Source: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-casd-3_03-cv-02005/USCOURTS-casd-3_03-cv-02005-0/pdf.json

Nature of Suit Code: 442
Nature of Suit: Civil Rights Employment
Cause of Action: 42:1983 Civil Rights Act

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1 03cv2005 

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

JESUS E. GONZALEZ,

Plaintiff,

v.

CITY OF CALEXICO, et al.,

Defendants.

 

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Civil No. 03CV2005 WQH (PCL)

PROTECTIVE ORDER AND ORDER

REGULATING DISCOVERY

I. REQUESTED DISCOVERY 

Discovery was reopened by Judge Hayes per his Order on

Plaintiff’s Rule 56(f) motion. (Doc. No. 138) Therefore,

Defendants are ordered to preserve all data and documents

relevant to claims and/or defenses in this matter, and are

ordered to respond to previously propounded written discovery,

deposition questions, and any further discovery necessitated as

a result of Defendants’ responses thereto. In particular, as

regards claims and defenses, Defendants should produce and/or

respond to the discovery requests for the following:

1. Jesus Gonzalez’ Contention Interrogatories Propounded

to City of Calexico (Set One), Nos. 12, 13, 14, 17 and 20;

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2 03cv2005 

2. Jesus Gonzalez’ Demand for Production of Documents

Propounded to City of Calexico (Set One) Request Nos. 12, 20,

23, 28 and 29;

3. Jesus Gonzalez Contention Interrogatories Propounded

to James L. Neujahr (Set One), Interrogatory Nos. 12, 15 and 16;

4. Jesus Gonzalez’ Contention Interrogatories Propounded

to Alex Perrone (Set One) Interrogatory Nos. 12, 15 and 16;

5. Jesus Gonzalez’ Contention Interrogatories Propounded

to John Renison (Set One) Interrogatory Nos. 12, 15 and 16;

6. Jesus Gonzalez’ Demand for Production of Documents

Propounded to Mario Sanchez (Set One) Request Nos. 12, 20, 23,

28 and 29;

7. Jesus Gonzalez’ Contention Interrogatories Propounded

to Mario Sanchez (Set One) Interrogatory Nos. 12, 15 and 16;

8. Questions not answered on advice of counsel by Mario

Sanchez at his deposition taken on November 13, 2006, 72:15-

74:2.

9. Questions not answered by any other defense witness

deposed who so refused on advice of counsel.

10. The three relevant documents inadvertently produced by

Defendants may be kept as Confidential Discovery Material;

11. Any discovery necessitated as a result of the above

additional discovery.

II. PROTECTIVE ORDER

Any documents, responses or testimony produced in compliance with this Order will be subject to the following Protective

Order:

1. Designating Confidentiality of Discovery Material. 

Any documents or information produced or obtained as a result of

this Court Order which include “documents” and all other “writings” as defined in California Evidence Code § 250, and includes

electronically stored discovery as defined in FRCP 34, deposition testimony, deposition exhibits, declarations, interrogatory

responses, responses to requests for admission, responses to

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3 03cv2005 

production requests and/or subpoenas, and all other documents

and other “writings” produced or otherwise disclosed pursuant to

this Order or Judge Hayes’ Order, (collectively, “Discovery

Material”), is entitled to disclosure under seal. This Discovery Material may at any time be filed or made available to

opposing counsel for attorneys and their eyes only, marked

and/or be designated as PROTECTIVE ORDER CONFIDENTIAL (“CONFIDENTIAL”) following the document number applied for litigation

purposes, and any Discovery Material so marked and/or designated

shall be entitled to such protection afforded under the Protective Order.

The designation of Discovery Material as CONFIDENTIAL shall

be done to prevent its disclosure to anyone not listed in

Section 2 below and shall be limited to Discovery Material that

is or contains confidential employment, personnel, or personal

information which, if disclosed to persons other than those

listed below, is likely to cause harm.

2. Confidential

The designation CONFIDENTIAL is to be applied to Discovery

Material produced in response to this Order for the purpose of

limiting Discovery Material disclosures to the following persons, and only those persons. No Discovery Material designated

under the terms of this Protective Order shall be disclosed to

anyone other than on the following terms to the following

persons:

a. “Parties.” A Party may be shown CONFIDENTIAL

Discovery Material.

b. “All Counsel.” Counsel for the respective Parties

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to this litigation, including necessary secretarial , clerical,

litigation support, or copy service personnel assisting such

counsel in this case, whether employed by counsel or outside

contractors (“All Counsel”), may be shown CONFIDENTIAL Discovery

Material

c. “Court Reporters” Deposition court reporters

and videographers (“Court Reporters”) who are engaged in connection with this action may be shown CONFIDENTIAL Discovery

Material

d. “The Court” The Court, Court personnel, court

reporters, videotape recorders, and mediators in connection with

this action (the “Court”) may be shown CONFIDENTIAL Discovery

Material.

e. “Witnesses” At the time their testimony is

taken, fact witnesses whose testimony is taken in this action

(“Witnesses”) may be shown CONFIDENTIAL Discovery Material.

3. Deposition Handling of CONFIDENTIAL Discovery Materials:

Whenever any CONFIDENTIAL Discovery Material is elicited,

introduced, disclosed, marked as an exhibit or otherwise referred to in a deposition in this action:

a. All portions of the transcript referring to said

material shall be separately bound, taped and given CONFIDENTIAL

Discovery Material markings and shall be subject to the terms of

this Protective Order. The court reporter shall separately

transcribe testimony so designated and shall stamp or mark the

face of the transcript accordingly. The transcript of the nonCase 3:03-cv-02005-PCL-PCL Document 143 Filed 12/22/06 Page 4 of 11
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confidential portion shall indicate that testimony disclosing

CONFIDENTIAL matters ensures and that such testimony is separately transcribed. Both the non-confidential and either

CONFIDENTIAL transcripts shall use a single set of continuous

page numbers so that the continuity of the deposition transcript

pagination is maintained. If all parties agree that any given

transcript contains so many repeated references to CONFIDENTIAL

Discovery Material that they cannot practicably be segregated

from other material, then the entire transcript shall be marked

CONFIDENTIAL and shall be protected under the terms of this

Protective Order.

b. During those portions of the deposition discussing or disclosing CONFIDENTIAL material, only those persons

authorized under the terms of this order to have access to such

material may be present in the deposition room.

1. Preserving Confidentiality of CONFIDENTIAL Discovery

Material.

Discovery Material designated as CONFIDENTIAL shall not be

used by the Party or Parties to whom the information is produced

for any purpose other than for preparation, pretrial, ADR,

settlement discussions, trial of this action, any appeal and

retrial and such Discovery Material shall not be used for any

other purpose, or in any other administrative or judicial

proceeding. Nothing herein, however, is intended to prohibit or

proscribe the ability for the receiving Party from providing to

the client informed and meaningful advice with respect to this

action.

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Nothing in this Protective Order shall limit or restrict

the rights, if any, of a Party or person to use its own Discovery Material regardless of how another Party or person designates it under this Protective Order. Furthermore, nothing

herein shall impose any restrictions on the use or disclosure by

a Party or other persons of any documents, material or information lawfully obtained by such Party or other person independently of the discovery proceedings in this action, whether or

not the same documents, material or information are also obtained through discovery proceedings in this action and placed

under the protection of this Protective Order.

The recipient of CONFIDENTIAL Discovery Material shall

maintain such material in a secure and safe area, and, at a

minimum, shall exercise the same standard of due and proper care

with respect to storage, custody, use, and dissemination of such

material as is exercised by the recipient with respect to his,

her, or its own confidential information. Nothing herein shall

restrict the making of working copies, abstracts, digests and

analyses of such Discovery Material for use in connection with

this action, or the converting or translating of such information into machine-readable form for the incorporation in a data

retrieval system used in connection with this action, provided

that access to such information in whatever form stored or

reproduced, shall be limited to recipients otherwise permitted

by this Protective Order, with the CONFIDENTIAL marking affixed

to any of the information so incorporated, in the manner set

forth above.

4. Court Filings, Hearings, and Trial Involving ConfidenCase 3:03-cv-02005-PCL-PCL Document 143 Filed 12/22/06 Page 6 of 11
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tiality Designated Discovery Material.

No information marked as confidential by either side is to

be submitted or referred to as part of any pleading unless the

parties jointly stipulate or the information is submitted under

seal upon a separate prior order by the judge before whom the

hearing or proceeding will take place. Such order shall be

sought by ex parte application by the affected party with

appropriate notice to opposing counsel. 

In the event that any CONFIDENTIAL Discovery Material is

used in any deposition, in support of motions, at trial, or in

connection with any other public or semipublic proceeding

relating to this matter, it shall not lose its status as CONFIDENTIAL Discovery Material through such use, and the Parties

shall take all steps reasonably required to protect its confidentiality during such use.

The Parties shall meet and confer after the pre-trial

conference concerning appropriate methods for dealing with

material designated CONFIDENTIAL at trial. A Party may seek to

seal the Court record to prohibit its disclosure on the public

record.

5. Nothing In This Protective Order Shall:

a. Limit the right of a Party to object to the

introduction into evidence of any CONFIDENTIAL Discovery Material based on relevance, authenticity, hearsay, or any other

rule of evidence, substantive law, public policy or otherwise;

b. Preclude a Party from seeking such additional

protection with regard to CONFIDENTIAL Discovery Material as

that Party may deem appropriate;

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c. Prevent a Party from objecting to discovery that

it believes to be improper, including, but not limited to,

objections based upon the privileged or confidential nature of

the Discovery Material requested;

d. Impose restrictions on the use or disclosure by a

Party or person in this action of documents or information

lawfully obtained independently of the discovery proceedings in

this action. 

e. Impose restrictions on the use or disclosure by a

Party or person in this action of documents or information

previously produced as to which the Defendant’s request for

Protective Order has been herein denied.

This Protective Order has been entered solely for the

purpose of facilitating discovery in this action. The parties

are required to produce the discovery within ten days of the

date of this Order and production shall be made in usable form. 

The terms hereof and the Parties’ disclosure of information or

other proceedings pursuant to the terms hereof, shall not be an

admission by any Party of any fact, issue or contention in this

action or in any other action or proceeding.

III. OFFICIAL INFORMATION PRIVILEGE

1. Defendants may not invoke the official information

privilege to limit discovery for item ten (“the three relevant

documents inadvertently produced by Defendants”) and those

documents MUST be produced. Further, deposition and/or

interrogatory questions relating to those documents must be

answered if the sole objection to answering those questions was

that the documents were privileged. Those answers, if any, will

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1

 Miller v. Panucci, 141 F.R.D. 292 (C.D. Cal. 1992)

9 

be covered by this protective order.

2. The official information privilege may be invoked by

Defendants for the remaining specified requests (items one

through eleven, excluding ten) and any other discovery requests

that may arise in the course of discovery. HOWEVER, DEFENDANTS

SHOULD INVOKE THE PRIVILEGE JUDICIOUSLY.

3. Bearing in mind that “the law places the burden of

proving all elements essential to invoking any privilege on the

party seeking its benefits”1 and Defendants earlier lackluster

proffer for item ten (see Doc. No. 137), to invoke the official

information privilege for the items listed above – numbers one

through nine and number eleven – DEFENDANTS MUST:

a. File a separate declaration for each item of discovery

that complies with the requirements – one through five – as set

forth in Hampton v. City of San Diego, 147 F.R.D. 227, 230 (S.D.

Cal. 1993) and in the Court’s order (“the Order”) dated December

12, 2006 (Doc. No. 137); AND

b. File a brief, not to exceed ten (10) pages per

invocation of privilege, (1) identifying the governmental

privacy interest that would be threatened by disclosure of the

material to plaintiff and/or his lawyer and (2) how disclosure

under a tightly drafted protective order would create a substantial risk of harm to significant government privacy interests. 

Hampton, 147 F.R.D. at 231. One brief may be filed for multiple

invocations of the official information privilege (e.g. a

submission covering three items thought to be privileged would

have a page limit of thirty pages); AND

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c. Send to the Court, directly (2003 W. Adams Ave, Suite

220, El Centro, CA 92243), for in camera review, the documents

for which the official information privilege is being invoked. 

The submission should be organized, clearly labeled, and bound

in such a way that the pages are easy to navigate. If a truncated version of a requested item would adequately demonstrate

the underlying arguments that the documents should be privileged, then a truncated version (not to be less than ten (10)

pages) should be submitted in the place of a complete document.

4. Moreover, the submissions satisfying the above three

requirements – “a” through “c” – are to be filed and/or submitted no later than January 29, 2006. If Defendants intend to

invoke the official information privilege but fail to comply

with this order, the privilege will be considered waived. If

Defendants attempt to file any of the requested items listed

above but fail because their submission is rejected for failure

to comply with the United States District Court, Southern

District of California Local Rules, the privilege will be

considered waived for the item the submission relates to. All

citations in the submissions newly authored to comply with this

order (not the documents to be discovered themselves) shall

comply with the rules set forth in The Bluebook, Eighteenth

Edition, or the privilege will be considered waived. 

e. On Wednesday, January 3, 2007, at 2:00 p.m., Defendants

shall initiate a conference call with Plaintiff and the Court. 

The Court will decide rule on Defendants’ invocation of the

official information privilege at that time. Both parties

should be prepared to answer the Courts questions with details

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and specifics.

Plaintiff in particular, as “the requesting party” should

be prepared to (1) describe how, in the particular situation at

bar, the requested information is relevant to the litigation is

or is reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence, (2) identify interest of plaintiff’s that would be

harmed if the material were not disclosed, (3) specify how that

harm would occur and how extensive it would be, and (4) why it

would be impossible or impracticable to acquire information of

equivalent value through alternative means.

f. Defendants shall prepare the above items – the items

that they have claimed as privileged – for immediate delivery to

the Plaintiff, should the Court rule that an item is not

privileged at the teleconference.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

DATED: December 22, 2006

Peter C. Lewis

U.S. Magistrate Judge

United States District Court

cc: All Parties

 Hon. William Q. Hayes

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