Rya Weickert Zobel
Judge Zobel no longer hears cases. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled.
How Judge Zobel decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
Zobel required specific evidence connecting a municipality's practices to the alleged constitutional harm rather than a general record of prior complaints.
“The plaintiffs have produced no evidence of a pattern or practice of failing to properly investigate prior allegations of misconduct by police officers in general, let alone Officer Celester specifically.”
Zobel treated objective location and telephone records as decisive where they excluded the defendant's drivers from the accident area.
“The GPS data shows that none of the drivers were in the vicinity at this time.”
Procedural preferences
Zobel declined to convert a dismissal motion into summary judgment when the opposing party had addressed only dismissal and lacked notice of conversion.
“Because plaintiffs opposition addresses potential dismissal and not potential summary judgment, conversion at this point would be inappropriate.”
Zobel separated the merits of an amended complaint from ancillary service and representation requests, ruling on each independently.
“Defendants’ motion to dismiss the amended complaint (Docket #56) is ALLOWED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART.”
Cautions
Zobel treated private criminal conduct as outside Section 1983 where the officer did not invoke official authority despite being in uniform.
“The fact that Sledge was in uniform during his crime does not change these facts.”
Zobel required a prompt prosecution and applied presumed prejudice when the government had not proceeded with reasonable diligence.
“Here, the government cannot be credited with undertaking any serious efforts to pursue the case.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“Defendant’s motion to dismiss (Docket # 7) is DENIED.”
“Defendant’s motion to dismiss (Docket # 13) is ALLOWED.”
“Plaintiffs motion to inform the court (Docket # 15) is DENIED AS MOOT”
“his motion for extension of time (Docket # 16) is ALLOWED.”
“The Motion for Preliminary Injunction is denied.”
“Accordingly, the Petition for Writ of Ha-beas Corpus is denied.”
“Accordingly, defendant’s motion to dismiss is allowed as to Count VII and denied as to Counts I, II, V and VI.”
“Defendants’ motion for summary judgment (Docket # 37) is ALLOWED. Judgment may be entered for defendants.”
“Defendants’ motion for summary judgment is ALLOWED. Judgment may be entered for the defendants.”
“Defendant’s motion for summary judgment is ALLOWED.”
“Defendant’s motion for summary judgment is ALLOWED.”
“Defendants’ motion to dismiss the amended complaint (Docket #56) is ALLOWED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART.”
“Petitioner’s motion to appoint counsel (Docket # 38) is DENIED.”
“Petitioner’s motion for ‘Order [for Defendant Archilla] to pay [for service]’ (Docket #43) is ALLOWED without opposition.”
“Petitioner’s motion for leave to file stipulation (Docket # 44) is DENIED in light of defendants’ opposition.”
“his motion ‘to allow next of friend’ (Docket # 46) is DENIED.”
“Petitioner’s motion for service by certified mail (Docket #67) is ALLOWED.”
“Defendants’ motions for summary judgment (Docket ## 68 and 72) are ALLOWED.”
“The City’s motion for summary judgment (Docket # 52) is ALLOWED.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Median case duration in the sampled dockets: 3386.5 days (N = 20).
The twenty located historical dockets were all terminated and were concentrated in product-liability litigation, with additional civil-rights, contract, trademark, insurance, and prisoner matters. This is a partial historical slice rather than a complete caseload.
A historical record
Judge Zobel no longer hears cases. This profile stays available as a record of how they ruled. If you're preparing for a matter, start from the court's current bench.