Pierce v. County of Orange

Procedural entryThis page is a short order in Pierce v. County of Orange. Read the opinion of the Court — 526 F.3d 1190
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit·Decided May 15, 2008·No. 05-55829·Published

Opinion

FOR PUBLICATION UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

FRED PIERCE; TIMOTHY LEE CONN;  FERMIN VALENZUELA; LAURIE D. ELLERSTON, Plaintiffs-Appellants, No. 05-55829 v.  D.C. No. COUNTY OF ORANGE, a Governmental CV-01-00981-GLT entity; MICHAEL S. CARONA, individually, Defendants-Appellees. 

5563 5564 PIERCE v. COUNTY OF ORANGE

RICHARD EUGENE SMITH; KENNETH  WILSON; WILLIAM BROWN; SUSAN YOUNG, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, and JERRY E. STEWART; FRED PIERCE; No. 05-55845 TIMOTHY LEE CONN; FERMIN D.C. No. VALENZUELA; LAURIE D. ELLERSTON, CV-75-03075-GLT Plaintiffs-Appellants, v.  ORDER AMENDING BRAD GATES, individually and in his OPINION AND official capacity as Orange County AMENDED Sheriff; WILLIAM WALLACE, OPINION individually and in his official capacity as Chief Deputy of the Orange County Sheriffs Department and Jail Division; COUNTY OF ORANGE, a governmental entity; MICHAEL S. CARONA, individually, Defendants-Appellees.  Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California Gary L. Taylor, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted April 12, 2007—Pasadena, California

Filed March 24, 2008 Amended May 15, 2008

Before: Betty B. Fletcher, M. Margaret McKeown, and Jay S. Bybee, Circuit Judges. PIERCE v. COUNTY OF ORANGE 5565 Opinion by Judge B. Fletcher PIERCE v. COUNTY OF ORANGE 5569

COUNSEL

Virginia Keeny, Pasadena, California, and Richard P. Her- man, Newport Beach, California, for the plaintiffs-appellants.

Steven C. Miller, Santa Ana, California, David D. Lawrence and Christina Sprenger, Orange, California, for the defendants-appellees.

ORDER

The opinion filed on March 24, 2008 and published at 519 F.3d 985 (9th Cir. 2008), is AMENDED as follows:

(1) At 519 F.3d at 1016, after the sentence ending, “with or without reasonable accommodations, meet the essential eli- gibility requirements to participate,” insert the following addi- tional two sentences:

Whether this “program access” standard may reason- ably be met or whether any restriction on access is reasonably related to a legitimate government objec- tive is necessarily fact-specific. We also emphasize that the district court should look at the offerings as a whole and in their entirety and thus the court is not 5570 PIERCE v. COUNTY OF ORANGE required to ensure that each individual program or service offered at Theo Lacy and Musick is offered in complete parity with an offering at the Central Jail.

(2) At 519 F.3d at 1016, delete the sentence reading, “In particular, the district court should examine the extent to which the programs offered at Theo Lacy and Musick are capable of reassignment to the Central Jail without eliminat- ing those programs at Theo Lacy or Musick.” Replace the deleted sentence with the following three sentences:

In particular, the district court should examine the feasibility of offering similar programs at the Central Jail, and the extent to which the programs offered at Theo Lacy or Musick are capable of being offered at the Central Jail without eliminating those programs at Theo Lacy or Musick. There may be other appro- priate remedies that provide disabled inmates access to programs and services, and the district court should consider those options as well. Our intention is not to suggest or cause the termination or diminu- tion of programs or facilities other than the Central Jail, but to have the district court explore available options on a full evidentiary record.

Judges McKeown and Bybee have voted to deny the peti- tion for rehearing en banc, and Judge Fletcher has so recom- mended. The petition for en banc rehearing has been circulated to the full court, and no judge has requested a vote on whether to rehear the matter en banc. Fed. R. App. P. 35(b). The petition for rehearing en banc is denied. No further petitions for rehearing or rehearing en banc will be accepted.

IT IS SO ORDERED. PIERCE v. COUNTY OF ORANGE 5571 OPINION

B. FLETCHER, Circuit Judge:

In 2001, plaintiffs-appellants Fred Pierce, Timothy Lee Conn, Fermin Valenzuela, and Laurie D. Ellerston—pretrial detainees in Orange County’s jail facilities—initiated Pierce v. County of Orange, No. 05-55829 (D. Ct. No. 01-981), a class action suit against the County of Orange and Michael S. Carona, the county’s sheriff and agent.1 Seeking relief under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for violations of their Fourteenth Amend- ment due process rights, plaintiffs contend, in essence, that the Orange County jails are operated in an unconstitutional manner, depriving them of opportunities for exercise, unduly limiting their access to common areas, and impermissibly restricting their ability to practice religion. Plaintiffs further assert that they have been deprived of a number of the federal rights previously recognized in Stewart v. Gates, 450 F. Supp. 583 (C.D. Cal. 1978) (“Stewart”)—a decision and resulting injunctive orders (“the Stewart orders” or “the Stewart injunc- tion”) that established standards for pretrial detention in Orange County jails. The plaintiffs seek relief for the same injuries under the California Constitution, as well as Title 15 of the California Code of Regulations (which sets minimum standards for county jails) in violation of § 815.6 of the Cali- fornia Government Code, and breach of § 54.1 of the Califor- nia Civil Code. Finally, the plaintiffs in Pierce assert an equal protection claim under § 1983 based on the denial of equal treatment to disabled detainees, and they advance a separate claim for violations of Title II of the Americans with Disabili- ties Act (“ADA”), 42 U.S.C. § 12131 et seq., alleging non- compliant jail facilities and denial of access to programs and services available to non-disabled detainees. On appeal, the 1 Plaintiffs’ claims against Carona were dismissed, leaving the County as the sole defendant-appellee involved in this consolidated appeal. In a separate order, we grant Carona’s motion to dismiss the plaintiffs’ appeal as untimely with respect to him. 5572 PIERCE v. COUNTY OF ORANGE plaintiffs also challenge a number of the district court’s pre- trial procedural and evidentiary rulings.

After a six day trial, the district court found that the plain- tiffs had failed to establish any constitutional injury giving rise to relief under § 1983. The district court went on to find that the fourteen Stewart orders at issue were no longer neces- sary, and ordered them all terminated pursuant to the Prison Litigation Reform Act (“PLRA”),2 18 U.S.C. § 3626(b)(3). The district court likewise rejected plaintiffs’ equal protection and ADA claims, finding that although the County was not in “full ADA compliance, [ ] it can reasonably be expected to move toward full compliance.”

Having conducted a thorough review of the extensive pre- trial and trial record, we affirm in part and reverse in part. We affirm the district court’s pre-trial and evidentiary rulings challenged by the plaintiffs; the district court did not abuse its discretion in its pre-trial management of the case or its deci- sions related to the admission of evidence. On the merits, we affirm the district court’s termination of nearly all of the four- teen Stewart orders at issue. Two of those orders, however, which secure inmates housed in administrative segregation some minimal access to religious services and exercise, may not be terminated.

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