Opinion
6:20-cv-01763-HZ
11-14-2021
LAWSON REED RANKIN, Plaintiff, v. SHERIFF CURTIS LANDERS, DEPUTY COLMENERO, DEPUTY BEUTLER Defendants.
ORDER
MARCO A. HERNÁNDEZ, District Judge:
Plaintiff Lawson Reed Rankin brings this civil rights law suit against Sheriff Curtis Landers, Deputy Colmenero, and Deputy Beutler. Plaintiff moves to dismiss his case without prejudice. For the following reasons, the Court denies Plaintiff's motion.
Plaintiff filed his case on October 13, 2020. Compl., ECF 1. The Court denied his request for appointment of counsel on November 29, 2020. ECF 7. Between December 2020 and September 2021, Plaintiff filed nine more motions for appointment of counsel, which the Court denied. ECF 9, 14, 15, 22, 25, 51, 53, 55, 87.
On May 26, 2021, Defendants moved to stay all discovery and pre-trial deadlines pending Plaintiff's release or transfer from Lincoln County Jail. ECF 34. Plaintiff opposed the motion. ECF 44. Plaintiff moved to extend discovery and pretrial deadlines. ECF 38. The Court denied Defendants' motion to stay the case and granted Plaintiff's motion to extend the case deadlines. ECF 47. The case proceeded through discovery and on September 29, 2021 Defendants filed a motion for summary judgment. ECF 90. Six days later, Plaintiff filed the present motion. ECF 97.
Plaintiff asks the Court to dismiss his case without prejudice. He contends that he does not have adequate access to legal resources and cannot litigate his case without the benefit of counsel.
Over the course of the last year, the Court denied numerous motions for appointment of counsel filed by Plaintiff. At no time following the Court's denials however did Plaintiff choose to dismiss his case. In fact, when given the opportunity to stay the case pending his release or transfer from Lincoln County Jail, Plaintiff opposed the motion. Now, in the face of a dispositive motion, he asks the Court to dismiss his case without prejudice.
Plaintiff had adequate warning that he would be proceeding pro se in this matter and chose to litigate it anyway. The parties have marched through discovery and arrived at the dispositive motion phase. This case is ripe for adjudication. To dismiss the case without prejudice now would unfairly prejudice Defendants and waste judicial resources. The Court denies Plaintiffs motion.
CONCLUSION
The Court DENIES Plaintiffs Motion to Dismiss [97].
IT IS SO ORDERED.