By Charles Toutant, From New Jersey Law Journal
Calling for an end to “incessant discovery disputes” over Atlantic City Police Department internal affairs files, a federal judge in Camden has ordered the city to turn over every internal affairs file it generated from 2003 to 2014—roughly 2,000 files.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Joel Schneider of the District of New Jersey ordered the across-the-board production of files after the city simultaneously resisted turning over any files for officers other than the two who are defendants in the present case, Costantino v. City of Atlantic City, and claimed that a subset of the files would not be representative of Atlantic City’s conduct. Meanwhile, the city also is reserving its right to argue at trial that the handful of files it produced so far is not a representative sample, and it refuses to commit to a number it feels would be representative, Schneider said.
“Atlantic City can’t make up its mind about what it wants to do,” Schneider said of the city’s seemingly contradictory positions. “The complete production will not only halt the ongoing dispute over what is a ‘representative sample’ of files, but it will also short circuit unnecessary evidentiary disputes and motion practice. In contrast to these benefits Atlantic City has not shown that it will be unduly burdensome to produce the requested files.”
The ruling concerns a suit by Janine Costantino, who claims she was assaulted by security personnel and two Atlantic City police officers while visiting the Dusk nightclub at Caesar’s hotel and casino in 2012, according to court documents. She claims that Officer Sterling Wheaten took away her phone when she attempted to videotape the incident, and filed false criminal charges against her that were later dropped. She also claims that the city is liable for the incident because it has shown a pattern of indifference to police misconduct.
The case is one of about 30 civil rights suits pending against Atlantic City over police misconduct. Wheaten, who is a co-defendant in Costantino’s suit, is also a named defendant in at least two other cases, Schneider said.
In the Costantino case, plaintiffs lawyer Jennifer Bonjean of Brooklyn initially sought all internal affairs files from after 2003, but later agreed to accept 721 after the court preliminarily indicated it would not grant that first request.
But “after extensive briefing and oral argument, and after hearing the testimony of the parties’ experts and the officer in charge of Atlantic City’s Internal Affairs Unit, the court is firmly convinced that Atlantic City should produce all of its IA files,” Schneider said.
Production of the files has been an issue in several cases that are now pending. In one, Groark v. Timek, filed by another patron of the Dusk nightclub against the city, the city has been ordered to provide 32 randomly selected internal affairs files. That case is also assigned to Schneider and U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler,
In the Costantino case, Schneider rejected the city’s claim that the plaintiff should have to make a preliminary showing of liability before it is ordered to produce any more files. The judge also rejected the city’s claim that the request is too onerous.
Schneider ordered both sides to seek an agreement on logistical aspects of the file production, and the plaintiff has offered to pay part of the cost for copying, but no terms have been reached so far.
Bonjean, the lawyer representing Costantino, said the ruling was significant for all the Atlantic City police excessive-force cases.
“As you can tell from the tone of the opinion, the judge is concerned something is very much amiss in the internal affairs process. And the city of Atlantic City has done nothing but obfuscate,” Bonjean said.
Bonjean said she would have an expert in law enforcement process analysis read the cases and issue a report on whether the city handles police complaints properly.
Todd Gelfand of Barker, Gelfand & James in Voorhees, who represents the city in the case, did not respond to a call or email message about the ruling.
Photo: idrutu/iStockphoto.com
For more on this story go to: http://www.njlawjournal.com/id=1202723386541/Atlantic-City-Must-Hand-Over-2000-Internal-Affairs-Files#ixzz3XI593wDM