Judge finds Sacramento Sheriff still fails to comply with law on disclosing deputy files

A judge has again ruled against the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office over its failure to comply with a new law that requires release of records of misconduct by deputies, and has awarded more than $63,000 in legal fees and costs to lawyers for The Sacramento Bee who sued over the issue last year.

The ruling by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Steven M. Gevercer means the county has now been ordered to pay more than $165,000 in legal fees and costs to The Bee’s lawyers for failure to comply with Senate Bill 1421, which took effect last year and requires law enforcement agencies to release records involving cases of dishonesty, sexual assault or uses of force that killed or seriously injured citizens.

In a three-page ruling, the judge found that Sheriff Scott Jones’ office “has taken untenable positions inconsistent with the specific language of the new police personnel records disclosure law (SB 1421) and contrary to the public’s right to disclosure.”

Gevercer also found the Sheriff’s Office conduct required Bee attorneys Karl Olson and Aaron Field to file additional motions seeking enforcement of the judge’s previous orders.

The Bee’s attorneys “are entitled to a fully compensatory fee award,” the judge wrote. “To rule otherwise would allow (the sheriff) to undermine (the California Public Records Act) by failing to comply with a court order requiring disclosure.”

The judge also wrote that at a December hearing in the lawsuit he had noted “that it appeared many documents were improperly redacted.” The Bee has argued that some files released have numerous pages completely blacked out and videos released frequently blur out the faces of law enforcement officials.

Media companies and other entities have gone to court across California seeking rulings on implementing the new law, which the Legislature passed as a series of reforms designed to increase transparency about used of force and misconduct incidents by police agencies.

The Bee and the Los Angeles Times filed the lawsuit in January 2019 after the Sheriff’s Office refused to produce records dating back five years from the implementation of the new law.

Jones argued at the time that he did not want to produce records from before the law took effect on Jan. 1, 2019, until courts ruled on the issue. A appeals court ruled last March that the law could be applied retroactively and Jones said his office would comply with the law.

But delays in the sheriff releasing records led the judge to rule last June that the agency was violating the Public Records Act by virtue of the fact that at the time only one record — involving a 10-year-old case that resulted in a deputy’s dismissal — had been released.

Gevercer ordered that the sheriff “shall produce the requested documents forthwith,” but The Bee’s attorneys have argued that dozens of cases still have not been released.

Sheriff’s spokeswoman Tess Deterding said the sheriff’s office “will comply with any order handed down by the court.”

“As for the lawsuit with Sac Bee, we continue to redact records in accordance with the law and release when completed,” she added.

This story was originally published February 21, 2020 at 10:01 AM.