Darryl Dunsmore, et al. v. San Diego County Sheriff's Department, et al.

Summary

The United States District Court for the Southern District of California addresses Plaintiffs’ motion to file under seal information derived from Critical Incident Review Board reports. Applying Greer v. County of San Diego, the court held that attorney-client privilege covered information from reports concerning four in-custody deaths where the Chief Legal Advisor attended the relevant meetings, but found the record insufficient regarding a report concerning Raymond Dix. The County was ordered to file a supplemental brief addressing the privilege issue for that report.

Holdings

1. Under Greer, the attorney-client privilege applies to the CIRB report information contained in the expert reports of Gary Raney, Kelly Ramsey, and Pablo Stewart.
2. The Chief Legal Advisor's presence at a CIRB meeting renders the ensuing CIRB report privileged in its entirety regardless of whether the advisor actively participates.
3. The existing record was insufficient to determine whether the CIRB report concerning Raymond Dix was privileged.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the attorney-client privilege applies to CIRB report information incorporated into the expert reports of Gary Raney, Kelly Ramsey, and Pablo Stewart.
2. Whether the attorney-client privilege applies to CIRB report information concerning Raymond Dix incorporated into Jeffrey Keller's expert report when the record does not establish the role of the legal representative who attended that CIRB meeting.
3. Whether the legal advisor's active participation is required for the privilege to extend to the entire CIRB report.

Disposition

other