United States District Court, C.D. California
DANIEL
R. SULLIVAN (State Bar No. 96740) MICHAEL S. VASIN (State Bar
No. 227945) SULLIVAN, BALLOG & WILLIAMS, LLP Attorneys
for Defendants COUNTY OF ORANGE and ZACHARY VARELA
[PROPOSED] PROTECTIVE ORDER RE: CONFIDENTIAL
INFORMATION AND DOCUMENTS
HONORABLE KAREN E. SCOTT United States District Court
Magistrate Judge.
Pursuant
to the Provisions of Rule 26(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil
Procedure, the parties hereby stipulate to and petition the
Court to enter the following Stipulated Protective Order.
This
case arises out of Plaintiff Trevor Wyman’s
(“Plaintiff”) detention at the Theo Lacy Facility
on August 23, 2014. Plaintiff contends that he was injured by
Orange County Sheriff’s Deputies while being
restrained. The County of Orange (“County”)
conducted an internal investigation and, as a result, the
Orange County Sheriff’s Department generated
investigation reports, third-party statements, as well as
other pieces of potential evidence in connection with the
internal investigation. Plaintiff now seeks disclosure of,
among other things, the investigative file pertaining to the
August 23, 2014 incident, the personnel records of the
involved deputies, and the Sheriff’s Department’s
written policies and procedures.
Disclosure
and discovery activity in this action will involve production
of confidential or private information involving peace
officers for which special protection from public disclosure
and protection from use for any purpose other than the
instant litigation is warranted. Accordingly, the parties
hereby stipulate to and petition the Court to enter the
following Stipulated Protective Order.
The
parties acknowledge that this Order does not confer blanket
protections on all disclosures or responses to discovery and
that the protection it affords from public disclosure and use
extends only to the limited information or items that are
entitled to confidential treatment under the applicable legal
principles. The parties further acknowledge, as set forth
below, that this Stipulated Protective Order does not entitle
them to file confidential information under seal; Civil Local
Rule 79-5 sets forth the procedures that must be followed and
the standards that will be applied when a party seeks
permission from the court to file material under seal.
Nothing contained in this Protective Order is intended or
should be construed as authorizing a party in this action to
disobey a lawful subpoena issued in another action.
A.
DESIGNATION AS CONFIDENTIAL:
It is
hereby stipulated that the defendants, COUNTY OF ORANGE and
DEPUTY VARELA, as well as any other Orange County
Sheriff’s Department deputies and/or personnel later
added as defendants, (hereinafter referred to collectively as
“Defendants”), may designate as
“CONFIDENTIAL” material the following items
produced in response to discovery:
1.
Peace officer personnel files and all records that are
typically contained within or associated with such personnel
files according to the regular practices of the law
enforcement agency which is the custodian of such records -
including but not limited to internal affairs investigations
and related interviews and reports, peace officer medical
records in the custody of the peace officer’s law
enforcement agency employer pertinent to the pending action,
records regarding peace officer discipline, associated law
enforcement agency employment/internal investigations and
related interviews and reports, interviews and reports
related to personnel complaints by peace officers and/or
citizen complaints against peace officers, peace officer
training records, and personal information; and documents
defined and/or described in California Penal Code sections
832.5, 832.7, and 832.8;
2.
Comparable records of the parties that may otherwise be
privileged from disclosure but which parties agree to produce
pursuant to the terms of the parties’ Stipulation and
this Protective Order, including a party’s medical
records, financial records, or other privileged records,
documents, or information;
3.
Documents related to any internal investigation by Defendants
related to Plaintiff’s allegations; and
4.
ORANGE COUNTY SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT’s written
policies and/or procedures.
The
production of the aforementioned materials does not waive any
objections with respect to the admissibility of any of these
documents at time of trial. Moreover, inclusion of materials
in the foregoing list does not waive any objection(s) to
their production.
The
designation of “CONFIDENTIAL” material shall be
made by placing or affixing upon written
transcripts/documents in a manner which is not to interfere
with its legibility, the word “CONFIDENTIAL, ” to
each page that contains protected material. The designation
shall be made prior to, or in ...