FAILING to reach another settlement with inmate Price Shoiter, the Department of Corrections, represented by Assistant Attorney General Leslie Healer, has requested the federal court to issue a protective order limiting the scope of deposition requested by the plaintiff.
“Defendant seeks to limit the scope of the deposition because there is nobody who could answer questions about every officer’s personnel file or anyone who could answer questions about every inmate’s medical issue, as the medical and human resource files are all physical files,” Healer informed the court.
Likewise, “the information sought by plaintiff, such as general information about medical care and staffing, can be obtained through less intrusive means, including interrogatory responses,” she added.
“Defendant has just responded to a first and second set of discovery with as much information as was available without revealing any security sensitive or HIPAA-related information,” Healer said, referring to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
According to Healer, the parties recently participated in settlement negotiations.
“Defendants are still awaiting a decision regarding possible settlement,” Healer said. “In the meantime, a postponement of the 30(b)(6) deposition is warranted based on the Defendant’s need to limit the discovery to the relevant and proportional needs of the case,” she added.
In February 2022, Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona of the District Court for the NMI issued an order granting Shoiter’s request to set aside a previous dismissal order entered by the court in his case.
Shoiter is a 74-year-old Chuukese national who was sentenced in 2016 to a 10-year prison sentence for sexually abusing a 7-year-old girl. He sued the Department of Corrections and its former and current officials in federal court, alleging that he was denied adequate medical care. Attorney Michael Dotts represents Shoiter.
In February 2021, a settlement agreement was agreed and signed by all parties, contingent on the then-governor’s approval of Shoiter’s application for conditional clemency.
But former Gov. Ralph DLG Torres denied Shoiter’s application for conditional clemency.
Dotts said under the settlement agreement, Shoiter, among other things, was to receive conditional clemency, heart surgery and knee surgery before a certain deadline, and payment to his counsel of a lump sum amount to cover his damages.
The settlement agreement also provided that in the event that clemency was denied by the governor, the case would be put back on the trial calendar, Dotts said.
With Shoiter’s clemency denied, the lawyer added, the settlement agreement has become null and void.
He also noted that “the damages…due by Aug. 31, 2021…was not paid.”
Dotts has asked the court to set the jury trial for, among other dates, May 7, 2024.
The United States Courthouse in Gualo Rai, Saipan.
