Judge: City of Sacramento violated Public Records Act in withholding documents on police killing
The city of Sacramento violated the California Public Records Act when it withheld records about the 2018 fatal police shooting of Darell Richards, a judge has ruled.
After The Bee filed the lawsuit, the city released more than 800 pages of documents to the public. In an Aug. 13 ruling, Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Steven M. Gevercer ruled in The Bee’s favor, and ordered the city to release additional information and photos in the shooting by Sept. 13.
“We’re pleased that the court has ruled in our favor and has held that the city took too long to release the important records of this officer-involved shooting,” said Karl Olson, a San Francisco lawyer who specializes in Public Records Act litigation and is representing The Bee in the lawsuit. “We’re also pleased the judge has held that they improperly withheld certain information from what they did release. We look forward to their compliance with the order.”
The Bee filed a public records request on Sept. 25, 2020 for: “Any and all records from the use-of-force investigation into the actions of officers Todd Edgerton and Patrick Cox, regarding the shooting of Darell Richards in 2018.”
The city withheld the documents for more than seven months. Then in May, after The Bee threatened to sue, the city released a seven-page “administrative review” report. But the city continued to withhold more than 700 pages from a June 2020 report. That report contains statements from witnesses and relatives, officer observations, detective follow-up, forensic diagrams and autopsy findings.
After the Bee filed the lawsuit, the city released the June 2020 report and additional documents, totaling 876 pages, to its police website. It also released hundreds of photos.
The judge ordered the city to, by Sept. 13, release photographs of Richards, his undisclosed medical condition, his alleged prior legal violations and photographs of the two officers who shot Richards. The city redacted those items from the documents.
Prior to the lawsuit, the city had released video and audio of the incident, but no documents, despite a law the California Legislature passed in 2018 that required their release. The law, called SB 1421, the Right to Know Act, requires police agencies to release records related to the investigation and discipline of police officers when officers use force that results in serious injury or death, commit sexual assault on a member of the public, or engage in dishonesty in certain situations.
In the future, the city plans to release the records more quickly, said City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood.
“Since the issuance of this decision, the city has been working to comply with the various aspects of the court’s order,” Alcala Wood said in a statement. “As the city has stated before, fulfilling this public records request has taken longer than it should have, in part because of challenges created by how certain information was collected, processed and archived prior to the passage of SB 1421. Moving forward, the city remains committed to improving and strengthening its internal systems and to sharing information as quickly and efficiently as possible.”
The city told Olson it does not plan to appeal the judge’s ruling.
Sacramento police fatally shot Richards, a 19-year-old Black and Hmong man, on Sept. 5, 2018. At around 11:30 p.m., dispatchers received a call about a man wearing a mask and pointing a firearm at people along Broadway near Tower Cafe.
More than three hours later, after a SWAT search including K9s, police found Richards hiding under a stairwell of a Curtis Park home. Richards possessed a pellet gun modeled after a 9 mm handgun and also a knife. The two officers fired shots that struck Richards seven times. He died at the scene.
The department said Richards pointed the gun at the officers, but the video footage does not show it. One officer’s body camera was off at the time. Richards showed signs of suffering from mental health issues, and was scheduled for a psychiatric evaluation, his family and friends have said. Richards’ family has filed a lawsuit against the city in federal court. That lawsuit is still active.
One of the officers who shot Richards – Cox – is no longer a city employee. He was an employee in June 2019, but was no longer by September 2020, according to city rosters The Bee obtained through public records requests. It’s unclear if Cox was terminated, retired or quit. City Manager Howard Chan has said he has fired six officers since 2016, but has not said which ones.
