National Bar Association files suit against Ferguson, police department

Allyssa D. Dudley//August 19, 2014//

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The National Bar Association filed suit Monday against the City of Ferguson and the Ferguson Police Department for delayed action and failure to comply with Missouri Sunshine Law.

The bar association’s suit follows an earlier lawsuit filed by the ACLU against St. Louis County and the St. Louis County Police Department for alleged violation of Sunshine Law. Both cases are related to records requests pertaining to incidents surrounding the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson.

The bar association filed a request Aug. 13 for records, video footage, notes and reports related to Brown’s death, to be delivered within three days. The city clerk wrote in response that some documents may not be available in that time, and the clerk’s office may not be the custodian of some of those records. A writ filed in St. Louis County Court says the National Bar Association filed suit after the office of the clerk did not respond to the bar association’s request for clarification as to which documents may have been unavailable, and which are not held by the city.

The ACLU suit follows an Aug. 12 request for “a copy of the incident report for shooting of Michael Brown.” According to a petition filed in St. Louis County Court, the ACLU received an outright denial, followed by a one page incident report that contained the date, time, and a single word descriptor of the incident: “shoot.”

The National Bar Association also sent a preservation of evidence notice to the city and police department asking they preserve “the police officers’ raw notes of all statements, observations, and data collected from the scene of the incident,” according to a Monday release from the bar association.

“There can be no full, fair and accurate accounting in any state or federal criminal or civil action unless any and all footage is carefully preserved,” Pamela J. Meanes, President of the National Bar Association and St. Louis attorney, stated in the release.

The cases are National Bar Association v. City of Ferguson, 14SL-CC02787, and American Civil Liberties Union Of Mo v. St. Louis County, 14SL-CC02743.