Judge approves Kendrec McDade shooting report,…
NewsCrime + Public Safety
Judge approves Kendrec McDade shooting report, likely to order its release next week
Kendrec McDade, 19, was shot by Pasadena officers in March 2012.
By Lauren Gold | lauren.gold@sgvn.com |
PUBLISHED: November 7, 2014 at 5:05 pm | UPDATED: September 6, 2017 at 6:09 am
PASADENA >> A Los Angeles Superior Court judge approved a final redacted version of an independent report on the officer involved shooting of 19-year-old Kendrec McDade but has not yet ordered the city to release it.
Instead of issuing the final judgement in the case he had said he planned to issue Friday, Judge James Chalfant scheduled another hearing for Thursday to discuss his final ruling, according to Chief Assistant City Attorney Javan Rad. Rad said he expects the judge to order the release of the redacted report on Thursday or shortly after.
"At this point it's in the judge's hands," Rad said Friday. "We've already gotten sort of the general direction from the judge, we now have an indication that with the changes we made the report would be ready for release once he enters an order or a judgement."
He added, "We would like to get the report out to the public as soon as legally possible."
The report, prepared by the Office of Independent Review Group, has been the subject of legal dispute for months between the city, community activists including McDade's mother, and the Pasadena Police Officers' Association. Chalfant announced his approved redactions of the report, which censor about 20 percent of the document, at a hearing on Tuesday and said he would make his final decision Friday after answering some lingering questions.
According to Chief Assistant City Attorney Javan Rad, Chalfant found the city's proposed redactions, submitted by the city on Thursday with Chalfant's changes, to be acceptable but declined to issue an order to disclose the report. The redactions closely followed the city's original suggestions and rejected the majority of the additional censorship proposed by the PPOA.
PPOA attorney Richard Shinee did not attend Tuesday's hearing, saying he did not receive notice from the court. He did not say whether he plans to appeal the decision.
"We appreciate the court's time and attention with this complicated issue," Shinee said Friday. "We don't agree with the court's conclusion on this. We will review what action, if any, we are going to take in the future."
City officials said even after a final ruling, the release of the report will likely be delayed further by the PPOA.
"We do have an understanding the union will likely appeal this," Rad said. "As far as where we go from there, I don't know."
Pasadena Officers Mathew Griffin and Jeffrey Newlen fatally shot McDade in March 2012 after receiving a call of an armed robbery. McDade was later found to be unarmed and the 911 caller admitted to lying about seeing a gun. Following the shooting, Police Chief Phillip Sanchez commissioned the OIRG to conduct an independent review of the shooting and provide recommendations for department improvements that could be made based on the incident. The officers were cleared in the shooting by an internal review and the District Attorney's Office.
Shortly after the final OIR report was handed over to the city, the PPOA filed a lawsuit asking the court to permanently seal the document from the public. Community activist groups, including the NAACP and McDade's mother Anya Slaughter, as well as the Los Angeles Times filed opposition to the PPOA action, advocating for the release of the report.
This is the second report prepared for the city by OIRG. The first, on the 2009 officer involved shooting of Leroy Barnes, was released to the public in its entirety.
Dale Gronemeier, attorney for groups advocating for the report's release, said he is hopeful the report will be released soon so the public discussion can focus on its contents.
"What has tended to be lost while the fight got diverted to open government for a couple months is the City's indefensible exoneration of Officers Newlen and Griffin for a bad shooting," Gronemeier said. "Hopefully we can shortly get enough of the OIR report's evaluation of the city's internal affairs investigation that failed to call an out-of-policy shooting for what it is, but I'm worried that the criticism is buried in the 14 pages of City redactions that the Court is permitting. I hope I'm wrong and the public will get the report's criticism of that investigation."
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