FOIL lawsuit costs Albany $14K

Lawyer: City “wasting taxpayer dollars”

The city paid $14,000 in legal fees last month to a reverend who was threatened with arrest for preaching in Townsend Park in 2019.

The Oct. 27 order by Supreme Court Judge David A. Weinstein was the result of a lawsuit over the city’s refusal to release body camera and dashboard camera videos to Rev. Cheryl Hawkins and her attorneys. The city issued the payment on Dec. 23.

Lewis B. Oliver Jr., one of Hawkins’ attorneys, said the lawsuit and order for attorneys’ fees was the the only way to make the city obey the law about public access to dash-cam and body-cam videos.

“The city claims to the media it wants to be transparent with regard to police misconduct, but in reality that is still not what is happening.” Oliver said in a statement. “The city is wasting taxpayer dollars in efforts to keep the lid on police misconduct.”

The city and the police department did not return requests for comment Tuesday.

Hawkins, of Thelmahouse Street Reach Ministries, was preaching in Townsend Park on

July 27, 2019, when officers approached her and ordered her to stop and leave the park — even though she had a special event permit issued by the city.

Police told Hawkins her permit had been revoked, seized her bullhorn and demanded she pack up her religious literature and leave the park, according to her claim.

She later filed a civil rights lawsuit, alleging the city violated her right to free speech and free exercise of religion. As part of the lawsuit, her attorneys filed a freedom of information request for any body camera and dashboard camera footage of the incident. The city denied the request, citing the now-repealed state law 50-a, claiming the camera footage is exempt because it consists of “personnel records used to evaluate performance toward continued employment or promotion.”

Hawkins’ attorneys sued on June 5, 2020, arguing that the city was required to turn the footage over and that it did not fall under the state’s civil rights law dealing with personnel issues. The 50-a law was repealed in June 2020 and the city turned over body camera footage it had but said that no dashboard camera footage existed.

The city then argued that because the law had changed, prompting it to turn over the footage, Hawkins’ attorneys had not substantially prevailed in their FOIL request and weren’t due any legal fees. Wildstein disagreed, ruling that the city was incorrect in its initial decision to withhold the camera footage and that if the lawsuit had continued, the city would still have had to turn that footage over.

“I find that the city had no reasonable basis for denying access to the requested bodyworn camera footage or to withhold the fact that the requested police vehicle recordings did not exist. As such, I am required to assess against the respondents attorney’s fees and other litigation costs reasonably incurred by the petitioner in accordance with section 89(4)(c),” he wrote.

Hawkins’ civil rights lawsuit is still pending.

“Although the body camera video of the incident that the city was forced to disclose shows APD Lieutenant Eric Crist ordering Reverend Hawkins to stop preaching and leave the park or he would immediately arrest her, the city’s answer denies this ever happened. This is typical of the city’s delaying tactics,” Oliver said in a statement. “Lawyers must keep suing until the city changes its attitude toward FOIL requests about the police. The taxpayers should care about why the city is wasting money by subjecting itself to legal liability for police misconduct.”