Officer sues SFPD, claims public records law violation
Documents sought over internal affairs investigation
A Santa Fe police officer is suing the department and the city, accusing them of violating the state’s public records law.
According to the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the state District Court in Santa Fe, Officer Daniel Lopez submitted a public records request to the police department in June, asking for documents related to two internal affairs investigations “concerning actions by SFPD personnel, including allegations against Mr. Lopez.”
The suit says the Santa Fe Police Department, agency spokesman Greg Gurulé and the city of Santa Fe violated the records law by failing to provide the records or not giving a proper reason for withholding them.
Acting Chief Andrew Padilla, spokesman Lt. Sean Strahon and Gurulé did not immediately return calls seeking comment. Gurulé is on medical leave.
Matt Ross, a spokesman for the city, said officials generally don’t comment on pending litigation.
Lopez’s lawyer, Thomas Grover of Albuquerque, told The New Mexican his client is asking for records on an internal investigation into allegations that he lied when he was questioned by investigators looking into complaints about a house party attended by off-duty officers in the fall of 2016.
Someone at the party used a permanent marker to draw on an intoxicated woman, Grover said, and Lopez drove her home “and got her out of that situation.”
After the department began investigating what went on at the party, Grover said, it accused Lopez of lying to the internal affairs investigators.
But without documents on the two investigations, Grover said, he doesn’t know what his client is accused of lying about.
His client needs the facts of the investigations, Grover said, so that he can properly defend himself. “The gist of it is so that my client can properly be informed of what the allegations are against him, and what the facts are that support those allegations. Santa Fe seems to think it’s special in not wanting to do that.”
Lopez’s complaint says Grover asked for narrative reports, transcripts, audio and other materials related to the internal investigations.
In response, the suit says, Gurulé wrote that “Internal Affairs cases are not open for public review.”
When Grover asked Gurulé to specify the reason for the denial, the lawsuit says, Gurulé said the city and the police union had agreed to keep internal affairs cases private. He referred Grover to the city’s legal department.
There “is no statutory or legal basis by which production of both investigations can be entirely denied in response to Mr. Lopez’ IPRA request,” the suit says.
In December, The New Mexican reported that the reasoning behind the city’s policy to withhold disciplinary records on officers is because those records are considered matters of opinion, not statements of fact.
Grover said he has asked about a dozen agencies for records on internal affairs investigations, and the Santa Fe Police Department is the first to “really hold fast and not want to produce it.”
As a former cop and former union representative himself, Grover said, he is in favor of transparency in internal investigations.
“There shouldn’t be this secrecy toward officers’ IA [internal affairs] investigations. … Any hardworking cop is probably going to have some bumps in their career. It’s no big deal,” he said. “The real issue is upon the department … are they doing a proper IA investigation?”