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Los Angeles Times/ - Politics, Sex, 30 de Março de 2012
CLIPPING INTERNACIONAL (Supreme Court)
Judge calls for near-complete release of
UC pepper-spray report
OAKLAND — A judge Wednesday rejected nearly all
attempts by a campus police union to block release of
portions of a report on the November pepper-spraying
of UC Davis students by university officers.
Alameda County Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo
disagreed with assertions that large chunks of the
report — designed to scrutinize the day's events and
craft new policy — should be sealed because they
contain the same kind of information as in officer
personnel files compiled for disciplinary purposes. He
also rejected union arguments that officers named in
the report have a constitutional right to privacy.
"The court is not persuaded that either the Legislature
or the California Supreme Court intended (the law
protecting officer information) to apply whenever public
entities investigated law enforcement policies,
procedures or actions," Grillo wrote, "and to preclude
all public entities from disclosing the results of those
investigations if they touched on the conduct of
individual police officers."
Grillo sided with the union only in granting a
preliminary injunction to withhold the names of all but
two officers. He excluded Lt. John Pike because
images of him casually dousing seated protesters had
already gone viral on the Internet, and UC Davis Police
Chief Annette Spicuzza, whose identity is widely
known.
UC officials and the American Civil Liberties Union of
Northern California, which are seeking full public
access to the report, will have an opportunity to press
for disclosure of the names at trial.
The much anticipated full report — commissioned by
UC officials in the interest of transparency — won't be
available to the public until at least April 23, pending
possible appeal. Although Grillo has allowed UC to
immediately release uncontested portions, officials
said Wednesday they are unsure whether they will do
so because the extent of the redacted material could
slant the report's overall tone.
The Nov. 18 incident took place as part of an Occupy
movement protest and triggered an internal affairs
investigation. UC officials confirmed Wednesday that
five officers are facing disciplinary probes and 15 to 20
are named in the report.
The university separately convened a task force
headed by former state Supreme Court Justice Cruz
Reynoso to make recommendations regarding police
procedures. Kroll Associates, a security consulting
firm, was retained to collect information on the incident
and make policy suggestions.
Only witness officers — not those subject to discipline
— were interviewed for Kroll's report, and they were
granted immunity. But the union argued that all
material regarding the officers' conduct should be
sealed. They agreed only to the release of sections
dealing with administrators' actions and policy.
UC General Counsel Charles Robinson said he would
consult with Reynoso about whether to release that
uncontested portion in coming days. Between
one-fourth and one-third of the Reynoso report and a
little over half of the Kroll report would still be blacked
out, he said.
ACLU attorney Michael Risher argued in court that all
names should be public. (Lawyers for the Sacramento
Bee and Los Angeles Times also filed briefs seeking
access to the full report.) Robinson said UC officials
agree and will consider whether to appeal that issue.
But he expressed general satisfaction with
Wednesday's ruling.
"We think it largely represents what we argued," he
said outside the Oakland courtroom.
John Bakhit, an attorney for the Federated University
Police Officers Assn., said he would consult with his
clients before deciding whether to appeal. "We
obviously don't agree" with Grillo's overall conclusions,
he said, but "I still would consider it a win for our
officers because we can protect their safety."
The union submitted a declaration from Pike stating
that he received hundreds of letters, and more than
10,000 text messages and 17,000 emails, most of
them "threatening or derogatory," as well as unsolicited
home deliveries of food, magazines and other
products. Grillo agreed there was a likelihood other
officers could face similar issues.
Meanwhile, officials at a UC regents meeting in San
Francisco disclosed that they are working to finish a
separate report that looks at the best ways to handle
future campus protests.
UC Berkeley law school Dean Christopher Edley, one
of the study leaders, told regents he expects a draft to
be released next month for public comment. The report
does not investigate the pepper-spray incident or the
use of batons by UC Berkeley police on demonstrators
the same month, though Edley said those
controversies led to his study. Instead, he said, it is
"forward looking" and will examine such things as
freedom of expression, police training and
de-escalation techniques, and will develop
recommendations for administrators, police and
students.
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