(PC) Carter v. Simpson

Opinion

NATHANAEL JAMES CARTER, JR, No. 2:25-cv-0428 CSK P Plaintiff, ORDER v. et al., Defendants.

Plaintiff appears pro se and in forma pauperis in this civil rights action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. This matter was referred to a United States Magistrate Judge pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(B) and Local Rule 302. Plaintiff’s first amended complaint is before the Court. I. PLAINTIFF’S FIRST AMENDED COMPLAINT Plaintiff alleges as follows. On December 26, 2022, at California State Prison, Sacramento, Correctional Officers Van, McCloud, Simpson, and C. Campuzano used excessive force on plaintiff while he was handcuffed behind his back by slamming plaintiff on the ground and choking plaintiff with their forearms to the back of plaintiff’s neck. (ECF No. 13 at 5.) Officer C. Campuzano tried to break plaintiff’s right wrist while Sgt. McKenna, Sgt. D. Heinkel, Sgt. B. Schroeder, and Correctional Officer N. Rodriguez watched, condoned and egged them on. Officer N. Rodriguez went and got scissors. Officer Simpson told plaintiff “he was going to fuck me in my ass like he did my mother last night,” while Officer C. Campuzano cut off all of plaintiff’s clothes and two necklaces gifted to him by his dead mother. (Id.) The officers continued to assault plaintiff after his clothes were cut off, and he thought they were going to rape him. They put plaintiff on a gurney, and one of the defendants slapped him. Officers Van and McCloud broke plaintiff’s TV and stole plaintiff’s Kings poster while packing up plaintiff’s property. Each officer tried to cover up their assault by falsifying documents claiming plaintiff assaulted Officer N. Rodriguez with plaintiff’s head while plaintiff was on the ground and N. Rodriguez was standing. As injuries, plaintiff sustained a fractured wrist and busted lip, was humiliated, degraded and intimidated, and spent 5 months in ad seg for something he did not do. (Id. at 5, 8.) Plaintiff still takes medication for his fractured wrist. (Id. at 8.) Plaintiff seeks money damages. (Id. at 5, 8.) In the caption and the defendants’ section of the first amended complaint, plaintiff names seven individuals as defendants: Correctional Officers Simpson, N. Rodriguez, McCloud, and Van, and Sergeants D. Heinkel, McKenna and B. Schroeder. Despite including charging allegations as to Correctional Officer C. Campuzano, plaintiff did not name C. Campuzano as a defendant in either the caption or the defendants’ section of the first amended complaint. Fed. R. Civ. P. 10(a). Because plaintiff alleges that Correctional Officer C. Campuzano tried to break plaintiff’s right wrist, and plaintiff claims he suffered a fractured right wrist as a result of the alleged excessive force used on December 26, 2022, it appears that plaintiff may have inadvertently omitted Campuzano as a named defendant in the caption and the defendants’ section. Accordingly, plaintiff is granted thirty days in which to file a second amended complaint in which he names Correctional Officer C. Campuzano as a defendant, in both the caption and defendants’ section of the second amended complaint. Plaintiff is not granted leave to add any additional defendants or claims to his second amended complaint. The second amended complaint must be complete in itself without reference to any prior pleading. Local Rule 220; see Ramirez v. County of San Bernardino, 806 F.3d 1002, 1008 (9th Cir. 2015) (“an ‘amended complaint supersedes the original, the latter being treated thereafter as nonexistent.’” (internal citation omitted)). Once plaintiff files a second amended complaint, the original pleading 1s superseded. In the alternative, plaintiff may notify the Court that he intends to stand on his first amended complaint raising Eighth Amendment claims against the seven individuals named therein. If plaintiff fails to respond to this order, the Court will order service of process on the seven individuals named as defendants in the first amended complaint. UI. ORDERS Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that: 1. Within thirty days from the date of this order, plaintiff shall file a second amended complaint in which he includes Correctional Officer C. Campuzano as a defendant in both the caption and the defendants’ section of the second amended complaint; or, in the alternative, plaintiff shall confirm that he did not intend to name Correctional Officer C. Campuzano as a defendant. 2. The Clerk of the Court is directed to send plaintiff a copy of his first amended complaint (ECF No. 13). Dated: May 27, 2025 A aA Aan Spe | CHI SOO KIM UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE /1/cart0428.fb