Hernandez v. County of Monterey

Opinion

1 2 3 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 SAN JOSE DIVISION 7 8 JESSE HERNANDEZ, et al., Case No. 13-cv-02354-BLF

9 Plaintiffs, ORDER RE ADMINISTRATIVE 10 v. MOTIONS TO FILE UNDER SEAL

11 COUNTY OF MONTEREY, et al., [Re: ECF 862, 863] 12 Defendants.

13 14

15 16 This order addresses two administrative motions, both filed by Plaintiffs, addressing 17 sealing with respect to the 11th Mental Health Report produced by Dr. James Vess on March 8, 18 2024, and the 15th Medical Care Audit Report produced by Dr. Bruce Barnett on February 29, 19 2024 (together, “the Neutral Monitor Reports”). The motions are addressed in turn as follows. 20 (1) Plaintiffs’ Administrative Motion to Seal (ECF 862) 21 In Plaintiffs’ Administrative Motion to Seal (ECF 862), Plaintiffs move to seal limited 22 portions of the Neutral Monitor Reports, specifically, material in those reports falling into the 23 following three categories: (1) incarcerated people’s names, dates of birth/death, and booking 24 numbers, except that initials will be used to identify deceased class members; (2) the names and 25 email addresses of health care staff employed by Wellpath, who are directly involved in providing 26 or supervising patient care at the Monterey County Jail; and (3) all other personal contact 27 information, including those of the Court appointed neutral monitors. Defendants have not filed 1 The Court must determine whether Plaintiff’s motion to seal should be evaluated under the 2 “compelling reasons” standard applicable to documents that are “more than tangentially related to 3 the merits of a case,” or under the lesser “good cause” standard. Ctr. for Auto Safety v. Chrysler 4 Grp., LLC, 809 F.3d 1092, 1101-02, 1097 (9th Cir. 2006). The Court finds the compelling 5 reasons standard to be applicable, because the reports prepared by neutral monitors in this case go 6 to the heart of the relief sought – adequate medical and mental health care, reasonable 7 accommodations for disabilities, and protection from violence at the Monterey County Jail. 8 The Court previously considered requests to seal neutral monitor reports in this case under 9 the compelling reasons standard. See Order Re. Admin. Mots., ECF 802. The Court found that 10 sealing the reports in their entirety was not warranted, but that there were compelling reasons to 11 redact limited portions of the reports to protect certain personal identifying information and health 12 records. See id. Under the same rationale, the Court finds that compelling reasons exist to redact 13 limited portions of the recent Neutral Monitor Reports at issue in the present motion, and that 14 Plaintiffs’ sealing request is narrowly tailored as required under this district’s Civil Local Rules. 15 See Civ. L.R. 79-5(c). 16 Plaintiffs’ Administrative Motion to Seal (ECF 862) is GRANTED with respect to the 17 limited portions of the Neutral Monitor Reports identified in the chart below. 18 (2) Plaintiffs’ Administrative Motion to Consider Whether to File Under Seal Neutral 19 Monitor Reports (ECF 863) 20 Plaintiff’s Administrative Motion to Consider Whether to File Under Seal Neutral Monitor 21 Reports (ECF 863) indicates that although Plaintiffs seek to seal only limited portions of the 22 Neutral Monitor Reports as discussed above, Defendants may wish to seal the Neutral Monitor 23 Reports in their entirety. Plaintiffs filed their second motion to trigger Defendants’ seven-day 24 deadline to justify the sealing of the Neutral Monitor Reports in their entirety. Defendants have 25 not filed a response and their deadline to do so has elapsed. 26 Accordingly, Plaintiff’s Administrative Motion to Consider Whether to File Under Seal 27 Neutral Monitor Reports (ECF 863) is DENIED. 1 ORDER 2 (1) Plaintiffs’ Administrative Motion to Seal (ECF 862) is GRANTED with respect to 3 the limited portions of the Neutral Monitor Reports identified in the chart below. 4 The redacted Neutral Monitor Reports SHALL be filed in separate docket entries 5 so as to allow for public access. Chambers copies of the unredacted Neutral 6 Monitor Reports SHALL be delivered to chambers. 7 8 Information to Be Redacted and Filed Under Seal 9 Portion(s) to Seal Reason(s) for Sealing 10 Exhibit B to March 21, 2024 Highlighted portions | Contains information Notice of Filing Medical and at pages 1, 49, 61-63 | identifying class members, 11 Mental Health Neutral Monitor vrnlianee be tings on and Reports - 11th Mental Health requirements released from %L Report monitoring. Public disclosure would cause harm. |) lexnibit A to March 21, 2024 Highlighted portions | Contains information 14 Notice of Filing Medical and at pages 14-20, 28- identifying class members and S Mental Health Neutral Monitor 30; highlighted providers o” patient care. Public 15 Reports - 15th Medical Audit portions in report Report attachment Physician 16 Case Review; highlighted portions of attachment 12 Monitoring Audit Tool at pages 2-4, 9- 19 12, 14-27, 34 20 71 (2) Plaintiff's Administrative Motion to Consider Whether to File Under Seal Neutral 22 Monitor Reports (ECF 863) is DENIED. 23 (3) This order terminates ECF 862 and 863. 24 5 Dated: April 8, 2024 26 _fiiioanan BETH LABSON FREEMAN 27 United States District Judge 28