Boulder sued for not promptly releasing footage
Yellow Scene Magazine is suing the Boulder city government for not promptly releasing unedited body camera footage of an officer-involved shooting on Dec. 17.
On March 4, Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty ruled that at the time of the shooting, the two officers, Nathan Schultz and Jarrett Mastriona, had reason to believe that 51-year-old Jeanette Alatorre was armed with a firearm and that officers and bystanders were in imminent danger.
The two officers fired their rifles after Alatorre pointed what was later determined to be a replica BB gun at a bystander before pointing the gun at officers around 4:46 p.m. in the Dec. 17 incident, according to a release.
“The people who encountered Ms. Alatorre that day believed she had a real gun, while using it to threaten civilians and police officers. It is certainly a tragic incident due to the loss of life,” Dougherty said. “It was reasonable, though, for the officers to believe Ms. Alatorre posed a threat to the lives of others.”
Yellow Scene Magazine’s legal counsel Hutchinson Black and Cook LLC said that instead of complying with the law’s requirement to make bodycam footage available to the public within 21 days of a request, Boulder conditioned the release of footage, “on the requestor’s payment of exorbitant fees, which effectively shields the unedited video from public disclosure,” according to a press release.
Colorado law requires, “all recording of an incident to be released to the public within 21 days after the local law enforcement agency or Colorado State Patrol receives a complaint of misconduct.” Colorado’s legislature
passed the Law Enforcement Integrity Act, SB 20217 in the wake of George Floyd’s death in 2020 by a white police officer in Minnesota.
Additionally, “the act allows for redaction or nonrelease of the recording to the public if there is a specified privacy interest at stake.”
“Boulder’s response to Yellow Scene Magazine’s request for unedited video of the shooting of Ms. Alatorre reflects a troubling refusal to be transparent,” said Dan Williams, lead counsel for the publication. “Boulder touts its recent Reimagine Policing plan, but refusing to comply with state-law accountability requirements isn’t the reimagination we had hoped for.”
Sarah Huntley, director of communication and engagement for Boulder, acknowledged that the city had received notice of the Yellow Scene Magazine lawsuit but declined to comment.
Before filing the lawsuit, Williams filed a request on Feb. 2 for bodycam footage of Alatorre being shot with a rifle by officers.
In response, Boulder officials requested $8,484 to release the footage, based on an estimate of the time officials would need to spend reviewing the video of the incident, according to online court records.
Afterward, William limited his request to “only bodycam videos that actually show Ms. Alatorre at some point during the video. I’d like such video from between 10 minutes before BPD shot her with a firearm to 3 minutes afterward.”
Boulder officials responded by requesting $1,425 for a 13-minute video, according to Williams.
Yellow Scene Magazine requested the footage for a third time on March 12, requesting “all videos relating to the Ms. Alatorre incident on Dec. 17, including bodycam and dashcam.”
On March 18, Boulder officials responded, requesting $2,857.50 for the footage, according to court documents.
Facing repeated requests for the public release of the unedited video of the shooting, Boulder later posted narrated and edited footage of the shooting on its website. It is undated. The website indicates that the video “could be disturbing and may not be appropriate for all audiences.”
Williams said the video of the Dec. 17 shooting on the website appears to be incomplete.
“First of all, it has narration and it has writing on top of various frames. It’s incomplete even when they show the time that they shot Ms. Alatorre with the rifle. What the video shows doesn’t match what the DA released what happened, which leads me to believe that it’s only a portion of what actually happened,” Williams said.
Williams said Yellow Scene Magazine’s intention in filing the lawsuit is twofold.
“There are two goals; one is to get the full unedited video where police shot and killed Ms. Alatorre on Dec. 17, 2023. And the other is to ensure that moving forward, that Boulder releases these types of videos regarding police misconduct to local news organizations,” said Williams. “It’s critical to (Yellow Scene Magazine’s) newsmaking process to get these unedited videos.”
On the City of Boulder police website, Interim Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn explained in a separate undated video that starting in March, police would role out video summaries about high-profile and critical incidents. He defined such incidents as ones where police officers use force that results in bodily injury or death. The redacted video of the Dec. 17 incident is posted on the website.