MELENDRES v. ARPAIO
Manuel de Jesus Ortega Melendres, et al., Plaintiffs,
v.
Joseph M. Arpaio, et al., Defendants.
No. CV-07-2513-PHX-GMS.
United States District Court, D. Arizona.
November 23, 2010.
ORDERG. MURRAY SNOW, District Judge.
Pending before this Court is Defendants' Motion for An Order To Show Cause and Allowing Defendants' Leave to Take Additional Discovery (Doc. 337) and Maricopa County's Motion to Strike Sheriff's Motion For Order to Show Cause and For Leave to Take Additional Discovery (Doc. 350). For the reasons set forth below, Defendants' Motion for An Order to Show Cause is denied, and the County's Motion to Strike Sheriff's Motion is denied as moot.
BACKGROUNDThe pertinent facts pertaining to this motion are set forth in affidavits provided by the parties in support of, and in response to, the above motions. They include the affidavits of Timothy J. Casey, Stacey Marie Haggart, and Shelly L. Bunn. Certain additional affidavits filed previously in this matter, such as the affidavits of Jack McIntyre, Manuel Madrid, Dot Culhane, Joseph Sousa, Brett Palmer and a separate affidavit of Timothy J. Casey also provide relevant facts and also have been reviewed by this Court in deciding the present motion. Because the facts attested to in the affidavits that are relevant are not seriously disputed, and seem to be consistent with each other, the Court assumes their accuracy.
In this class action, Plaintiffs challenge certain operations of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office ("MCSO") as being subject to, or influenced by, racial profiling. It was originally brought almost three years ago in December 2007. Although the Sheriff and the MCSO are the present defendants in this action, Plaintiffs originally also named Maricopa County as a Defendant. All Defendants were originally represented by Tim Casey of Schmitt, Schneck, Smyth & Herrod, P.C.
When the lawsuit was originally filed in December 2007, Mr. Casey had communications with the MCSO concerning documents and evidence that it should retain in light of the lawsuit. On July 21, 2008 Plaintiffs' new counsel sent to Mr. Casey a litigation hold letter that further outlined categories of documents pertaining to the operations of the Sheriff's office that, in light of this litigation, the MCSO was required to maintain. Plaintiffs also filed a contemporaneous public records request with the MCSO to obtain the same material.1
1. The affidavit of Dot Culhane sets forth the MCSO's efforts to comply with the public records request under Arizona law. As this court determined in its order of February 12, 2010, however, based on the initial deposition testimony of Sheriff Arpaio and Officer Madrid, and the affidavits of Lieutenant Joseph Sousa and Sergeant Brett Palmer, no litigation hold of such documents was effectively communicated within the MCSO. Doc. 261.