Reed v. Trinity Services Group Incorporated

District Court, D. Arizona·Decided December 22, 2022·No. 2:21-cv-00016·Unknown

Opinion

1 WO 2 3 4 5 6 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA

9 Kenneth W Reed, No. CV-21-00016-PHX-JAT (CDB)

10 Plaintiff, ORDER

11 v.

12 Trinity Services Group Incorporated, et al.,

13 Respondents. 14 15 Pending before the Court are Plaintiff’s Objections to, and Request for Court’s De 16 Novo Review of Magistrate Judge’s June 24, 2022 Ruling (Doc. 185) and Motion for Relief 17 from June 24, 2022 Order and Motion to Recuse (Doc. 188). As the appeal and motions 18 relate to the Magistrate Judge’s June 24 order, this Court will rule on all three here. 19 I. BACKGROUND 20 Plaintiff Kenneth W. Reed brought suit against the director of the Arizona 21 Department of Corrections (DOC), a number of DOC employees, and a DOC contractor. 22 (See Doc. 1-3). He alleged that prison officials and the contractor failed to provide him 23 with his required special diet. (See Doc. 1-3 at 11–12). In January of 2022, Plaintiff moved 24 for leave to issue a subpoena duces tecum upon non-parties, who were in charge of 25 maintaining prison records. (See Doc. 90). In the subpoena, Plaintiff sought three sets of 26 documents: a. Correctional Service Journals from Central Housing Unit 8 between August 27 10 and September 4 of 2018, b. Information Reports mentioning him filed during that same 28 timeframe, c. Count and Movement or the Inmate Accountability office’s registry showing 1 his bed location and the names and prisoner numbers of those prisoners whose beds were 2 next to his. (See Doc. 90 at 7). The Magistrate Judge granted leave to issue the subpoena 3 on March 17, 2022. (See Doc. 122 at 2–3). 4 The Marshall’s Service served the subpoena, but Deputy Warden Sanchez, who 5 Plaintiff claimed had control over the requested records, failed to comply. (See Doc. 153 6 at 2). Plaintiff then moved for an order compelling compliance with the subpoena. (Doc. 7 153). In its Response the DOC reproduced his subpoena request but misquoted the date of 8 the documents requested. (See Doc. 161 at 1). The DOC quoted the subpoena as requesting 9 documents from “August 10 and September 4, 2019” instead of from 2018, which is the 10 year that was listed on the original subpoena. (Id.). The Response further noted that the 11 DOC sent documents responsive to the first two sets of documents requested but not to the 12 third set because the DOC was prohibited from doing so by state law. (See id.). A.R.S. § 13 31-221 prohibits prisoners from accessing any prisoner records aside from their own 14 “automated summary record file.” (See id.); A.R.S. §31-221. Replying, Plaintiff stated that 15 although the Assistant Attorney General representing the DOC “claims that ... the 16 documents [that were] ... produced are responsive to, and, hence constitute full compliance 17 with Plaintiff’s subpoena ...” that only seventeen pages were actually responsive. (Doc. 18 165 at 2). 19 The Magistrate Judge who ruled on the motion found that Plaintiff did ask for 20 records from 2019. (See Doc. 166 at 1). Because the DOC gave Plaintiff documents from 21 2019, the court ruled, it complied with the first request in the subpoena. Furthermore, the 22 court held that Plaintiff “allowed” that the documents were responsive to the subpoena and 23 that seventeen of the pages were of use. (Id.). Finally, she agreed with the assessment of 24 the DOC that it did not have to produce any documents responsive to the third request on 25 the subpoena because Arizona law prohibited a prisoner from viewing files of other 26 prisoners. Plaintiff’s motion to compel was denied. On July 11, 2022, Plaintiff filed an 27 objection to the Magistrate Judge’s order. (See Doc. 185). On July 18, 2022, Plaintiff 28 moved to have the Magistrate Judge removed from the case or in the alternative for this 1 Court to stay proceedings pending the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision on a not yet 2 filed complaint of judicial misconduct regarding the magistrate judge’s conduct. (See Doc. 3 188). 4 II. OBJECTION TO MAGISTRATE JUDGE’S ORDER 5 Federal Rule of Civil Procedure Seventy-Two states that a district judge “must ... 6 modify or set aside any part of [an] ... order that is clearly erroneous or is contrary to law.” 7 F.R.C.P. 72. Here, the Magistrate Judge made a clear error of fact when finding that 8 Plaintiff’s original subpoena requested documents from 2019. Her ruling was also contrary 9 to law in that she applied Arizona law to preclude the release of prisoner records to 10 Plaintiff, rather than applying federal law. 11 a. Legal Standard 12 Under Rule 72(a), for factual conclusions this Court must apply a clear error 13 standard. See Adams v. Symetra Life Insurance Co., No. CV-18-00378, 2020 WL 6469949, *1 14 (D. Ariz. Nov. 3, 2020). This means that after a review of all the evidence that “the Court is left 15 with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.” Easley v. Cromartie, 16 532 U.S. 234, 242 (2001). This is a very high standard that is only met when the factual error 17 committed is clear and obvious. As the Ninth Circuit noted, if the Magistrate Judge’s findings are 18 “plausible in light of the record viewed in its entirety” this Court cannot reverse, “even if it is 19 convinced it would have found differently.” See Husain v. Olympic Airways, 316 F.3d 829, 835 20 (9th Cir. 2002). Specifically in the context of discovery disputes, Magistrate Judges are “Afforded 21 broad discretion,” which can only be overruled when abused. See Adams, No. CV-18-00378, 2020 22 WL 6469949 at *1. 23 For conclusions of law, however, the standard is de novo review. Rule 72(a) simply uses 24 the phrase “contrary to law.” See F.R.C.P. 72. Thus, this Court must engage in a de novo review 25 of the underlying claim to assess whether the Magistrate Judge applied the incorrect law or applied 26 the correct law inaccurately. See Adams, No. CV-18-00378, 2020 WL 6469949 at *1 (noting that 27 “[a] magistrate judge’s legal conclusions are contrary to law when they omit or misapply the 28 relevant law.”); See also 28 U.S.C. § 636 (“A judge of the court may reconsider any pretrial matter 1 ... where it has been shown that the magistrate judge’s order is clearly erroneous or contrary to 2 law.”). 3 b. Analysis 4 i. 2019 Versus 2018 5 At the outset, this Court must address Plaintiff’s serious claims that the Magistrate 6 Judge “falsified the record.” (See Doc 185 at 4). This Court does acknowledge that the 7 version of Part a of Plaintiff’s subpoena that appears in the order denying his motion to 8 compel is different than Part a of his original subpoena. Yet this in no way suggests, even 9 remotely, that the record was falsified. There is absolutely no evidence, aside from the 10 minor discrepancy in the order, that points to purposeful falsification. This Court will thus 11 interpret this difference as a typographical error on the part of counsel for DOC that was 12 then relied upon as fact by the Magistrate Judge. It was simply a mistake. 13 This mistake does constitute clear error of fact, however. Simply put, in his original 14 subpoena, Plaintiff requested Correctional Service Journals or Logs from “between August 15 10 and September 4, 2018.” (Doc. 90 at 7) (emphasis added).

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