Mitchell v. City of Cedar Rapids

In this tort action, the Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the district court compelling Defendants to produce police investigative reports without a protective order preventing disclosure to the public, holding that the district court properly balanced the competing interests in confidentiality and transparency through its time limit, a carve-out for police internal review records, and directives to handle remaining confidentiality issues by redaction or further proceedings.An African-American motorist was rendered a quadriplegic from being shot at by a Caucasian police officer who had stopped the motorist. The police department released the dash cam video of the incident to the public, and the video went viral on social media. Plaintiffs, the injured motorist and his wife, filed suit against the police officer and City. When Plaintiffs sought discovery of the police investigative reports Defendants refused to produce the documents without a protective order prohibiting disclosure to the media or other nonparties. The district court denied the motion for protective order but limited the order compelling production to reports prepared within ninety-six hours of the incident. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the police investigative reports were not exempt from public disclosure under Hawk Eye v. Jackson, 521 N.W.2d 750 (Iowa 1994). View "Mitchell v. City of Cedar Rapids" on Justia Law