Stanley v. Ferguson

• Court: District Court, W.D. Washington
• Decided: May 3, 2022
• Docket: 2:21-cv-01207
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

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4 5 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 6 WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE 7 SLOANE STANLEY, CASE NO. 2:21-cv-01207-JHC-TLF 8 Petitioner, ORDER 9 v. 10 KEVIN HANSON, 11 Respondent. 12 13

14 The Court has reviewed the Report and Recommendation, Petitioner’s Objections to 15 Report and Recommendation, the petition for writ of federal habeas corpus relief, and the 16 remaining record. In the Objections to Report and Recommendation, filed February 7, 2022, 17 Petitioner seeks to amend his initial habeas corpus petition to include an additional prayer for 18 relief: “that the State be enjoined from detaining [him].” Dkt. 12 at 2. He argues that this 19 amendment would bring his case outside the Younger abstention doctrine, because it would 20 constitute a challenge to pretrial detention distinct from the underlying criminal prosecution. Id 21 at 3 (citing Arevalo v. Hennessy, 882 F.3d 763 (9th Cir. 2018)). However, Petitioner does not 22 raise any structural arguments with respect to the conditions of his detention, such as the failure 23 to provide a constitutionally sufficient bond hearing, as was the case in Arevalo. Instead, all of 24 l Petitioner’s arguments regarding the illegality of his pretrial detention are grounded in the merits 2 of his case; therefore, the pending state proceedings provide an adequate opportunity for 3 Petitioner to address the federal issues raised in the petition. Accordingly, the proposed 4 amendment does not bring this petition outside the bounds of the Younger abstention doctrine. 5 Further, the Court finds that no reasonable jurist would disagree that a federal court should 6 abstain from interfering with petitioner’s pending criminal proceedings, and that a Certificate of 7 || Appealability should be denied. 8 9 Accordingly, the Court hereby finds and ORDERS: 10 (1) The Magistrate Judge’s report and recommendation is approved and adopted; 11 (2) Petitioner’s federal habeas corpus petition is DISMISSED without prejudice; and 12 (3) The Clerk is directed to send copies of this Order to Petitioner, to Magistrate Judge 13 Theresa L. Fricke and to any other party that has appeared in this action. 14 Dated this 3rd day of May, 2022 15 16 4. Chur 17 John H. Chun United States District Judge 18 19 20 21 22 23 24