Activists’ Lawyers File Motion to Dismiss Police Officers’ Appeal in McDade Shooting Report Case

Pasadena police oversight activists on Monday filed a motion to dismiss the appeal of the police officers who shot Kendrec McDade, contending that the Officers’ attorneys’ release of a significant portion of the OIR Group McDade Shooting Report waived the officers’ privacy privileges for the whole document.

Although the Court of Appeal hearing the Officers’ appeal had scheduled a hearing Tuesday morning, the Court on Monday continued that hearing for a month.

Pasadena Police Officers Matthew Griffin and Jeffrey Newlen shot and killed the unarmed black youth Kendrec McDade three years ago. The City of Pasadena c0mmissioned the outside review of the shooting by the Office of Independent Review Group. The officers and their union filed suit trying to stop any release of its McDade shooting report; in November, Judge James C. Chalfant ordered release of a 20% redacted copy of the Report. The officers appealed the ruling.

In mid-March, the Officers’ attorneys contradictorily quoted 1 ½ pages of verbatim excerpts from the very report that they were trying to suppress in a publicly-filed brief that was served on their opponents; nine days later, they got a sealing-clawback order from the Court which brought outraged objections from the national media and free-press activists. Last Friday, the Court vacated that order.

On Monday, civil rights attorney Skip Hickambottom today filed a motion to dismiss the entire appeal for his clients – Kendrec McDade’s mother Anya Slaughter, the Pasadena NAACP, ACT, the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance and ACLU activist Kris Ockershauser.

Hickambottom’s brief argues that the disclosure a significant part of the Report waived any arguable privilege of the officers and mooted their appeal because now 100 per cent of the Report should be released. The officers’ attorneys assert their disclosure was “inadvertent.”  Hickambottom’s motion disputes their claim, calling it “preposterous.”