Moore v. Garnand

CourtDistrict Court, D. Arizona
DecidedFebruary 16, 2024
Docket4:19-cv-00290
StatusUnknown

This text of Moore v. Garnand (Moore v. Garnand) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Moore v. Garnand, (D. Ariz. 2024).

Opinion

1 WO 2 3 4 5 6 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA 8 Greg Moore; et al., ) No. CV 19-00290 TUC RM (MAA) 9 ) Plaintiffs, ) ORDER 10 ) vs. ) 11 ) ) 12 Sean Garnand; et al., ) ) 13 Defendants. ) ) 14 ) 15 Pending before the court is the plaintiffs’ motion, filed on January 5, 2024, to compel 16 discovery from the defendant Sean Garnand. Doc. 395. The defendants filed a response on 17 January 19, 2024. Doc. 400. The plaintiffs did not file a reply. 18 Also pending is the plaintiffs’ motion, filed on January 28, 2024, to expedite ruling 19 on the pending motion to compel. Doc. 407. The defendants filed a response on January 20 29, 2024. Doc. 408. They have no objection to an expedited ruling. Doc. 408, p. 2. 21 The plaintiffs in this action (“the Moores”) claim their constitutional rights were 22 violated when the defendants obtained and executed two search warrants in connection with 23 an arson investigation into the destruction of the Forgeus Apartments on June 8, 2017. 24 Complaint, Doc. 1. The Moores bring this action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Doc. 1, p. 25 4. The first warrant, for DNA and other personal effects, was executed on June 9, 2017. 26 Doc. 1, p. 8. The second warrant, for financial documents, was executed on June 14, 2017. 27 Doc. 1, pp. 9-10. The Moores claim, among other things, that the warrant applications were 28 1 not supported by probable cause and contained “material misrepresentations and omissions.” 2 Doc. 1, pp. 16-18. 3 The plaintiffs move that the court issue an order compelling the defendant Sean 4 Garnand to comply with Request for Production Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 5 and answer Interrogatory 5 Nos. 15, 16, 19, 22, 23, 24, and 25. Doc. 395, pp. 6-8. 6 7 Discussion 8 Pursuant to Rule 37(a)(3)(B)(iii-iv), 9 A party seeking discovery may move for an order compelling an answer, designation, production, or inspection. This motion may be made if . . . a party 10 fails to answer an interrogatory submitted under Rule 33; or a party fails to produce documents . . . . 11 Fed.R.Civ.P. Rule 34(a)(1)(A) permits a party to serve “a request within the scope of Rule 12 26(b) . . . to produce . . . any designated documents or electronically stored information . . 13 . .” Fed.R.Civ.P. Rule 33 permits a party to serve written interrogatories. Fed.R.Civ.P. The 14 interrogatories “may relate to any matter that may be inquired into under Rule 26(b).” 15 Fed.R.Civ.P.33(a)(2). 16 And, Rule 26(b)(1) permits discovery requests “regarding any nonprivileged matter 17 that is relevant to any party’s claim or defense and proportional to the needs of the case, 18 considering the importance of the issues at stake in the action, the amount in controversy, the 19 parties’ relative access to relevant information, the parties’ resources, the importance of the 20 discovery in resolving the issues, and whether the burden or expense of the proposed 21 discovery outweighs its likely benefit.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 22 “Upon a motion to compel discovery, the movant has the initial burden of 23 demonstrating relevance.” United States v. McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., No. CV 24 13-779-DOC JCGX, 2014 WL 1647385, at *8 (C.D. Cal. Apr. 15, 2014). “In turn, the party 25 opposing discovery has the burden of showing that discovery should not be allowed, and also 26 has the burden of clarifying, explaining and supporting its objections with competent 27 evidence.” Id. (punctuation modified). 28 1 Claims 1, 3, and 4 of the Moores’ Complaint remain at issue. Doc. 391, p. 2. In 2 Claim 1, the Moores allege that the warrant application for the first search on June 9, 2017 3 was not supported by probable cause and contained “material misrepresentations and 4 omissions.” Doc. 1, p. 16. They further assert that the defendant, Garnand, used excessive 5 force in executing the warrant. Id. In Claim 3, the Moores allege that the warrant application 6 for the second search on June 14, 2017 was not supported by probable cause and contained 7 “material misrepresentations and omissions.” Doc. 1, pp. 17-18. In Claim 4, the Moores 8 claim that the “detention of Mrs. Moore [during the execution of the second search warrant] 9 escalated into a seizure and arrest.” Doc. 1, pp. 10-11, 18. 10 11 Documents Related to the Warrant Applications 12 The Moores argue first that this court should compel the defendant Garnand to 13 respond to two groups of discovery requests related to the warrant applications. The first 14 group consists of Request for Production (RFP) No. 2, Interrogatory No. 15, RFP No. 3, 15 Interrogatory No. 19, and RFP No. 5. The second group consists of Interrogatory No. 16 and 16 RFP No. 4. 17 Request for Production (RFP) No. 2 seeks documents “created by or reviewed by the 18 Defendant on or before June 14, 2017, in any way related to the investigation into the 19 Forgeus Fire. . . .” Doc. 395-4, p. 3. Interrogatory No. 15 asks that the defendant “[i]dentify 20 each document relied upon in the telephonic application . . . .” Doc. 395-4, p. 6. RFP No. 21 3 seeks the documents identified in Interrogatory No. 15. Doc. 395-4, p. 8. Interrogatory 22 No. 19 asks the defendant to identify “any document created after June 14, 2017 [that] is 23 relevant to any of the Plaintiffs’ Claims the First through the Fifth . . . .” Doc. 395-4, p. 11. 24 RFP No. 5 seeks the documents identified in Interrogatory No. 19. Doc. 395-4, p. 13. 25 Interrogatory No. 16 seeks documents “relied upon in the preparation of the 26 application for Search Warrant 17 SW 1037. . . .” Doc. 395-4, p. 8. RFP No. 4 seeks the 27 documents identified in Interrogatory No. 16. Doc. 395-4, p. 10. 28 1 The Moores explain that these discovery requests seek evidence relating to the 2 defendants’ actions while securing the two search warrants: 17 SW 1017, which was secured 3 the night of June 8, 2017, and 17 SW 1037, which was secured on June 14, 2017. Doc. 395, 4 pp. 6-7. 5 6 Discussion: Warrant Discovery 7 These discovery requests, with the exception of Interrogatory No. 19 and RFP No. 5, 8 are at least relevant to the Moores’ allegations of judicial deception. In the Complaint’s 9 Claim 1, the Moores allege that “Defendants, in the application [for the first search warrant], 10 made material misrepresentations and omissions, to convince the issuing judge that Greg 11 Moore had probably engaged in a pattern of arsons.” Doc. 1, p. 16. In Claim 3, the Moores 12 further allege that “the application [for the second search warrant] contained material 13 misrepresentations and omissions . . . .” Doc. 1, p. 18. These discovery requests seek to 14 establish what documents Garnand knew about and what documents he relied upon when he 15 obtained the search warrants. They are relevant to the Moores’ claim that the warrant 16 applications contained “material misrepresentations and omissions.” See Smith v. Almada, 17 640 F.3d 931, 937 (9th Cir. 2011) (“To maintain a false arrest claim for judicial deception, 18 a plaintiff must show that the officer who applied for the arrest warrant deliberately or 19 recklessly made false statements or omissions that were material to the finding of probable 20 cause.”) (punctuation modified). 21 In their response brief, the defendants argue primarily that the pending motion is 22 premature because the defendants previously filed a motion to stay discovery and allow the 23 district court to decide the issue of qualified immunity as a preliminary matter. Doc. 400, pp. 24 1-3; see Doc. 394. They similarly argue that the question of qualified immunity may be 25 resolved without the discovery that the Moores are seeking. Doc.

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Bluebook (online)
Moore v. Garnand, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moore-v-garnand-azd-2024.