(PC) Cray v. Correia ( 2021 )

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 JOSEPH L. CRAY, No. 1:19-cv-01641-DAD-EPG (PC) 12 Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFF’S MOTION TO WITHDRAW PLAINTIFF’S MOTION TO 13 v. COMPEL 14 F. CORREIA, (ECF Nos. 41, 43) 15 Defendant. 16 17 On April 12, 2021, Plaintiff Joseph L. Cray, a state prisoner proceeding pro se and in 18 forma pauperis in this civil rights action, filed a motion to compel stating that he “wish[es] for the 19 defendant to show forth any past/prior of the same accusations.” (ECF No. 41). He also asked for 20 “any tips of paperwork on whats to come next and or how to go by doing.” Id. 21 On May 3, 2021, Defendant F. Correia responded in opposition to the motion, stating that 22 Plaintiff has not requested any discovery “either informally in a letter or formally through service 23 of a written discovery request” from Defendant and thus there is no withheld discovery to compel 24 Defendant to produce. (ECF No. 42). 25 On May 14, 2021, Plaintiff filed a document stating that he “would like to withdraw [his] 26 motion to compel, but I do wish to request for obtaining defendants discovery.” (ECF No. 43). 27 The Court will grant Plaintiff’s request to withdraw his motion to compel. 28 If Plaintiff wishes to request these documents from defendants, he should write to defense 1 counsel, Stacia Johns, and request the documents. He should state exactly what documents he is 2 requesting. Defendant has 45 days to respond to this request. If Defendant fails to respond, or 3 Plaintiff believes Defendant should have provided more documents in response, Plaintiff can file 4 a motion to compel production of the requested documents, keeping in mind the deadlines 5 discussed below. 6 The Court’s Scheduling order dated December 23, 2020, provides more information about 7 discovery requests. (ECF No. 34, at p. 2). 8 Without deciding the issue, Plaintiff may not be entitled to the documents he describes. 9 The Court notes that Federal Rules of Evidence prevent a party from using evidence of “any other 10 crime, wrong, or act” to “prove a person’s character in order to show that on a particular occasion 11 the person acted in accordance with the character.” Fed. R. Evid. 404(b)(1). Evidence of any 12 other crime, wrong, or act may be admissible “as proving motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, 13 knowledge, identity, absence of mistake, or lack of accident.” Fed. R. Evid. 404(b)(2). While 14 “admissibility [under the Federal Rules of Evidence] is not the standard used to determine 15 discovery,” Shi v. Cent. Arizona Coll., No. 08-80131-RMW(HRL), 2008 WL 4665985, at *1 16 (N.D. Cal. Oct. 21, 2008), the information sought must still be “relevant to any party’s claim or 17 defense and proportional to the needs of the case,” Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(1). Thus, if Plaintiff 18 requests information about Defendant’s past acts, other than the acts directly at issue in the 19 complaint, he should specify what acts he is requesting. And if Plaintiff files a motion to compel, 20 the Court will evaluate whether the past acts are relevant to his claim. 21 Plaintiff is also reminded that the deadline in this case for motions to compel is May 14, 22 2021, and the deadline for all non-expert discovery is July 25, 2021. If Plaintiff believes he needs 23 an extension of these deadlines, he should file a motion to extend the deadlines and should 24 explain why he did not request discovery and file a motion to compel earlier. 25 As for Plaintiff’s request for “whats to come next and or how to go by doing,” the Court 26 will send Plaintiff another copy of the Court’s scheduling order that set the deadlines in this case. 27 (ECF No. 34). (The Court notes, however, that the discovery and status conference that was set 28 for June 14, 2021 has been vacated and will not go forward.) (ECF No. 40). 1 Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED that: 2 1. Plaintiff's motion to withdraw his motion to compel (ECF No. 43) is granted. The 3 Clerk is directed to withdraw Plaintiff's motion to compel. (ECF No. 41). 4 2. The Clerk of the Court shall send Plaintiff a copy of the Court’s Scheduling Order 5 (ECF No. 34). IT IS SO ORDERED. 7 g | Dated: _May 18, 2021 ___ [sf ey 9 UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28