Final order on release of OIR McDade report Expected Friday; Judge Overrules majority of police union objections

Final order on release of OIR McDade report
Expected Friday; Judge Overrules majority of police union objections

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant Tuesday overruled
the great majority of the Pasadena Police Officer Association objections to
releasing the Office of Independent Review (“OIR”) report on the Pasadena Police
Department’s shooting of the unarmed young African- American youth Kendrec
McDade. Judge Chalfant indicated that he expects to issue an order on Friday
directing the City of Pasadena to release a redacted version of the OIR report.
Pasadena Police Department officer Matthew Griffin and Jeffrey Newlen shot and
killed Kendrec McDade in 2012 after a false report by that two youths with guns
had robbed a victim; the officers chased McDade for several blocks, before
shooting him, claiming he believed that he had a gun. However, McDade was
unarmed.
In court Tuesday, Judge Chalfant indicated that he was overruling the request of the PPOA that he redact even more than the 14 pages that the City of Pasadena has chosen to redact from the OIR Report. The Judge did order four additional
relatively short redactions but also ordered the City not to redact two entries it
had chosen to redact; the Judge did not decide on three redactions because the
city had not shown him what it was redacting. He ordered the City to produce
that information by Thursday morning so he can issue his final order on Friday.
Although the PPOA initiated the proceeding to block even the redacted version of
the OIR report, no one representing the PPOA showed up at the hearing today.
The Los Angeles Times, McDade’s mother Anya Slaughter, the Pasadena NAACP,
ACT, and the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance member Kris
Ockershauser intervened in the lawsuit seeking to get the whole report released.
Dale Gronemeier one of the attorneys for the interveners, summed up the
proceeding today by saying, “we gained some openness, lost a little bit of
openness, but nothing much changed today. We hope that the lengthy delays on
the public getting at least 80% of the OIR Report are now coming to an end and
we can now focus on the problem of police shooting unarmed youths rather than
having to fight for open government.”

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