The Augusta Press continued its push to require police to release body cam video, much like they do initial incident reports, at a Friday hearing.
TAP sued Richmond County Sheriff Richard Roundtree in April for the release of body cam video associated with a March 23 incident at the 2023 Spring Latin Fest.
In the incident, Richmond County Sheriff’s Sgt. Ty Hester arrested Burke County Sheriff’s Sgt. Allen Crispin after Crispin reported alleged child abuse to Hester. The deputies got in an argument, and Crispin was charged with disorderly conduct.
The video was captured at a public event held at the Augusta Common where no one had the expectation of privacy, contends David Hudson, attorney for TAP and the Georgia Press Association. Nor was it taken as part of any pending investigation, he said.
Privacy concerns and pending investigations can be used to exempt the government images from disclosure.
Richmond County Superior Court Judge John Flythe said at the hearing he understood the law to allow records to be withheld when a case is pending.
“Once there is an investigation that takes place and creates new evidence, new witnesses statements and so forth, I agree,” Hudson said. “What we have here is video of what would subsequently lead to a followup investigation or prosecution. The video itself is just like an incident report or an arrest report.”
Flythe asked Hudson if that meant body cam video of a traffic stop must be released. Yes, Hudson said.
“At the time that video is being made, when the officer walks up to my car, he doesn’t know,” Hudson said. “There’s no investigation at that point.”
Law enforcement agencies around the country who require use of the cams routinely release the footage ahead of criminal prosecutions, but only a few are mandated to do so.
Represented by Frails & Wilson attorney Tameka Haynes, Roundtree’s office has refused to provide the video, citing a pending investigation or prosecution. Haynes argues that state open records law allows the sheriff to maintain a policy of not releasing it.
Haynes said the open records law doesn’t specify when the records had to be created and that the withheld video could have been created as officers merely encounter an incident. “If the officers are working or responding, it’s an investigation that’s pending,” she said.
There’s no Georgia case directly on point, she said. One, Unified Government v. Athens Newspapers, she noted allowed law enforcement to withhold certain records by keeping an investigation open.
Hudson litigated the Athens case, in which a newspaper sought the case file from an unsolved 1992 rape and murder of a college student.
Flythe asked if there was actually an open investigation tied to Crispin’s arrest. Haynes said she was unsure of the status of the case.
“I thought you’d come prepared to answer that,” Flythe said.
Hudson said if keeping a case open allows agencies to withhold records, they’ll do just that.
“Most likely the law enforcement wouldn’t close the investigation. They’d just leave it pending,” he said.
But at the time the festival video was captured, “There was no pending investigation or prosecution. That was the event taking place that may lead up to one,” Hudson added.
Flythe said he’d take some time to research the issue and made no decision Friday. Meanwhile, the sheriff’s office is expected to advise the court whether the case is open.
While the sheriff’s office has refused to release the body cam video, it appears to be actively seeking additional video or other evidence from the incident.
Superior Court Judge Amanda Heath recently granted an emergency writ blocking the search of Crispin’s wife’s phone. A Richmond County sheriff’s investigator seized the phone and said its entire contents would be extracted and searched, according to a court filing. The investigator expressed interest in video of the arrest, according to the filing.
Attorney Tanya Jeffords argued the search was unconstitutional as it lacked a description of the place to be searched.
