Howard v. College of the Albemarle et al

Filing 31

ORDER granting 18 Motion to Seal Document. The Motion to Seal is hereby granted as follows: the Proposed Sealed Materials listed above and as originally filed shall be and remain sealed until further ordered by the Court; Within 10 days of the ent ry of this order, Defendants shall also file with the Court, not under seal, portions of certain affidavits as follows: Wendy Brickhouse, paragraphs 2024; Kandi Deitemeyer, paragraphs 816; and John Leidy, paragraph 12. Signed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert T. Numbers, II on 6/24/2016. (Briggeman, N.)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA
NORTHERN DIVISION
No. 2:15-CV-00039-D
Robert Howard,
Plaintiff,
v.

Order Granting Defendants’ Motion to Seal

College of the Albemarle & Kandi
Deitemeyer,
Defendants.

This matter is before the Court on Defendants’ Motion to Seal the following items
submitted with Defendants’ Memorandum in Response to Plaintiff’s Motion to Disqualify
Counsel (D.E. 17):
1. Affidavit of Wendy Brickhouse (D.E. 17-2);
2. Affidavit of Kandi Deitemeyer (D.E. 17-10);
3. Affidavit of John D. Leidy (D.E. 171-9);
4. Affidavit of Susan Rohrbaugh (D.E. 17-21);
5. Excerpts from Plaintiff’s deposition transcripts (D.E. 17-22); and
6. Exhibits 18, 32, 33, 34 to above referenced affidavits (D.E. 17-3, 17-4, 17-5, and 17-6,
respectively).
These materials are collectively referred to as the “Proposed Seal Materials.”
Plaintiff has responded to the Motion (D.E. 23) indicating that he does not oppose sealing
information relating to “Mr. D” but that he does not want evidence relating to Plaintiff to be
sealed. Defendants have replied to that Response proposing to make unsealed filings of certain

items from the Proposed Sealed Materials with the references to Mr. D or other employees
redacted.
The Court has conducted an analysis of the Proposed Sealed Materials in accordance with
Stone v. University of Maryland, 855 F.2d 178 (4th Cir. 1998). It appears to the Court that the
Proposed Sealed Materials contain information regarding employees of Defendant College of the
Albemarle (“COA”) other than Plaintiff. Except for certain information, Article 2A of Chapter
115D of the North Carolina General Statutes makes information regarding community college
employees confidential and not subject to public inspection. For example, information relating to
disciplinary actions, performance, grievances, investigations, and reasons for selection or nonselection is confidential under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 115D-29. The rights of confidentiality enjoyed
by COA employees other than Plaintiff outweigh the public’s rights to such information.
Accordingly, those parts of the Proposed Sealed Materials that contain confidential personnel
information regarding employees other than Plaintiff shall remain sealed.
Therefore, the Motion to Seal is hereby granted as follows: the Proposed Sealed Materials
listed above and as originally filed shall be and remain sealed until further ordered by the Court;
Within 10 days of the entry of this order, Defendants shall also file with the Court, not under
seal, portions of certain affidavits as follows: Wendy Brickhouse, paragraphs 20–24; Kandi
Deitemeyer, paragraphs 8–16; and John Leidy, paragraph 12.

Dated:
Dated: June 24, 2016
ROBERT T. NUMBERS, II
______________________________________
UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE
Robert T. Numbers, II
United States Magistrate Judge

2