Police Settlements Info (City clerk)
| Multi Request | Police Settlements Info |
| Submitted | Oct. 17, 2018 |
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Communications
From: Samuel Sinyangwe
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the California Public Records Act, I hereby request the following records:
Copies of all reports, lists, databases, or individual documents created since Jan. 1, 2016 that detail lawsuits brought against the city's police department and the outcome of lawsuits brought against the city's police department which includes the financial settlement. This should include any documentation mechanism your department uses to track lawsuits. It should also include any documents that your department submits to local, state, or federal agencies listing the number and/or status of lawsuits brought against the police department.
This request should be construed to include documents compiled quarterly, annually, or in other increments as well as documents or databases that contain responsive information over a longer time span.
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 calendar days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Samuel Sinyangwe
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following California Public Records Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Oct. 17, 2018. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: City clerk
Dear Mr. Sinyangwe,
This is in response to your request for records since January 1, 2016 related to lawsuits against the Sunnyvale police department. The following are the cases responsive to this request:
Title
Date of Loss
Complaint Filed
Court
Date of dismissal/ Judgment
Settlement/ judgment paid by city
Outcome
Turesin v. Sunnyvale et al.
8/19/2014
8/18/2016
USDC - Northern Dist. 5:16-CV-04773-EJD
3/27/2018
$0.00
Dismissed by plaintiff
Buschine v. Alejandro, et al
5/16/2017
8/2/2017
Santa Clara Superior Court 17-CV-313917
5/3/2018
$0.00
Dismissed by plaintiff
Martinez-Morris v. Sunnyvale
6/26/2015
5/9/2016
Santa Clara Superior Court 16-CV-294878
5/8/2018
$0.00
Motion for summary judgment granted
Bagley v. Santa Clara et al.
12/22/2012
4/25/2016
USDC - Northern Dist. 3:16-CV-02250-JSC
Pending
Pending
Pending
Purnell v. Sunnyvale
12/20/2016
4/6/2018
USDC - Northern Dist.
5:18-CV-02113-EJD
Pending
Pending
Pending
I'm not sure from your request what documents you would like to see related to the above cases. Our case files include a variety of non-public documents including documents protected by the attorney-client and attorney work product privileges (Gov. Code §6254(k)), confidential law enforcement records (Gov. Code §6254(f)), and confidential peace officer personnel records (Gov. Code §832.8 and Evid. Code §§1043 et seq.)
Documents that are public would include communications with the plaintiff or plaintiff's counsel as well as pleadings and other court filings. However, please note that the City Attorney's office generally doesn't keep copies of every court filing because the case files are primarily maintained by our outside counsel. For federal cases, we generally rely on PACER (the federal court website); for the federal cases, it might be quicker for you to create a PACER account<https://www.pacer.gov/> and then review the filings on the Northern District of California<https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl?logout> website. You can look up the state court cases on the Santa Clara County Superior Court<https://cmportal.scscourt.org/Portal> website. This will provide the docket information although unfortunately they do not have documents available for viewing on line.
I'd be happy to provide copies of the public documents that we have concerning these cases, but if you want everything, it will take some time to compile because we will need to extract the documents from our electronic document management system, which doesn't have a great capability for mass operations.
I'm attaching copies of the complaints in the above 5 cases so you can see the allegations and let me know if there are specific items or information that you are interested in.
Regards,
Rebecca Moon | Sr. Asst. City Attorney
rmoon@sunnyvale.ca.gov<mailto:rmoon@sunnyvale.ca.gov>
408-730-2705 (direct)
408-730-7464 (main)
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From: Samuel Sinyangwe
Dear Ms. Moon,
Thank you for your response. Individual documents are not required. However, a detailed list compiling the following information on civil lawsuits brought against the police department would satisfy the request:
1. Case Caption
2. Date
3. Race of Complainant (if available)
4. Nature of Lawsuit (excessive, force, etc)
5. Status of Case
6. Outcome of Case (Dismissed, Settlement Amount, etc.)
Thank you for all you hard work.
Sincerely,
Samuel Sinyangwe
From: City clerk
Dear Mr. Sinyangwe,
In answer to your questions, it appears that all of the information you are asking for was included in my previous response, except for the race of the plaintiffs.
1. Caption - the case captions are on the first page of the complaints that were attached to my previous email.
2. Date – see the table in my previous email
3. Race of Complainant (if available)
We do not keep this information in our case log. The California Public Records Act only requires a public entity to provide copies of existing documents, it does not require a public entity to compile information for a requesting party into a new format. Nevertheless, as a courtesy, I am providing the following information about the five plaintiffs who were identified in my previous email:
Turesin – White
Buschine – Our records do not contain any information about the plaintiff’s race
Martinez-Morris – Hispanic
Bagley – White
Purnell – Black/African-American
4. Nature of lawsuit – the complaints that I attached to my previous email describe the nature of each plaintiff’s case.
5. Status of case – see the table
6. Outcome of Case – see the table
Here’s the table again for your reference. Please let me know if you have any further questions.
Title
Date of Loss
Complaint Filed
Court
Date of dismissal/ Judgment
Settlement/ judgment paid by city
Outcome
Turesin v. Sunnyvale et al.
8/19/2014
8/18/2016
USDC - Northern Dist. 5:16-CV-04773-EJD
3/27/2018
$0.00
Dismissed by plaintiff
Buschine v. Alejandro, et al
5/16/2017
8/2/2017
Santa Clara Superior Court 17-CV-313917
5/3/2018
$0.00
Dismissed by plaintiff
Martinez-Morris v. Sunnyvale
6/26/2015
5/9/2016
Santa Clara Superior Court 16-CV-294878
5/8/2018
$0.00
Motion for summary judgment granted
Bagley v. Santa Clara et al.
12/22/2012
4/25/2016
USDC - Northern Dist. 3:16-CV-02250-JSC
Pending
Pending
Pending
Purnell v. Sunnyvale
12/20/2016
4/6/2018
USDC - Northern Dist.
5:18-CV-02113-EJD
Pending
Pending
Pending
Rebecca Moon | Sr. Asst. City Attorney
rmoon@sunnyvale.ca.gov<mailto:rmoon@sunnyvale.ca.gov>
408-730-2705 (direct)
408-730-7464 (main)
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