Dowden

MEMORANDUM OF OPINION AND ORDER

Plaintiff Patrick Dowden brings this section 1983 action challenging disciplinary action taken against him by the Sacramento Police Department (the “Department”). The Department moves to dismiss Dow-den’s action under Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37 , 91 S.Ct. 746 , 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971), or, in the alternative, to stay the proceedings.

I.

Dowden is currently employed as a sergeant in the Department, where he has worked since 1976. (CompU 11.) His complaint centers around two disciplinary actions taken against him. First, the Department suspended him without pay for 40 hours on July 22, 1998 for using a Department fax machine to transmit a personal document “contain[ing] inflammatory and critical statements about the mayor of Sacramento and the Chief of Police.” (Defs.’ Req. for Judicial Notice Exh. 2.) Second, the Department demoted him from his previous position as lieutenant on October 2, 1998, claiming, among other things, that he (1) failed to follow orders and engaged in inappropriate behavior during the arrest of another officer for spousal abuse; (2) made misrepresentations to Internal Affairs officers investigating the arrest; and (3)…