Dehertoghe

MEMORANDUM **

Plaintiff-Appellants Dehertoghe appeal the district court’s award, on remand, of attorney’s fees to Appellee-Defendants City of Hemet and certain individual police officers, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1988 . We vacate, reverse, and remand with instructions that the case be assigned to a different district judge.

On a prior appeal, Dehertoghe v. City of Hemet, 82 Fed.Appx. 577 (9th Cir.2003), we held that if the district court found on remand that Appellee-Defendants were entitled to attorney’s fees, it must provide a statement of reasons for that award in conformity with the standard under 42 U.S.C. § 1988 , and that any award must be calculated in conformity with this circuit’s lodestar/multiplier analysis. The district court ignored the previous directive of this court on remand and once again abused its discretion in awarding Appellee-Defendants attorney’s fees.

Under § 1988, a prevailing defendant in a § 1983 action can be awarded attorney’s fees only if “the suit was vexatious, frivolous, or brought to harass or embarrass the defendant.” Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424 , 429 n. 2, 103 S.Ct. 1933 , 76 L.Ed.2d 40 (1983) (citations omitted). In this case, the…