Dow v. County of Snohomish ( 2021 )

THE HONORABLE JOHN C. COUGHENOUR 1 2 3 4 5 6 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 8 AT SEATTLE 9 ESTATE OF ADAM CHRISTOPHER CASE NO. C20-1320-JCC JENSEN, by the Personal Representative 10 PAULA DOW, et al., ORDER 11 Plaintiffs, 12 v. 13 COUNTY OF SNOHOMISH, et al., 14 Defendants. 15 16 This matter comes before the Court on the parties’ stipulated motion to file confidential 17 material under seal (Dkt. No. 34). Having considered the motion and the relevant record and 18 finding good cause, the Court hereby GRANTS the motion for the reasons described below. 19 Plaintiff has filed a civil rights lawsuit pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in which she alleges, 20 among other things, that on September 9, 2018 Snohomish County Defendants used excessive 21 force against her son, resulting in his death. (Dkt. No. 4.) The Snohomish County Defendants 22 acquired video footage of events just prior to, during and immediately following the incident in 23 question. (See Dkt. No. 34 at 2.) The parties have stipulated with respect to the confidentiality of 24 many of the materials associated with this litigation, including this video footage, in a separate 25 protective order approved by the Court on February 3, 2021. (See Dkt. No. 32.) The video 26 footage that is the subject of this motion is identified as Bates Nos. DOW 00027-30. (Dkt. No. 1 34 at 2.) 2 The Court understands that Snohomish County Defendants will shortly be filing a motion 3 for partial summary judgment and seek to file a selection of the video clips in support of their 4 motion under seal pursuant to the terms of the protective order, in the interest of preserving the 5 confidential nature of this video footage and to prevent potential jurors from forming improper 6 bias if they were to view this evidence before trial. (Dkt. No. 34 at 2.) 7 Parties may seek to file a document under seal pursuant to Local Civil Rule 5(g). While 8 there is a strong presumption of public access to the Court’s files, a document designated as 9 “confidential” in discovery that a party seeks to attach to a dispositive motion may be filed under 10 seal so long as the party shows “compelling reasons” to do so. See Kamakana v. City and Cnty. 11 of Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 1178-81 (9th Cir. 2006). 12 In the instant case, the video that Snohomish County Defendants seek to file in support of 13 their motion contains both sensitive footage of the incident underlying Plaintiff’s complaint and 14 depictions of minors. (Dkt. No. 34 at 3.) This is a sufficiently compelling reason to maintain such 15 information under seal and that reason outweighs the public’s interest in its disclosure. See 16 Karpenski v. Am. Gen. Life Cos., LLC, 2013 WL 5588312, slip. op. at 1 (W.D. Wash. 2013). 17 Accordingly, the Court GRANTS the motion to seal (Dkt. No. 34) the video footage to be 18 included with Defendants’ anticipated motion for summary judgment. 19 DATED this 29th day of March 2021. A 20 21 22 John C. Coughenour 23 UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE 24 25 26