SQSP NDPF to order the assault of other inmates. The 1 NDPF housing and his presence in the NDPF was no longer appropriate. Dkt. No. 12 at 5. 2 Plaintiff alleges that this memo violated his due process rights because it imposed punishment 3 without making a finding of a guilt in a procedurally proper manner. As a result, plaintiff was 4 ultimately transferred away from SQSP which he claims adversely affected his ability to earn good 5 time credits. Plaintiff names as defendants the individuals involved in approving the transfer and 6 who responded to his requests for information and administrative grievance: officer Boerum who 7 chaired the February 9, 2018 classification committee hearing that approved the transfer based on 8 the clearly false and procedurally inadequate February 8, 2018 Form 128-B; John Doe 9 classification staff representative who, on February 14, 2018, approved the transfer based on the 10 clearly false February 8, 2018 Form 128-B; officer Martin who, on February 18, 2018, informed 11 plaintiff that regardless of plaintiff’s efforts, he would be transferred because “it has been decided 12 to get every G.P. Hispanic with [Security Threat Group] connection of any type out of here even if 13 he is paisa” and who, on March 8, 2018, interviewed him with respect to his administrative 14 grievance regarding the transfer; SQSP associate warden Samara who, on March 21, 2018, denied 15 his administrative grievance at the first level; officer Nguyen who, on July 5, 2018, interviewed 16 him with respect to his administrative grievance regarding the transfer; SQSP warden Davis and 17 SQSP chief deputy warden Bloomfield who, on July 5, 2018, denied his administrative grievance 18 at the second level; and appeals examiner Hemenway and chief Voong who, on November 19, 19 2018, denied his administrative grievance at the third level. Plaintiff alleges that these actions 20 violated the Due Process Clause because removing plaintiff from his established program 21 adversely affected his ability to continue earning good time credits in which he has a liberty 22 interest and violated the Equal Protection Clause because defendants singled out plaintiff and his 23 class of inmates (general population (“GP”) Hispanic inmates with STG connections); and that 24 defendants are liable in their supervisory capacity because they knew of the alleged misconduct 25 and failed to act to prevent the misconduct; and that defendants conspired with each other to 26 deprive this class of persons of equal protection of the law. See generally Dkt. No. 12 at 4-16. 27 Implementation of the CDCR’s NDPF policy. The amended complaint alleges that on 1 Katherine Tebrock, deputy director of the statewide mental health program, approved and put into 2 effect an initiative whereby statewide non-designated outpatient and inpatient programs were 3 converted to NDPFs. Plaintiff alleges that this initiative singled out, targeted, and removed all 4 SQSP GP Hispanics who had any connection to STGs from SQSP and did not allow them 5 placement in any NDPFs and instead placed them in higher level facilities, thereby denying this 6 class of inmates the benefits of being housed in lower-level facilities. See generally Dkt. No. 12 at 7 16-17.

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Guzman v. Jones, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/guzman-v-jones-cand-2020.