Politics & Government

UC Responds to Pepper Spray Report Release Decision

This is the UC's response to the judge's decision to release the Nov. 18 reports almost entirely.

Read the UC's response and let us know what you think below the story. 

UC General Counsel Charles Robinson made the following statement after Alameda County Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo ruled almost entirely in favor of UC arguments for full public disclosure of the UC Davis pepper spray reports: 

"We are pleased that Judge Grillo agrees, in almost every respect, with our arguments for full public disclosure of reports from the task force chaired by former California Supreme Court Associate Justice Cruz Reynoso. While he also ordered names of some police officers in the reports to be redacted, we would like that information ultimately to be made public.

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"He imposed a 21-day stay to allow campus police union attorneys time to decide whether they will appeal. During that time the task force and university are permitted to release only those parts of the report that the judge previously permitted to be released, plus a few additional sections that police union attorneys agreed to. As a result, there still are substantial portions of the Reynoso Task Force and Kroll reports that cannot be released during the 21-day stay.

"Judge Grillo said UC retains discretion on the timing and form of release of the reports. We will confer with Justice Reynoso about when and how the reports will be released to the UC Davis community and the general public.

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"All of us — including Justice Reynoso and UC President Mark G. Yudof — remain committed to full public disclosure of the findings and recommendations of the task force. Sharing and discussing the task force report with the UC Davis community — students, faculty and staff — is a vitally important step toward healing and understanding."

Original Bay City News Report

An Oakland judge said Wednesday that the University of California can  release virtually all of a long-awaited report on the pepper-spraying of  protesters at UC Davis by campus police officers in November except for the  names of most officers.     

However, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo stayed the issuance of the nearly-complete version of the report for 21 days to  allow attorneys for the Federated University Police Officers Association,  which represents officers at UC Davis and other UC campuses, an opportunity  to appeal his ruling.      

John Bakhit, one of the police union's attorneys, said after  today's hearing that he wants to talk to the union's members before he  decides whether to appeal.  

The union filed suit earlier this month to try to stop a task  force headed by former California Supreme Court Justice Cruz Reynoso to  release its findings to the UC Davis community.     

The 12-member task force was created to investigate an incident at  an Occupy protest Nov. 18 in which campus police officers doused pepper spray  on sitting protesters who had set up an encampment on the Davis campus.         

Grillo issued a temporary restraining order on March 6 which  blocked UC from releasing the report at that time.      

But in a mixed ruling on March 16 he denied the police union's request for a preliminary injunction for most of the task force's report but  granted a preliminary injunction for parts of a fact-finding report by Kroll  Associates, a security firm hired by UC Davis to investigate the incident.      

Grillo directed lawyers for the police union and for UC, which is  headquartered in Oakland, to meet and confer before today's hearing to try to  reach an agreement on which parts of the Kroll report can be made public and  which parts should remain confidential.      

The two sides reached an agreement on the release of some parts of  the report but the police union wanted to bar the release of conclusions  about the conduct of specific officers because they said it could have an  effect on officer evaluations and discipline.       

But Grillo said the report is "a policy-level document" that isn't  focused on the actions of specific officers but instead is focused on the  policies of UC Davis administrators and makes recommendations on improving  the police response to future demonstrations.           

The judge said if the case were to proceed to a trial UC attorneys  have established a reasonable probability that the public's interest in  releasing the bulk of the report outweighs any reasonable expectation of  privacy for the officers whose actions are described in the report.       

However, Grillo said the police union has demonstrated that  there's a reason for concern about the safety of the officers who are being  investigated.      

He said Lt. John Pike, the incident commander whose  pepper-spraying of students was shown on national television and posted on  the Internet, has received more than 10,000 text messages, more than 17,000  email messages and hundreds of letters, most of them containing "threatening  or derogatory" messages.          

But Grillo said Pike's name is already in the public domain as is the name of UC Davis Police Chief Annette Spicuzza, who was put on paid  administrative leave after the incident, so their names can be included in  the public version of the report. He barred the release of the additional 20 officers who are mentioned in the full version of the report.      

UC General Counsel Charles Robinson said after the hearing that the university could choose to release the previously-approved part of the  report before the 21-day stay expires for the nearly-complete version but he  wants to consult with Reynoso and UC Davis officials before it acts.           

Robinson said Reynoso and UC Davis officials might not want to release the report in a piecemeal fashion.     

"They spent a considerable amount of time making sure that they had a fair and balanced presentation of the facts," Robinson said.      

He said, "We're very pleased with the judge's position today because it largely reflects our opinion."        

Bakhit said, "We absolutely don't agree" with Grillo's decision to  release most of the report but he said "we still consider it a win that the  names of most of the officers will be protected."


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