Judge orders release of redacted OIR – issues 20 Day stay

Court enters judgment ordering release
of redacted OIR Report on McDade,
issues 20-day stay

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant today entered a
judgment ordering the release of a redacted version of the Office of Independent
Review Group (OIR) Report on the Pasadena Police Departments shooting of
the unarmed young African- American youth Kendrec McDade. However, the
OIR Report will not be immediately released because Judge Chalfant concurrently
granted the request of the Pasadena Police Officers Association (PPOA) for a 20
day stay on enforcing the order so that it could seek to overturn Judge Chalfants
order in the Court of Appeal
Pasadena Police Department officer Matthew Griffin and Jeffrey Newlen
shot and killed Kendrec McDade in 2012 after a false report that two youths with
guns had robbed a victim; the officers chased McDade for several blocks, before
shooting him, claiming they believed that he had a gun. However, McDade was
unarmed.
Pasadena City Manager Michael Beck sparked a public outcry in July when
he publicly stated that the City would release only the recommendations in the
OIR Report. Numerous community members urged the City Council to release
the full OIR Report. Community members, community organizations, and
newspapers then filed public records act requests for the OIR Report. At the
Citys urging, the PPOA filed suit in early September to prevent the City from
releasing any part of the OIR Report; the City used the PPOA lawsuit to avoid
responding to the public records act requests. McDades mother, Anya Slaughter,
the Pasadena NAACP, ACT, the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, and
ACLU Board member Kris Ockershauser intervened in the lawsuit, got the
PPOAs lawsuit dismissed as premature because the City had not indicated it was
going to release the document; Judge Chalfant ordered the City to stop playing
games and indicate whether or not it would release the report. The Los Angeles
Times at the same time intervened to also seek release of the OIR Report. The
City then submitted under seal a copy of the Report that redacted 14 pages of the
70-page report. On November 4, Judge Chalfant overruled most of the PPOAs
objections to release of the OIR Report, ordered the City to unredact two of its
proposed redactions, and ordered the City to redact four short portions that it had
not redacted. Today, Judge Chalfant entered the judgment ordering release of the
revised redacted report but stayed for 20 days until December 3 the Citys
obligation to release the report.
PPOA Attorney Richard Shinee indicated in Court today that the PPOA
would seek a further stay in the appellate courts and would ask the appellate court
to prevent the release of the redacted report.
Dale Gronemeier, attorney for the intervener’s (except for the LA Times)
stated that he was disappointed that the PPOA is going to try to further delay the
release of the report. He indicated that his clients and the LA Times have not yet
decided whether they would ask the appellate court to release the whole report.
Gronemeier said I’d like to get back to discussing why this unarmed young
African-American should not have been shot by the Pasadena Police, the failures
in police practices that led to the shooting, and the indefensible City
administrative review that exonerated the officers for their conduct in a reckless
shooting. I just hope the OIR Reports criticisms of the Citys administrative
review is not buried in the 14 pages that Judge Chalfant has allowed the City to
redact.

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