Warren v. Nev. Dept. of Corr.

1 A AAtRtoOrnNe yD G. FenOeRraDl PETER E. DUNKLEY, Bar No. 11110 Deputy Attorney General State of Nevada Public Safety Division 100 N. Carson Street Carson City, NV 89701-4717 Tel: (775) 684-1259 E-mail: [email protected] Attorneys for Defendants Quentin Byrne, Sheryl Foster, Joshua Kelly, Stephen Powers, Ruben Vidaurri 9 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 10 DISTRICT OF NEVADA KEITH A. WARREN, Case No. 3:17-cv-00228-MMD-WGC 12 Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING vs. MOTION FOR EXTENSION OF TIME TO RESPOND TO DISCOVERY NEVADA DEPARTMENT OF REQUESTS CORRECTIONS, et al., Defendants.

17 Defendants, Quentin Byrne, Sheryl Foster, Joshua Kelly, Stephen Powers, Ruben Vidaurri, by and through counsel, Aaron D. Ford, Nevada Attorney General, and Peter E. Dunkley, hereby submit this Motion for Extension of Time to Serve Discovery Responses to Plaintiff’s Discovery Requests, Dated June 30, 2020, and received by the Office of the Attorney General on July 6, 2020. This Motion is based on Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 6(b)(1)(A), the following Memorandum of Points and Authorities, and all papers and pleadings on file in this action.

23 MEMORANDUM OF POINTS AND AUTHORITIES I. INTRODUCTION 25 Defendants request additional time to respond to outstanding Requests for Admissions and Requests for Production of documents, without waiving objections, because of the administrative obstacles at the Office of the Attorney General (OAG), related to the response to COVID-19.

28 / / / State-wide, and OAG wide policies and technological limitations have affected the effectiveness of communications and the ability to efficiently compile documents and evidence, from outside the office.

3 Defendants respectfully request an extension of 32 days from today, from the current deadlines of August 13, 2020, (for discovery dated July 14, 2020, but not received until July 21), August 23, 2020 (for discovery dated July 22, but not received until July 27, 2020), and August 28, 2020 (for discovery dated July 24, but not received until July 27, 2020, or July 28, 2020). In summary, Defendants request until September 14, 2020 for the following discovery listed by date of discovery signed by Plaintiff: 8 1. July 14, 2020: a. RFAs: i. Foster 10 ii. Byrne iii. Powers iv. Kelly 12 v. Vidaurri (second) b. Request for Documents: i. Foster & Byrne 14 2. July 22, 2020: a. RFA: i. Foster 16 ii. Byrne iii. Vidaurri (third) b. Request for Documents 18 i. Viaurri, Byrne, Foster 3. July 24, 2020: a. Interrogatories: 20 i. Vidaurri ii. Byrne iii. Foster 22 iv. Powers v. Kelly II. ARGUMENT 25 Defendants respectfully requests a 32-day extension of time out from the current deadlines to serve responses to Plaintiff’s Request for Admissions and Requests for Production of Documents and interrogatories as set forth above. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 6(b)(1) governs extensions of time and provides as follows: 1 for good cause, extend the time: (A) with or without motion or notice if the court acts, or if a request is made, before the original time or its 2 extension expires; or (B) on motion made after the time has expired if the party failed to act because of excusable neglect.

4 “The district court is given broad discretion in supervising the pretrial phase of litigation….” Zivkovic v. S.

5 California Edison Co., 302 F.3d 1080, 1087 (9th Cir. 2002) (citation omitted).

6 Defendants assert that the requisite good cause is present to warrant the requested extension of time. This request has been necessitated by ongoing quarantine measures imposed in response to the COVID-19 virus pandemic. Defendants make the instant request in light of the current issues related to COVID-19 including Nevada Governor Sisolak’s March 31, 2020 Declaration of Emergency (Directive 010) – ‘Stay at Home Order’ and the Governor’s April 1, 2020 “Stay at Home” directive. In response, the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) has directed all AOG employees to comply with the Governor’s directives and orders. The OAG is limiting (and in some instances, restricting completely) in-office work, and instructing employees to stay at home and to work from home to the extent possible. The OAG, and the State Nevada information technology staff have been working to fully implement alternate, home- based working arrangements. As a result, the already limited staff at the OAG is rendered less efficient due to constraints imposed by limited Virtual Private Networks (VPN) and lack of remote document access, along with a recent quarantine of the undersigned. In light of Governor’s directives, the OAG’s policies, the information technologies limitations, and due to the functional difficulties the instant circumstances place on accessing and obtaining the necessary supporting documents, including correspondence between the OAG and Defendants, Defendants respectfully request that the Court extend the time to respond to the discovery until September 14, 2020.

22 Defendants’ request is timely and will not hinder or prejudice Plaintiff’s case, but will allow for the OAG to have sufficient time to obtain documents and communicate with defendants in order to respond.

25 For these reasons, Defendant respectfully requests a thirty-two (32) day extension of time from the today to serve responses to the request for admissions, interrogatories, and requests for production of documents in this case, with a new deadline up to and including Monday, September 14, 2020.

28 / / / 1 DEADLINE 2 The Deadline for outstanding discovery as set forth above: Monday September 14, 2020.

3 DATED this 13th day of August 2020.

4 AARON D. FORD Attorney General By: /s/ Peter E. Dunkley 6 PETER E. DUNKLEY, Bar No. 11110 Deputy Attorney General 7 Attorneys for Defendants IT IS SO ORDERED: __________________________________________ UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE DATED:__A_u_g_u_s_t _1_4_, _2_02_0_____