Jackson v. Binkele

Background

This is a pro se prisoner civil-rights action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The claims identified as cognizable are that: (1) some defendants were deliberately indifferent to Jackson’s safety by housing him at Salinas Valley; (2) other defendants were deliberately indifferent by failing to prevent or stop quickly enough a fight involving him several weeks after his arrival; and (3) other defendants were deliberately indifferent to his medical needs after the fight. Eleven defendants were served, one defendant was voluntarily dismissed, and ten defendants remained.

The defendants had filed a motion for summary judgment based on failure to exhaust administrative remedies. That motion was fully briefed but had not yet been decided. The court had stayed the case for a settlement conference, but Magistrate Judge Illman reported that the case did not settle. The court lifted the stay.

Summary-Judgment Schedule

The court stated that the fully briefed exhaustion motion would be decided in due course and directed the defendants to file a renewed notice of that motion. The court expected no further submissions on it.

Nine defendants—Binkele, Erguiza, Gonzalez, Jah, Makela, Mindoro, Muniz, Patty, and Rawhoof—had filed another summary-judgment motion concerning the administrative, yard, and medical claims. The court set December 20, 2019, for Jackson’s opposition and January 3, 2020, for the reply. Defendant Schwarz was given until January 3, 2020, to file a summary-judgment motion, if any; Jackson’s opposition would be due January 31, 2020, and Schwarz’s reply would be due February 14, 2020.

Other Rulings

The court granted the nine defendants’ request to file a 29-page brief supporting their summary-judgment motion, rather than the 25 pages otherwise permitted by the local rule. The court also granted Schwarz’s request for a briefing schedule for his possible summary-judgment motion.

Sealing Request

The defendants sought to file under seal an annotated aerial photograph of the prison yard, two photographs of the yard showing prisoners in the far distance, and 18 photographs of Jackson’s wounds. The court explained that court records are presumptively accessible to the public and that, in prisoner cases, genuine risks to staff or prisoner safety can support sealing.

The court found that the defendants had not overcome the presumption of public access as to most of the material. It did not seal Exhibit 1, the annotated aerial photograph, because it was similar to aerial photographs available on the internet. It did not seal Exhibit 2, the two yard photographs, because no individual could be identified and the photographs did not show information a prisoner could not learn by observing the yard.

The court granted the sealing request in part and denied it in part. For Exhibit 3, it ordered sealed only the photographs showing other prisoners or staff in the background—Docket No. 59-8 at 2, 5–12, and 15–16. It did not seal photographs showing only Jackson and parts of his body.

The defendants did not have to provide Jackson with copies of Exhibits 1 or 2 or the sealed portions of Exhibit 3. They were required to make those materials available for supervised viewing for up to 30 minutes through the procedure described in the Lopez Declaration.

Proposed Protective Order

The court declined to sign the proposed stipulated protective order. It found that the defendants had not shown good cause because they did not explain what information required protection from public disclosure or why this case differed from other prisoner civil-rights cases. The court also noted that Jackson had not signed the stipulation and that the proposed order did not clearly state that he was not bound by it.

Disposition

This scheduling order lifted the stay, set litigation deadlines, granted the page-limit request, granted Schwarz’s request for a briefing schedule, granted the sealing request in part and denied it in part, and declined to sign the proposed protective order. It did not resolve the pending summary-judgment motion.