The disorderly conduct charge against a Burke County sheriff’s deputy remains pending. But the pending charge can’t be used to withhold body cam video from his arrest in Augusta.
The Augusta Press filed a brief Friday in the news organization’s lawsuit against Richmond County Sheriff Richard Roundtree over access to the video, which Roundtree’s office claims is exempt from disclosure.
The Augusta Press requested the video after the March 25 arrest of Burke County Sheriff’s Sgt. Allen Crispin by Richmond County Sheriff’s Sgt. Ty Hester at the Augusta Hispanic Festival.
The brief contends body cam video is no different from the initial incident reports that Georgia law enforcement agencies are required to release.
The Georgia Open Records Act “does not exempt disclosure of law enforcement video that preceded an arrest, if it was used in a follow-up investigation,” writes David Hudson, attorney for The Augusta Press and the Georgia Press Association.
“The information in an initial arrest report might indeed become a significant part of a followup investigation or prosecution,” he writes. “The report may contain names of witnesses, details of a scene, or a description of a suspect. But the information that was available before it was written into a ‘police arrest report’ must be disclosed under O.C.G.A. 50-18-72(a)(4).”
The argument that just because a public record, the video, might end up in an investigation doesn’t have to be released is flawed, the brief states. Had the legislature intended that information be exempt from disclosure, it would not have required all initial arrest and incident reports be disclosed.
“The pre-arrest video should be treated the same – it should be disclosed. What it shows happened in public and before an arrest or investigation,” it says.
In addition, the open records act spells out when law enforcement video must be released, saying it may be withheld only where those involved had an expectation of privacy or when an investigation is pending, it says.
Crispin charges still under consideration
Crispin’s disorderly conduct case has been transferred to Richmond County State Court where Solicitor General Omeeka Loggins said she has not made a decision on whether to move forward with prosecution. Its movement was delayed by litigation, she said.
Joe Edge, publisher of The Augusta Press, said it’s in the public interest for law enforcement to release body cam video taken in public with no expectation of privacy.
“With all the controversies surrounding the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office, the public needs and deserves to be able to critique how they perform their role of public servants,” Edge said. “If nothing was improper, then there should be no reason not to release the video.”
Richmond County leadership is known to critique the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office for not wearing body cameras, but “when the cameras allegedly show something embarrassing to RCSO deputies, they try to abuse the Open Records Act to avoid disclosure,” Edge said.
