Lawyer says AG falsely blames virus for discovery delays

The attorney for a man suing the California Highway Patrol claimed the state and private attorneys are falsely attempting to use COVID-19 in an eleventh hour attempt to delay his civil rights case.

Sacramento attorney Stewart Katz filed an opposition motion last week saying the various defense attorneys have been "anything but diligent" in their efforts to meet discovery requests and have engaged in an ongoing delaying effort.

The California Attorney's General's office had asked Senior U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb in Sacramento last Thursday to extend an expert disclosure deadline from Sept. 10 to Dec. 10 and a rebuttal deadline from Oct. 1 to Jan. 3. On Friday, attorneys for two defendants filed motions seeking other extensions based on COVID-19, including delaying the start date of the trial from June 7 to Sept. 6, 2022.

"CHP defendants ... blame COVID-19 for hampering their discovery efforts," Katz wrote. "They do not make any offer of proof or present any evidence in support of that. ... If anything, the fact that most courts have conducted very few, if any, civil trials in the last year and a half and very few live hearings, has, in reality, afforded attorneys more time to work on discovery."

The case stems from 2018, when off-duty CHP officer Brad Wheat wounded Philip Debeaubien before killing his estranged wife and himself. The shootings occurred at Debeaubien's sports nutrition business in Jackson. Debeaubien had been dating Wheat's wife, Mary.

Debeaubien sued the Highway Patrol in 2019, stating the agency was negligent due to "actual and constructive knowledge" of Wheat's violent intent and previous stalking of both victims. The complaint said the agency knew Wheat used law enforcement databases to spy on the couple but failed to warn them and returned a weapon and ammunition to him days before the incident. Debeaubien v. State of California, 2:19-cv-01329-WBS-DB (E.D. Cal., filed July 16, 2019).

The attorney general's office did not respond to a request for comment on the allegations of deliberate delay.