MMZ v. City of Santa Ana

          PROTECTIVE ORDER FOR PRODUCTION OF ORANGE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY INVESTIGATION REPORT

          Hon. Douglas F. McCormick, United States District Court Magistrate Judge.

         IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, following stipulation of counsel, that:

         1. In or about January 2016, the office of the Orange County District Attorney (“OCDA”) completed its investigation report concerning the investigation into the officer involved shooting that is at issue in these consolidated lawsuits. This report contains numerous police reports, audio and transcribed statements of Santa Ana Police Department (“SAPD”) police offers (including Officer Christopher Shynn), witness statements, reports of evidence analysis prepared by the Orange County Crime Lab, autopsy reports, medical records of decedent Ernesto Canepa, the criminal history index of decedent, the SAPD reports that pertain to this incident, among other items (collectively, “OCDA Report”).

         2. All documents produced by the City of Santa Ana that compromise the OCDA Report will be clearly designated as “CONFIDENTIAL” and be placed in an envelope labeled as such prior to the disclosure. The “CONFIDENTIAL” designation shall be placed on the printed pages of the OCDA Report in a manner that does not overwrite or make illegible the text of the document.

         3. Each person receiving any of the OCDA Report shall not disclose to any person or entity, in any manner, including orally, any of the OCDA Report or any of the information contained therein, except when used for purposes of this litigation pursuant to this protective order.

         4. The OCDA Report and all information contained therein, may only be disclosed to the following “qualified” persons:

(a) Counsel of record for the parties to this civil litigation;

(b) Plaintiffs to these consolidated actions, and Defendant City of Santa Ana and its employees, including, but not limited to Officer Christopher Shynn;

(c) Paralegal, stenographic, clerical and secretarial personnel regularly employed by counsel referred to in subparagraph (a); and, investigators, expert witnesses and other persons legitimately involved in litigation-related activities for the counsel of record; and

(d) Court personnel, including stenographic reporters engaged in such proceedings as are necessarily incidental to preparation for the trial of this action.

(e) With the exception of the Court and court personnel (who are subject only to the Court’s internal procedures regarding the handling of material filed or lodged, including material filed or lodged under seal), all persons receiving a copy of the OCDA Report shall, before receiving such protected information, be given a copy of this Protective Order and a compliance agreement (in the form attached hereto as Exhibit “A”) and shall execute the compliance agreement, and return the original of the compliance agreement to the attorney who gives him/her the protected information. It shall be the responsibility of the respective attorneys to distribute compliance agreements, and then collect and maintain custody of the executed originals of the compliance agreements.

         5. To the extent any portion of the OCDA Report contains an audio recording, transcript and/or summary of a statement and/or report given to the OCDA by an independent witness who does not fall within one of the categories described in Paragraph 3 above, that selected portion of the OCDA Report may be provided to the particular witness to which it pertains.

         6. The OCDA Report may be disclosed to the Court and court personnel, in connection with this litigation. Portions of the OCDA Report that a party intends to use in support of or in opposition to a pre-trial filing with the Court must be filed in accordance with the Central District of California Local Rules relating to under seal filings, including Local Rule 79-5. Counsel intending to use documents from OCDA Report must both (a) apply to submit unredacted documents containing any portion of the OCDA Report under seal and (b) file public versions of the same documents with the information from the OCDA Report redacted.

         7. In the event this matter proceeds to trial, to the extent that any of the OCDA Report is offered into evidence, those documents will become public, unless sufficient ...