Kimberly Sweidy, Plaintiff, v. Spring Ridge Academy, et al., Defendants No. CV-21-08013-PCT-SPL United States District Court, D. Arizona Filed August 01, 2024 Logan, Steven P., United States District Judge ORDER *1 Before the Court are Defendants Spring Ridge Academy and Kate Deily's Motion to Interview the Jurors (Doc. 301), Plaintiff Kimberly Sweidy's Response (Doc. 305) and Defendants’ Reply (Doc. 316). Also before the Court is Defendants Motion for leave to file Third-Party Subpoena on Reddit. (Doc. 315), Plaintiff's Response (Doc. 321), and Defendants’ Reply (Doc. 323). I. BACKGROUND Defendants claim that it's possible that one of the jurors was exposed to extra-judicial or prejudicial information during the course of trial. Specifically, Defendants allege that a conversation about the trial took place during the trial on the social media website Reddit. (Doc. 301 at 4–5). Defendants claim that Plaintiff actively participated in this conversation thread on the site. (Id.). According to Defendants, the day after the verdict was read, a user named “Brilliant-Truth-1635” posted the following on that conversation thread: “Yes it's true! I am proud to say I was part of the jury!” and in reply to another post “I was on the jury. It was a jury trial, decision decided by a jury.” (Doc. 301-7 at 5). Defendants argue that this constitutes good cause under LR 39.2(b) to question the jurors in order to determine whether any of them are associated with the username “Brilliant-Truth-1635” and if so to determine whether they viewed the conversation thread during the course of trial. Defendants have attached their proposed interrogatory questions in Exhibit 1. (Doc. 301-1). On July 15, 2024 the Court ordered oral argument in order to assist in addressing this motion. II. LEGAL STANDARD Under Rule 45(a), a party may seek a subpoena commanding a third party to “produce designated documents, electronically stored information, or tangible things in that person's possession, custody, or control.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 45(a)(1)(A)(iii). The Court may quash or modify the subpoena if it “requires disclosure of privileged or other protected matter, if no exception or waiver applies.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 45(d)(3)(A)(iii). “Proper subpoenas issued by attorneys on behalf of the court are treated as orders of the Court.” McKeon v. Cent. Valley Cmty. Sports Found., No. 1:18-CV-00358-BAM, 2019 WL 1208986, at *2 (E.D. Cal. Mar. 14, 2019) (collecting cases). A party issuing a subpoena must take reasonable steps to avoid imposing “undue burden or expense on a person subject to the subpoena.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 45(d)(1). “The court for the district where compliance is required” must enforce that duty and impose an appropriate sanction on a party or attorney who fails to comply with that requirement. Fed. R. Civ. P. 45(d)(1). III. DISCUSSION In the present case, the Court finds good cause to allow Defendants to conduct limited discovery on the identity of the Reddit username “Brilliant-Truth-1635.” This includes serving a subpoena on Reddit for electronically stored information which may provide clues as to whether this username belongs to a former juror in this trial. The Court finds that Defendants’ assertions go beyond speculation, as this username claimed to have served on the jury. Therefore, discovery for the limited person of either confirming or denying this is warranted. The Court finds Defendants’ proposed document requests to be within the proper scope of this inquiry, and that Reddit regularly conducts business within the geographical jurisdiction of this Court. All costs of conducting this discovery by Reddit shall be borne by Defendants. *2 If this limited discovery request reveals that “Brilliant-Truth-1635” is operated by a former juror in this case, the Court is inclined to grant in part Defendants’ Motion to Interview the Jurors (Doc. 301) as to this single juror only. The Court is not inclined to subpoena the entire former panel for the purposes of establishing a connection with “Brilliant-Truth-1635.” Therefore, the Court will not rule on Defendants Motion to Interview the Jurors (Doc. 301) at this time. Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED that Defendants Motion for leave to file Third-Party Subpoena on Reddit (Doc. 315) is granted. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Defendants shall serve the following documents requests on Reddit, Inc. as reflected in (Doc. 315-1 at 2): 1. All documents or electronically stored information (including backup copies) reflecting, referring to, or otherwise identifying any email accounts and/or IP addresses associated with Brilliant-Truth-1635. 2. All documents or electronically stored information (including backup copies) reflecting, referring to, or otherwise identifying any user accounts associated with any email accounts and/or the IP address identified in response Request No. 1. 3. All documents or electronically stored information (including backup copies) reflecting, referring to, or otherwise identifying any phone numbers, names, locations, or addresses associated with Brilliant-Truth-1635 or any user accounts identified in documents responsive to Request No. 2, or the IP addresses identified in documents responsive to Request No. 1. 4. All documents or electronically stored information (including backup copies) reflecting, referring to, or otherwise identifying any visits by Brilliant-Truth1635, any user accounts identified in documents responsive to Request No. 2, or the IP addresses identified in documents responsive to Request No. 1 to troubledteens. 5. All documents or electronically stored information (including backup copies) reflecting, referring to, or otherwise identifying comments on any post on troubledteens that Brilliant-Truth-1635 or any user accounts identified in documents responsive to Request No. 2 viewed, upvoted, downvoted, liked, or otherwise interacted with. 6. All documents or electronically stored information (including backup copies) reflecting, referring to, or otherwise identifying posts that Brilliant-Truth-1635 or any user accounts identified in documents responsive to Request No. 2 viewed, upvoted, downvoted, liked, commented on or otherwise interacted with. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Defendants shall file a status update with this Court by August 23, 2024, as to whether any evidence exists connecting a former juror to the username “Brilliant-Truth-1635.” IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that neither party is permitted to contact any of the former jurors in this case. Dated this 1st day of August, 2024.