Crane v. Clark County

1 SDTisEtrVicEt NA tBto. rWneOy LFSON CIVIL DIVISION State Bar No. 001565 By: JEFFREY S. ROGAN Deputy District Attorney State Bar No. 010734 By: JOEL K. BROWNING Deputy District Attorney State Bar No. 014489 500 South Grand Central Pkwy.

Las Vegas, Nevada 89155-2215 (702) 455-4761 Fax (702) 382-5178 E-Mail: [email protected] E-Mail: [email protected] Attorneys for Clark County and Clark County District Attorney Defendants 10 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 11 DISTRICT OF NEVADA STANLEY RANDOLPH CRANE, an ) individual, ) 13 ) Case No: 2:23-cv-00925 -CDS -BNW ) 14 Plaintiff, ) ) ) DEFENDANTS’ VERIFIED 15 vs. ) MOTION FOR AN EXTENSION OF ) TIME TO FILE A RESPONSE TO CLARK COUNTY, a political subdivision ) PLAINTIFF’S COMPLAINT organized under the law of the State of ) Nevada; DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE, ) a political subdivision organized under the law ) of the State of Nevada; DISTRICT ) ) ATTORNEY STEVEN WOLFSON, an ) individual; DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY ) MELANIE H. MARLAND, an individual; ) DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY ) ) WILLIAM J. MERBACK, an individual; ) DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY SKYLER ) SULLIVAN, an individual; DEPUTY ) DISTRICT ATTORNEY BRITTNI LEIGH ) ) GRIFFITH, an individual; DEPUTY ) DISTRICT ATTORNEY PARKER BROOKS, ) an individual, and DOES I through X, ) inclusive, ) 26 ) 27 Defendant. ) ) ) 1 COME NOW Defendants CLARK COUNTY, CLARK COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE, STEVEN B. WOFLSON, DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY MELANIE H. MARLAND, DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY WILLIAM J. MERBACK, DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY SKYLER SULLIVAN, DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY BRITTNI LEIGH GRIFFITH, and DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY PARKER BROOKS (hereinafter collectively “Defendants”), through their attorney District Attorney STEVEN B. WOLFSON, by Deputy District Attorney JOEL K. BROWNING, and hereby move this Court for an extension of time to answer or file a responsive motion to Plaintiff’s complaint.

10 This Motion is based upon all the pleadings and papers on file herein, the attached Memorandum of Points and Authorities, and the oral arguments of counsel at the time of the hearing in this matter, if any.

13 MEMORANDUM OF POINTS AND AUTHORITIES 14 I.

15 NATURE OF MOTION 16 On or around July 19, 2023, this case was unexpectedly assigned to the undersigned due to case shuffling in the wake of a sudden leave of absence for an attorney in our office.

18 Counsel for Defendants reached out to Plaintiff’s counsel immediately and requested an extension of time to respond to the complaint until August 7, 2023, to give the undersigned sufficient time to review the complaint, speak to the respective defendants, and prepare an answer and/or responsive motion. See correspondence between counsel, attached hereto as Exhibit A.

23 The undersigned also agreed to not file a motion to quash for the individual deputy district attorneys which had been improperly served and to waive service for any individual deputy district attorneys who were improperly served or yet to be served in exchange for an extension and in the interests of judicial economy.

27 Counsel for Plaintiff agreed and, in conferring with the Court, it was advised that the 1 Therefore, Defendants bring the instant motion for an extension of time to respond to Plaintiff’s Complaint until August 7, 2023, and to memorialize the agreement between the parties waiving service for Defendants DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY MELANIE H.

4 MARLAND, DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY WILLIAM J. MERBACK, DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY SKYLER SULLIVAN, DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY BRITTNI LEIGH GRIFFITH, and DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY PARKER BROOKS.

7 The undersigned avers that the instant motion is not brought for an improper purpose, to harass, to cause unnecessary delay, or to needlessly increase the cost of litigation.

9 II.

10 STANDARD OF REVIEW 11 “The district court's denial of an extension of time pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 6(b) is reviewed for abuse of discretion.” Ahanchian v. Xenon Pictures, Inc., 624 13 F.3d 1253, 1258 (9th Cir. 2010).

14 “Requests for extensions of time made before the applicable deadline has passed should ‘normally ... be granted in the absence of bad faith on the part of the party seeking relief or prejudice to the adverse party.’” Ahanchian v. Xenon Pictures, Inc., 624 F.3d 1253, 1259 (9th Cir. 2010) (citing 4B Charles Alan Wright & Arthur R. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure § 1165 (3d ed. 2004)).

19 III.

20 LEGAL ARGUMENT 21 A. Defendants sought an Extension of Time Prior to the Deadline, their Request 22 for an Extension is not Made in Bad Faith, and Plaintiffs will not be 23 Prejudiced by an Extension 24 “Requests for extensions of time made before the applicable deadline has passed should ‘normally ... be granted in the absence of bad faith on the part of the party seeking relief or prejudice to the adverse party.’” Ahanchian v. Xenon Pictures, Inc., 624 F.3d 1253, 1259 (9th Cir. 2010) (citing 4B Charles Alan Wright & Arthur R. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure 1 Here Defendants requested an extension of time prior to the deadline to respond to tk |}complaint and did so for good cause due to unforeseen circumstances. Furthermore, ; || Defendants are also willing to waive service, Plaintiff is not prejudiced, and the interests « || judicial economy are furthered by this extension.

5 Therefore, the Honorable Court should grant Defendants’ Motion for an Extension « || Time to Respond to the Complaint until August 7, 2023.

7 IV.

8 CONCLUSION 9 Based on the foregoing, Defendants humbly request the Honorable Court grant an || extension of time to respond to Plaintiff's complaint until August 7, 2023.

DATED this 24" day of July 2023.

STEVEN B. WOLFSON 13 DISTRICT ATTORNEY By: /s/Joel K. Browning 15 JEFFREY S. ROGAN Deputy District Attorney 16 State Bar No. 010734 JOEL K. BROWNING 17 Deputy District Attorney State Bar No. 014489 18 500 South Grand Central Pkwy.

Las Vegas, Nevada 89155-2215 19 Attorney for Clark County and Clark County District Attorney Defendants ORDER 22 IT IS SO ORDERED 23 DATED: 9:57 pm, July 25, 2023 Lar Are b—tn, BRENDA WEKSLER 26 UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 1 CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE 2 I certify that I am an employee of the Office of the Clark County District Attorney and that on this 24th day of July, 2023 I served a true and correct copy of the foregoing DEFENDANTS’ VERIFIED MOTION FOR AN EXTENSION OF TIME TO FILE A RESPONSE TO PLAINTIFF’S COMPLAINT through CM/ECF Electronic Filing system of the United States District Court for the District of Nevada (or, if necessary, by U.S. Mail, first class, postage pre-paid), upon the following: CRAIG A. MULLER, ESQ.

9 MULLER & ASSOCIATES, INC. S. 7TH Street 10 Las Vegas, NV 89101 Attorney for Plaintiff 11 [email protected]

13 /s/Patricia C. Villa An Employee of the Clark County District 14 Attorney’s Office – Civil Division EXHIBIT A (Correspondence) FTroo:m: SJouesli eB rWowarnding Cc: Patricia Villa; Charles Lobello Subject: RE: Crane v. Clark County, et al. RE: Introduction and Request for an Extension / Case No. 2:23-cv-00925 Date: Monday, July 24, 2023 10:45:43 AM Importance: High CAUTION: This email originated from an External Source. Please use caution before opening attachments, clicking links, or responding to this email. Do not sign-in with your DA account credentials.

Joel, I called the clerk, the extension needs to be done by a motion. Once the motion is filed, she advised we call the chambers to tell them the number is 702-464-5500. I am assuming since you have not appeared the motion will need to come from you? Please let me know if I can help in any way.

Sincerely, Susie Ward Paralegal, Mueller and Associates S. 7th Street Las Vegas, NV 89101 P- 702-382-1200 F- 702-637-4817 [email protected] Confidentiality Note: The information in this e-mail is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended solely for the addressees. Access to this e-mail by anyone other than the recipient is unauthorized. This communication may contain information that is proprietary, privileged or confidential or otherwise legally exempt from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, reproduction, distribution, or any action taken or omitted to be taken in reliance on it, is prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately by e-mail and delete all copies of the message.

From: Susie Ward Sent: Monday, July 24, 2023 10:36 AM To: Joel Browning <[email protected]>; Charles Lobello <[email protected]> Cc: Craig Mueller <[email protected]>; Patricia Villa <[email protected]> Subject: RE: Crane v. Clark County, et al. RE: Introduction and Request for an Extension / Case No. 2:23-cv-00925 I think we need to get a stipulation and order to the court for the extension.

Sincerely, Susie Ward Paralegal, Las Vegas, NV 89101 P- 702-382-1200 F- 702-637-4817 [email protected] Confidentiality Note: The information in this e-mail is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended solely for the addressees. Access to this e-mail by anyone other than the recipient is unauthorized. This communication may contain information that is proprietary, privileged or confidential or otherwise legally exempt from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, reproduction, distribution, or any action taken or omitted to be taken in reliance on it, is prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately by e-mail and delete all copies of the message.

From: Joel Browning <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2023 2:57 PM To: Charles Lobello <[email protected]> Cc: Craig Mueller <[email protected]>; Susie Ward <[email protected]>; Patricia Villa <[email protected]> Subject: RE: Crane v. Clark County, et al. RE: Introduction and Request for an Extension / Case No. 2:23-cv-00925 I am amenable to waiving service for DDA Griffith and thank you for your professional courtesy.

Joel K. Browning Deputy District Attorney Clark County District Attorney’s Office Civil Division T: (702) 455-4761 F: (702) 382-5178 *Please note my office hours: M-Th (7:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.)

From: Charles Lobello <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2023 2:52 PM To: Joel Browning <[email protected]> Cc: Craig Mueller <[email protected]>; Susie Ward <[email protected]>; Patricia Villa <[email protected]> Subject: RE: Crane v. Clark County, et al. RE: Introduction and Request for an Extension / Case No. 2:23-cv-00925 CAUTION: This email originated from an External Source. Please use caution before opening attachments, clicking links, or responding to this email. Do not sign-in with your DA account credentials.

Joel, issued for DDA Griffith. In addition to your agreement to accept service on behalf of DDAs Marland, Sullivan, Brooks, and Merback, are you also amenable to accepting service on behalf of DDA Griffith?

Please advise. I look forward to hearing from you.

C. Conrad LoBello, Esq.

CRAIG MUELLER & ASSOCIATES Tel.: (702) 382-1200 Fax: (702) 637-4817 S. Seventh St. Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 [email protected] Confidentiality Note: The information in this e-mail is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended solely for the addressee. Access to this e-mail by anyone other than the recipient is unauthorized. This communication may contain information that is proprietary, privileged or confidential or otherwise legally exempt from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, reproduction, distribution, or any action taken or omitted to be taken in reliance on it, is prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately by e-mail and delete all copies of the message.

From: Craig Mueller <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2023 9:50 AM To: Susie Ward <[email protected]>; Charles Lobello <[email protected]> Subject: FW: Crane v. Clark County, et al. RE: Introduction and Request for an Extension / Case No. 2:23-cv-00925

From: Joel Browning <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2023 9:44 AM To: Craig Mueller <[email protected]> Cc: Electronic Service <[email protected]>; Patricia Villa <[email protected]> Subject: Crane v. Clark County, et al. RE: Introduction and Request for an Extension / Case No. 2:23- cv-00925 Good Morning, Mr. Mueller.

My name is Joel Browning and I was assigned to represent the defendants in this case this morning.

The case had previously been assigned to another deputy who was forced to take an unexpected and extended leave of absence due to a family emergency. scheduled to take vacation next week when the response to the complaint is due and was looking to request a two-week extension until August 7, 2023, to get up to speed on the case and to file an answer or responsive motion with the court.

In exchange for an extension of time to respond and in lieu of filing motions to quash, the individual deputies are prepared to waive service. Please note that the attempted service of the individual deputies (Marland, Sullivan, Brooks, Merback} by leaving a copy of the summons and complaint with the front desk of their employer, did not satisfy the requirements of Fed. R. Civ. P. 4{e) because they had not authorized the front desk staff as their agent for service. Please also be advised that it is upon information and belief that no attempted service of DDA Griffith has been attempted to date.

Please advise whether you are amenable to this request and thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely, Joel Yoel K. Browning Deputy District Attorney Clark County District Attorney’s Office Civil Division T: (702) 455-4761 F: (702) 382-5178 E: joel. [email protected] *Please note my office hours: M-Th (7:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.)