Guillermo Nuno v. D. Eslick, et al.

Summary

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of California addresses Guillermo Nuno’s motion to compel discovery in his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 retaliation action against correctional officers. The court grants the motion as to requests for production of grievances or inmate appeals, subject to redaction of privacy-sensitive information, and denies it in all other respects.

Holdings

1. The motion to compel was denied as to work-assignment logs for dates not shown to be relevant to the operative retaliation claims, and the request was moot as to relevant dates for which defendants had already provided evidence.
2. The motion to compel was granted as to request for production no. 2, requiring defendants to produce responsive grievances and inmate appeals concerning them, subject to appropriate redactions to protect third-party privacy.
3. The motion to compel was denied as to facility logs of violent occurrences because Nuno failed to show that the logs were relevant to the alleged First Amendment retaliation.
4. The motion to compel was denied as to two years of inmate photographs because Nuno failed to establish relevance or proportionality, and production would implicate the privacy interests of unrelated inmates.
5. The motion to compel was denied as to requests for admission concerning defendants' outside-work contact because such contact, without more, would not prove or disprove the alleged retaliatory acts or collusion.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Nuno was entitled to compel production of work-assignment logs for dates connected or allegedly unrelated to his retaliation claims.
2. Whether grievances and inmate appeals concerning the defendants were discoverable despite objections based on character evidence, privacy, relevance, and proportionality.
3. Whether facility logs of violent occurrences and photographs of inmates assigned to a prison yard were relevant and proportional to Nuno's First Amendment retaliation claims.
4. Whether admissions or phone records concerning defendants' contact outside work were relevant to the alleged retaliatory acts or collusion.

Disposition

other