Court Opinion

ID: 9372380
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-02-21 14:06:01.355297+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:16:34.655516
License: Public Domain

[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it may be cited as State
ex rel. Lusane v. Kent Police Dept., Slip Opinion No. 2023-Ohio-480.]

                                           NOTICE
      This slip opinion is subject to formal revision before it is published in an
      advance sheet of the Ohio Official Reports. Readers are requested to
      promptly notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of Ohio, 65
      South Front Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215, of any typographical or other
      formal errors in the opinion, in order that corrections may be made before
      the opinion is published.

                           SLIP OPINION NO. 2023-OHIO-480
            THE STATE EX REL. LUSANE v. KENT POLICE DEPARTMENT
  [Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it
  may be cited as State ex rel. Lusane v. Kent Police Dept., Slip Opinion No.
                                      2023-Ohio-480.]
Mandamus—Public Records—A police officer’s dash-camera video is a public
        record subject to disclosure—Writ granted.
  (No. 2022-0441—Submitted January 10, 2023—Decided February 21, 2023.)
                                       IN MANDAMUS.
                                    _________________
        Per Curiam.
        {¶ 1} This is an original action in mandamus brought under Ohio’s Public
Records Act by relator, Matthew M. Lusane, against respondent, city of Kent Police
Department. Lusane seeks a writ of mandamus ordering the police department to
produce videos. Lusane also asks that he be awarded statutory damages. We grant
Lusane the writ of mandamus and award him statutory damages.
                             SUPREME COURT OF OHIO

                               I. BACKGROUND
       {¶ 2} On April 1, 2022, Lusane hand delivered a public-records request to
the police department, requesting “ANY and ALL officer body camera and cruiser
dash camera video for Incident Report Number 22-4996.” (Capitalization and
underling sic.)
       {¶ 3} On April 5, Captain Jennifer Ennemoser emailed Lusane, explaining
that because the case was still open, the prosecutor would have to authorize the
release of the videos. Kathy Coleman, the police chief’s secretary, also emailed
Lusane and reiterated what Ennemoser had written, but also explained that Lusane
could contact the prosecutor to discuss potentially filing a motion for discovery to
obtain the videos. The next day, citing R.C. 149.43(A)(1)(h), Coleman explained
in another email to Lusane that the videos fell under a public-records disclosure
exception: confidential law-enforcement investigatory records (“CLEIR”).
       {¶ 4} On April 22, Lusane filed an original action in this court, requesting
(1) a writ of mandamus ordering the police department to release the dash- and
body-camera videos and (2) an award of statutory damages.
       {¶ 5} On May 17, the police department’s attorney, Hope Jones, filed an
answer to Lusane’s complaint, which stated that she had “asked the Kent Police
Department to provide [Lusane] with all audio and video of the incident up to the
point of arrest” and that “on May 17, 2022 the records [were] sent to * * * Lusane”
by email. Jones emailed the answer to Lusane. In the email, Jones stated that
Lusane should expect to hear from the police department regarding the videos and
that he should download them within seven days to avoid a stale download link.
She further informed him that the “videos [had] been redacted at the point of arrest
pursuant to State ex rel. Cincinnati Enquirer v. Sage, 142 Ohio St.3d 392[, 2015-
Ohio-974, 31 N.E.3d 616].”
       {¶ 6} On May 24, Lusane emailed Jones and explained that while
Ennemoser had emailed him the videos, (1) the dash-camera video appeared to be

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                                January Term, 2023

from a backup officer rather than the officer who had made the stop, (2) no body-
camera video had been included, and (3) the video that had been sent lacked audio.
Lusane also questioned the relevance of Sage to his public-records request. Jones
responded that she did not recall citing Sage but that she would look further into
his concerns about the lack of body-camera video and audio. A little over an hour
later, Jones explained in an email to Lusane that Lusane had “received all of the
video and audio that [was] available,” that some video lacked audio, and that not
every officer involved with the incident was wearing a body camera.
       {¶ 7} On May 25, Lusane emailed Jones and reiterated his earlier concerns
about the police department’s failure to produce the records he had requested.
Jones emailed Lusane and stated that Lusane failed to download the eight videos
that had been sent and offered to resend them. The next day, Ennemoser emailed
Lusane eight video-download links.
       {¶ 8} On June 3, Lusane emailed Jones to tell her that he was able to review
one of the videos but asked her to resend three others that he did not receive. Three
days later, Ennemoser emailed Lusane with video-download links to the three
videos that he had asked for.
                                  II. ANALYSIS
                                   A. Mandamus
       {¶ 9} “Mandamus is [an] appropriate remedy to compel compliance with
R.C. 149.43, Ohio’s Public Records Act.” State ex rel. Physicians Commt. for
Responsible Medicine v. Ohio State Univ. Bd. of Trustees, 108 Ohio St.3d 288,
2006-Ohio-903, 843 N.E.2d 174, ¶ 6; R.C. 149.43(C)(1)(b). To obtain the writ,
Lusane must show that he has a clear legal right to the requested relief and that the
police department has a clear legal duty to provide it. See State ex rel. Ellis v.
Maple Hts. Police Dept., 158 Ohio St.3d 25, 2019-Ohio-4137, 139 N.E.3d 873, ¶ 5.
       {¶ 10} The evidence establishes that Lusane received eight video-download
links and that some or all of them were redacted at the point of arrest. The question

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                             SUPREME COURT OF OHIO

presented is whether Lusane is entitled to a writ of mandamus ordering the police
department to release unredacted videos.
       {¶ 11} This court has determined that, subject to certain exceptions, a dash-
camera video is a public record that is subject to disclosure. See State ex rel.
Cincinnati Enquirer v. Ohio Dept. of Pub. Safety, 148 Ohio St.3d 433, 2016-Ohio-
7987, 71 N.E.3d 258, ¶ 1, 32-38 (determining that a police department could redact
portions of a dash-camera video based on the CLEIR exception). Yet in this case,
the police department’s merit brief advances no argument explaining why redaction
at the point of arrest would be proper. See State ex rel. Myers v. Meyers, __ Ohio
St.3d __, 2022-Ohio-1915, __ N.E.3d __, ¶ 30 (a records custodian bears the burden
of establishing the applicability of an exception to disclosure). To the contrary, the
police department states in its merit brief that it “will not argue that the videos
contain Confidential Law Enforcement Investigatory Records (‘CLEIR’) that are
not subject to disclosure pursuant to R.C. 149.43(A)(2).” And the department
further concedes that it “was wrong in denying the Relator a copy of the videos.”
       {¶ 12} Therefore, we grant a writ of mandamus ordering the police
department to release to Lusane unredacted versions of the videos it previously
produced.
                               B. Statutory damages
       {¶ 13} A requester who hand delivers a fairly described public-records
request is entitled to an award of statutory damages if a court determines that the
public office failed to comply with an obligation of R.C. 149.43(B).             R.C.
149.43(C)(2). One of the obligations stated in R.C. 149.43(B) is that the public
office “promptly” make the records available to the requester. See Myers at ¶ 60,
citing R.C. 149.43(B)(1). “Statutory damages accrue at the rate of $100 for each
business day the office failed to meet one of R.C. 149.43(B)’s obligations,
beginning on the day the requester files a mandamus action, up to $1,000.” State

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                                    January Term, 2023

ex rel. Horton v. Kilbane, 167 Ohio St.3d 413, 2022-Ohio-205, 194 N.E.3d 288,
¶ 15, citing R.C. 149.43(C)(2).
        {¶ 14} Here, the police department still has not released the unredacted
videos to Lusane, meaning that it has departed from its obligation to make them
promptly available. Because the police department’s delay has persisted for more
than ten business days from the filing of this action, we award Lusane $1,000 in
statutory damages. See R.C. 149.43(C)(2).1
                                   III. CONCLUSION
        {¶ 15} For the foregoing reasons, we grant the writ and award $1,000 in
statutory damages.
                                                                                Writ granted.
        KENNEDY, C.J., and FISCHER, DEWINE, DONNELLY, STEWART, BRUNNER,
and DETERS, JJ., concur.
                                   _________________
        Matthew M. Lusane, pro se.
        Hope L. Jones, city of Kent Law Director, for respondent.
                                   _________________

1. We note that the police department does not argue against the imposition of statutory damages
and states that it is “prepared to pay * * * the statutory penalty as ordered by this Court.”

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