Fresno Sheriff’s Office dragging its heels on releasing misconduct records, lawsuit says
A lawsuit against the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office says the agency has failed to comply with a public records request seeking documents on officers’ misconduct.
The lawsuit, announced on Tuesday by the ACLU Foundation of Northern California, comes at a time when law enforcement agencies face more scrutiny from the public following high-profile incidents of use of force.
The suit was filed in Fresno County Superior Court by the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson on behalf of the ACLU.
The lawsuit asks for the Sheriff’s Office to immediately release all the records being sought in the ACLU’s request filed more than two years ago. The request seeks records on use of force, discharge of firearms, sexual assault and dishonesty by officers.
“We hope it will result in actual records,” Allyssa Victory, criminal justice attorney at the ACLU Foundation of Northern California, told The Bee about the lawsuit. “The actual records we are seeking. The documents that the public has a right to.”
This issue connects to the “whole purpose of passing Senate Bill 1421,” Victory said. The law, which went into effect Jan. 1, 2019, made information on police use of force and misconduct public under the California Public Records Act. These records were previously not public.
Sheriff’s response
Tony Botti, spokesman for the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office, said the agency was aware of the lawsuit, and referred questions on the matter to county counsel.
County Counsel Daniel C. Cederborg acknowledged delays in the public records request.
“The process of locating the records on this extensive request is essentially manual and very cumbersome,” he told The Bee in an email. “There was a lot of litigation by different organizations on this topic throughout the state so the rules weren’t clear for several months about what had to be disclosed.”
Cederborg said the pandemic and the Creek Fire “seriously impacted Sheriff staff resources for all duties, not just responding to PRA requests.”
“The County has been working actively with the ACLU over the past few months and has been producing records,” he said. “The County has not refused to produce records that are reasonably locatable so the lawsuit coming at this time seems unnecessary.”
‘Sense of urgency’
According to the lawsuit, the ACLU filed its public record request on Jan. 1, 2019.
The Sheriff’s Office didn’t provide a single record to the ACLU for 22 months after its request was filed, according to the lawsuit. After multiple attempts by the ACLU to get the Sheriff’s Office to comply, the agency in October 2020 began to provide limited information.
The Sheriff’s Office is sending a message that it doesn’t have a “sense of urgency,” and that it believes “it’s OK to delay the public’s right” to access this information, Victory said.
This “is really about building trust between the public and the law enforcement that’s supposed to serve us,” she told The Bee. “It’s about transparency of what really is happening within law enforcement agencies. And it’s about accountability.”
The Sheriff’s Office has indicated there are “many additional responsive incidents,” but has failed to provide those records and has not provided an estimated time of when it will produce the documents, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims the Sheriff’s Office has issued invoices seeking thousands of dollars from the ACLU for the records. The suit describes the invoices as “improper fees.”
As of Jan. 1, 2021, the invoices by the Sheriff’s Office to the ACLU had totaled $10,051, according to the lawsuit.
“We are going to continue to pursue these records, regardless of the delays and the excessive charges,” Victory said. “We know the public has the right to access these and that there’s a desire to see what these records show.”
This story was originally published March 23, 2021 at 3:27 PM.
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