Maddaus v. Boe

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT TACOMA 10 ROBERT J. MADDAUS, CASE NO. 3:17-cv-06020-RBL-JRC 11 Petitioner, ORDER GRANTING FIFTH 12 v. MOTION TO EXTEND STAY 13 JERI BOE, 14 Respondent.

16 The District Court has referred this petition for a writ of habeas corpus to United States Magistrate Judge J. Richard Creatura. The authority for the referral is 28 U.S.C. §§ 636(b)(1)(A) and (B) and local Magistrate Judge Rules MJR3 and MJR4. Petitioner filed his petition pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Before the Court is respondent’s motion to extend the stay. Dkt. 30.

20 Petitioner filed his petition in December 2017 and then requested that the Court stay the petition so that he could exhaust his state court remedies. See Dkts. 1, 9. The Court granted petitioner’s request, stayed the matter, and required respondent to provide this Court with a status report and motion to extend the stay before it expired. See Dkt. 15. Since then, the Court has on four occasions extended the stay on respondent’s motion. See Dkts. 19, 25, 29.

3 The stay is currently set to expire on August 14, 2020, and respondent has again moved to extend the stay. See Dkt. 30. Respondent submits that although petitioner’s state court matter has finalized, petitioner is pursuing post-conviction remedies, including an August 6, 2020, superior court hearing. See Dkt. 30-1, at 9. Further, petitioner has filed no objection to the motion to extend the stay. See Dkt.

8 This Court may stay consideration of a habeas petition to allow a petitioner to exhaust his remedies in state court before returning to federal court. See Rhines v. Weber, 544 U.S. 69, 274– 79 (2005). Because petitioner is still exhausting his state court remedies, the undersigned finds good cause to grant respondent’s request. Therefore, it is ORDERED, 12 (1) Respondent’s motion to extend the stay (Dkt. 30) is granted. The stay on this habeas proceeding is extended to February 15, 2021.

14 (2) Respondent shall file a report and motion to extend the stay, if necessary, on or before February 1, 2021.

16 (3) Should the state court dismiss petitioner’s state post-conviction review or otherwise terminate review before February 15, 2021, petitioner or respondent shall inform the Court and request that the stay be lifted within 30 days of the state court’s decision.

19 (4) The Clerk will note the deadlines set by this Order on the docket.

20 Dated this 14th day of August, 2020.

A J. Richard Creatura United States Magistrate Judge