HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-cv-1343 - Elias V. V. City Of Fort Collins, Et Al. - 065 - Joint Stipulated And Unopposed Motion For Entry Of A Protective OrderIN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLORADO
Civil Action No. 1:23-cv-1343-GPG-KAS
Harris Elias,
Plaintiff.
v.
City of Fort Collins;
Jason Haferman; and
Sergeant Allen Heaton.
Defendants.
JOINT STIPULATED AND UNOPPOSED MOTION FOR ENTRY OF A PROTECTIVE
ORDER
The parties, through their respective Counsel, submit the following as their Joint
Unopposed Motion for Entry of a Protective Order:
CONFERRAL
Counsel for the parties conferred regarding the relief requested in this Motion, and there
are no objections to any such relief or entry of the Protective Order, attached hereto as Exhibit A.
1. According to the allegations of the Complaint, this is a civil rights matter arising
out of the arrest and detention of the Plaintiff, during a DUI stop and investigation on December
3, 2021. (ECF 45 at ¶¶ 57-159).
2. The individual defendants in this matter were, at the time of the incident, City of
Fort Collins Police Officers. Sergeant Heaton is still a FCPS Police Officer.
Case No. 1:23-cv-01343-GPG-KAS Document 65 filed 01/05/24 USDC Colorado pg 1 of 4
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3. Certain documents may be requested and produced in this matter from the
Defendants, which may contain personal and confidential information protected under
constitutional, statutory, or common law privacy interests, such as personnel and employment
information.
4. Certain documents of the Plaintiff may be requested and produced in this matter
containing personal, confidential, tax, and/or medical information protected under constitutional
or statutory provisions or under common law privacy interests.
5. Furthermore, due to the allegations in the lawsuit, certain information may be
produced, which address privacy interests with respect to collateral persons.
5. Nothing contained in this Motion should be construed as an acknowledgment by
Plaintiffs or Defendants that any specific information falls into any of the categories outlined above
or is properly discoverable pursuant to the applicable Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, or federal
and Colorado law.
6. The parties respectfully request the accompanying Protective Order be entered by
this Court to govern the handling of confidential information produced in this litigation.
7. Counsel conferred with each other through email correspondence, and there are no
objections to entry of the Order, attached as Exhibit A
WHEREFORE, for all of the foregoing reasons, the parties respectfully request this Court
enter the Protective Order attached as Exhibit A, as an Order of this Court.
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Dated this 5th day of January 2024
/s/ Sarah Schielke
The Life & Liberty Law Office
1055 Cleveland Avenue
Loveland, CO 80537
(970) 493-1980
sarah@lifeandlibertylaw.com
Attorney for Plaintiff
/s/_Jonathan Abransmon
Jonathan Abramson, Esq.
Yulia Nikolaevskaya, Esq.
Kissinger & Fellman, P.C.
3773 Cherry Creek North Drive, Suite 900
Denver, CO 80209
jonathan@kandf.com
julie@kandf.com
Attorneys for Defendant Jason Haferman
/s/_Mark S. Ratner
Mark S. Ratner, Esq.
Robert Weiner, Esq.
Katherine Hoffman, Esq.
1001 17th Street, Suite 300
Denver, CO 80202
ratnerm@hallevans.com
weinerr@hallevans.com
hoffmank@hallevans.com
Attorneys for City of Fort Collins and Sergeant Allen Heaton
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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE (CM/ECF)
I hereby certify that on the 5th day of January 2024, a true and correct copy of the foregoing
JOINT STIPULATED AND UNOPPOSED MOTION FOR ENTRY OF A PROTECTIVE
ORDER was filed with the Court via CM/ECF and served on the below-listed party by email:
Sarah Schielke, Esq.
sarah@lifeandlibertylaw.com
Jonathan M. Abramson, Esq.
jonathan@kandf.com
Yulia Nikolaevskaya, Esq.
julie@kandf.com
s/ Sarah Stefanick
Case No. 1:23-cv-01343-GPG-KAS Document 65 filed 01/05/24 USDC Colorado pg 4 of 4
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLORADO
Civil Action No. 1:23-cv-1343-GPG-KAS
Harris Elias,
Plaintiff.
v.
City of Fort Collins;
Jason Haferman; and
Sergeant Allen Heaton.
Defendants.
PROTECTIVE ORDER
Pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(c), upon a showing of good cause in support of the
entry of a protective order to protect the discovery and dissemination of confidential
information or information which will improperly annoy, embarrass, or oppress any party,
witness, or person providing discovery in this case, IT IS ORDERED:
1. This Protective Order shall apply to all documents, materials, and
information, including without limitation, documents produced, answers to interrogatories,
responses to requests for admission, deposition testimony, and other information
disclosed pursuant to the disclosure or discovery duties created by the Federal Rules of
Civil Procedure.
2. As used in this Protective Order, “document” is defined as provided in Fed.
R. Civ. P. 34(a). A draft or non-identical copy is a separate document within the meaning
of this term.
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3. Information designated “CONFIDENTIAL” shall be information that is
confidential information protected by a statutory, regulatory, or common law right of
privacy or protection, or otherwise contain nonpublic personal, personnel, employment,
private, medical, or other information implicating privacy interests, proprietary interests or
safety and security concerns of either the Plaintiff, any of the Defendants or any other
nonparty including confidential, security-sensitive, proprietary, trade secret, financial, or
personal information. Any information designated by a party as CONFIDENTIAL must first
be reviewed by a lawyer of record who will certify that the designation as CONFIDENTIAL
is based on a good faith belief that the information "is confidential or otherwise entitled to
protection." Gillard v. Boulder Valley Sch. Dist., 196 F.R.D. 382, 386 (D. Colo. 2000).
CONFIDENTIAL information shall not be disclosed or used for any purpose except the
preparation and trial of this case.
4. CONFIDENTIAL information shall not, without the consent of the party
producing it or further Order of the Court, be disclosed except that such information may
be disclosed to:
a. the parties' attorneys;
b. persons regularly employed or associated with the parties' attorneys
that are actively working on the case whose assistance is required by said
attorneys in the preparation of the case, at trial, or at other proceedings in
this case;
c. the parties, including designated representatives for the Plaintiffs and
Defendants;
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d. expert witnesses and consultants retained in connection with this
proceeding, to the extent such disclosure is necessary for preparation, trial,
or other proceedings in this case;
e. the Court and its employees (“Court Personnel”);
f. stenographic reporters who are engaged in proceedings necessarily
incident to the conduct of this action;
g. deponents and witnesses;
h. any individual necessary to respond to any licensing, credentialing,
peer review, quality management, or other professional inquiry;
i. any insurer to a party to this matter;
j. other persons by written agreement of the parties.
5. Prior to disclosing any CONFIDENTIAL information to any person listed
above (other than those listed in section a, b, c, d, e, f, and g), counsel shall provide such
person with a copy of this Protective Order and obtain from such person
acknowledgement stating that he or she has read this Protective Order and agrees to be
bound by its provisions.
6. Documents are designated as CONFIDENTIAL by placing or affixing on
them (in a manner that will not interfere with their legibility) the following or other
appropriate notice “CONFIDENTIAL –SUBJECT TO PROTECTIVE ORDER.”
7. Whenever a deposition involves the disclosure of CONFIDENTIAL
information, the deposition or portions thereof shall be designated as CONFIDENTIAL
and shall be subject to the provisions of this Protective Order. Such designation shall be
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made on the record during the deposition whenever possible, but a party may designate
portions of depositions as CONFIDENTIAL after transcription, provided written notice of
promptly given to all counsel of record within thirty (30) days after notice by the court
reporter of the completion of the transcript.
8. Whenever it is necessary to attach or otherwise include CONFIDENTIAL
information to motions or other documents filed with the court, it shall be filed as restricted
Level 1 with accompanying motion to restrict in accordance with the requirements of
D.C.COLO.LCiv.R 7.2. The party designating the document as confidential shall have the
burden of moving the court to maintain restriction of the document. Nothing in this
order may be construed as restricting any document and/or information from the public
record.
9. Whenever a party inadvertently fails to designate any information as
CONFIDENTIAL or to assert an applicable privilege, that party may correct such failure
by giving written notice to the other party(ies) within a reasonable period of time following
the discovery of the inadvertent disclosure. Upon such written notification, the corrected
materials shall only be deemed CONFIDENTIAL prospectively. Substitute copies of the
corrected information shall be appropriately marked and given to the other party(ies) as
soon as they become available. Within ten (10) days of receipt of the substitute copies,
the party(ies) receiving the CONFIDENTIAL information shall return the previously
unmarked information or destroy it.
10. A party may object to the designation of particular CONFIDENTIAL
information by giving written notice to the party that designated the disputed information.
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The parties agree to endeavor to make their objections within a reasonable time after the
designation, but nothing herein shall be construed as limiting the ability of a party to object
to the designation at any time. The written notice shall identify the information to which
the objection is made. If the parties cannot resolve the objection within ten (10) business
days after the time the notice is received, it shall be the obligation of the party designating
the information as CONFIDENTIAL to contact the Court pursuant to its discovery
dispute procedures within 15 business days requesting that the Court determine
whether the disputed information should be subject to the terms of this Protective Order.
If a discovery dispute hearing is timely requested, the disputed information shall be
treated as CONFIDENTIAL under the terms of this Protective Order until the Court
rules on the issue. If the designating party fails to set such a hearing within the
prescribed time, the disputed information shall lose its designation as
CONFIDENTIAL and shall not thereafter be treated as CONFIDENTIAL in
accordance with this Protective Order. In connection with a discovery dispute hearing
under this provision, the party designating the information as CONFIDENTIAL shall bear
the burden of establishing that good cause exists for the disputed information to be
treated as CONFIDENTIAL.
11. At the conclusion of this case, unless other arrangements are agreed upon,
each document and all copies thereof which have been designated as CONFIDENTIAL
shall either (1) be returned to the party that designated it as CONFIDENTIAL, (2) be
destroyed, or (3) the parties may retain those Documents confidentially consistent with
the document retention and destruction policy of their law firm and pursuant to the
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continuing terms of this Protective Order. Where the parties agree to destroy
CONFIDENTIAL documents, the destroying party shall provide all parties with an affidavit
confirming the destruction. Counsel for each party may retain copies of the court papers,
deposition, and trial transcripts, and attorney work product that contain Confidential
Information, for the sole purpose of maintaining a complete file, and all such retained
documents will not be released, disclosed, or utilized except upon express permission of the
designating party or this Court after written notice to counsel for the Party that produced the
documents. The termination of this action shall not relieve counsel or any party or other
persons obligated hereunder from their responsibility to maintain the confidentiality of
Confidential Information pursuant to this Protective Order.
12. The parties agree and stipulate that every person who obtains
CONFIDENTIAL information is prohibited from using or disclosing said information for any
purpose whatsoever, except as consistent with this order.
13. Nothing in this Protective Order shall require the disclosure of information
that is otherwise not subject to discovery, is privileged, or constitutes attorney work
product. Nothing in this Protective Order shall prejudice any objections that a party might
have regarding the production of information. Nothing in this Protective Order shall be
construed as an agreement that any CONFIDENTIAL information shall be excluded from
evidence.
14. Neither a party’s designation of information as CONFIDENTIAL under this
Protective Order, nor a party's failure to make or object to such designation, shall be
admissible in evidence as a party admission or otherwise to prove any fact relevant to
any claim or defense.
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15. The restrictions on use of CONFIDENTIAL information set forth in this
Protective Order shall survive the conclusion of this litigation.
16. This Protective Order may be modified by the Court at any time for good
cause shown following notice to all parties and an opportunity for them to be heard.
Dated this ___ of _________ 2024.
BY THE COURT:
U.S. Magistrate Judge
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