Pond v. Doe

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 6 WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE 7 8 ZACHARY IRWIN POND, CASE NO. 3:21-cv-05339-BJR-JRC 9 Plaintiff, ORDER ON REVIEW DECLINING TO RECUSE 10 v. 11 STATE OF WASHINGTON, Defendants. 12

13 On April 8, 2022, Judge Creatura issued an Order declining to recuse himself in response 14 to Plaintiff’s “Request for Dispositive Review due to Judicial Misconduct.” Dkts. #62 and #63. 15 In accordance with this Court’s Local Rules, this Order was referred to the Chief Judge for 16 review. See LCR 3(e). 17 A judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his 18 impartiality “might reasonably be questioned.” 28 U.S.C. § 455(a). Federal judges also shall 19 disqualify themselves in circumstances where they have a personal bias or prejudice concerning 20 a party or personal knowledge of disputed evidentiary facts concerning the proceeding. 28 21 U.S.C. § 455(b)(1). Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 144, “whenever a party to any proceeding in a 22 district court makes and files a timely and sufficient affidavit that the judge before whom the 23 matter is pending has a personal bias or prejudice either against him or in favor of any adverse 24 1 party, such judge shall proceed no further therein, but another judge shall be assigned to hear 2 such proceeding.” “[A] judge's prior adverse ruling is not sufficient cause for recusal.” United 3 States v. Studley, 783 F.2d 934, 939 (9th Cir. 1986); see also Taylor v. Regents of Univ. of Cal., 4 993 F.2d 710, 712 (9th Cir. 1993) (“To warrant recusal, judicial bias must stem from an 5 extrajudicial source.”).

6 The Court has reviewed Mr. Pond’s Motion. He argues Judge Creatura has engaged in 7 misconduct and abuse of discretion with “almost every ruling.” Dkt. #62 at 1. Judge Creatura is 8 correct that dissatisfaction with prior judicial rulings is not sufficient cause for recusal. See 9 Studley, supra. Mr. Pond fails to otherwise set forth a basis to reasonably question Judge 10 Creatura’s impartiality. 11 Accordingly, the Court hereby finds and ORDERS that Judge Creatura’s refusal to 12 recuse himself from this matter is AFFIRMED. The Clerk is directed to refer this case and all 13 pending Motions back to Judge Creatura. 14

15 DATED this 26th day of April, 2022. 16 17 A 18 RICARDO S. MARTINEZ 19 CHIEF UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

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