Don’t allow Casper, Albany County to hide police shooting settlements

When the government settles lawsuits over police shootings, shouldn’t the public know what’s in those agreements? Money, after all, is paid out on the public’s behalf, and yet elected officials have been keeping settlement agreements secret. 

That widespread practice should have ended in August, when the Wyoming Supreme Court gave open government proponents a clear victory, based on provisions of the Wyoming Public Records Act and federal and state constitutional requirements. 

The high court’s unanimous ruling, which reversed a decision of the Converse County District Court related to records in a medical malpractice case, is logical and easy to understand. Government entities that receive public funding must comply with the transparency requirements of the public records act and can’t issue across-the-board protective orders to prevent public disclosure of settlements. 

The Supreme Court concluded that “a district court lacks the inherent power, equitable or otherwise, to issue a protective order to close public records the [Wyoming Public Records Act] itself does not exempt.”

But the decision is being vigorously resisted by the city of Casper and the Albany County Board of Commissioners, who have gone to court to deny official requests by WyoFile and the Casper Star-Tribune.

Casper and Albany County both contend they may be subject to further litigation for violating confidentiality agreements; an argument the Wyoming Supreme Court has made clear no longer stands. Yet, elected officials in both these communities have chosen to use public funds to fight public access to settlement agreements that stem from the actions of public employees. Is whatever they’re hiding worth eroding the public’s trust? Unless voters speak up, elected officials may think they can keep secrets with little political consequence.

Both government entities were sued by two Wyoming mothers for the alleged wrongful deaths of their sons, who were killed in separate high-profile shootings by police. The facts of both controversial cases have long been in dispute, but disclosure of the settlement agreements would likely help the public judge whether the lawsuits were fairly settled, public money was spent responsibly, and if any policy changes such as increased training will be implemented to improve future police response.

On Feb. 25, 2018, Casper police officers Jonathan Schlager and Cody Myers fatally shot Douglas Oneyear after they responded to a report that he had assaulted a gas station employee. The officers said Oneyear refused to stop walking toward them and drop a sword he was carrying. Then-Natrona County District Attorney Mike Blonigen declined to prosecute the officers after determining the shooting was justified. 

A lawsuit was filed on the first anniversary of Oneyear’s death by his mother, Linda Lennen, who claimed the fatal shooting violated his constitutional rights.

Oneyear, who had two bullets lodged in his spine, died at the scene. The suit claimed the sword was actually a toy, and that officers made no attempt to subdue Oneyear without resorting to lethal measures.

More than five years after Oneyear’s death, the county and Lennen signed a confidentiality agreement and settled the lawsuit, two weeks before the trial was scheduled to begin. 

In Laramie, Robbie Ramirez was stopped on Nov. 4, 2018, for a minor traffic violation by then-Albany County Sheriff’s Deputy Derek Colling. Within a few minutes, Colling shot the unarmed Ramirez, who was living with a mental illness, twice in the back. He died at the scene.

A grand jury in Albany County declined to bring charges against Colling, who had also been cleared in two fatal shootings when he earlier worked as a police officer in Las Vegas. (He was later fired from that department after being accused of assaulting a videographer.)

Ramirez’s mother, Debra Hinkel, filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit in September 2020. In May 2022, the county and Hinkel reached a settlement. Hinkel, who wanted to know why Albany County hired someone like Colling despite his checkered past in law enforcement, has since stated that she favors public release of the agreement.

WyoFile’s public records request for the Ramirez settlement was denied by Albany County on Aug. 22, 2022. The Star-Tribune’s request for the Oneyear settlement was denied on July 18 this year by City Attorney Eric Nelson, who said the records were in the custody of Casper’s insurer, the Wyoming Association of Risk Management, not the city. WARM also rejected the request, citing the confidentiality agreement.

Both publications renewed their records requests in the wake of the Wyoming Supreme Court’s Aug. 8 decision that government entities can not keep settlement documents from the public because of confidentiality agreements.

In an article for Plaintiffs Magazine, San Francisco attorney James Sturdevant recalled that when he began practicing law in the early 1970s, confidentiality agreements were unheard of. If a case was publicly filed, the settlement agreement did not contain a confidentiality clause, and the facts and allegations available publicly were fair game for the attorneys, the client and the press.

“Confidentiality clauses that amount to gag orders are now routine,” he wrote.

In an analysis of Wyoming’s laws governing public records and open meetings for the Reporters’ Committee for Freedom of the Press, First Amendment attorney Bruce Moats of Cheyenne stressed the Legislature’s intent is that “the public policy of the state is disclosure, not secrecy.”

While Wyoming does not have any previous state case law specifically regarding confidentiality agreements, Moats also noted the Wyoming Supreme Court had plenty to say about making public records available in its 1983 ruling in Sheridan Newspapers v. City of Sheridan. 

“This holding is but another pronouncement from this court having to do with making the public’s business available to the public whenever that is possible,” the court wrote. “The courts, legislature, administrative agencies, and the state, county and municipal governments should be ever mindful that theirs is public business and the public has a right to know how its servants are conducting its business.”

The high court also said it’s important for the government to remember that the written, viewing and broadcasting press are “the eyes and ears of the people.”

That does not mean, of course, that it’s only the responsibility of the media to file requests for public information and to challenge denials by government entities by taking them to court. 

After the Wyoming Supreme Court’s decision on records in the medical malpractice case established a new precedent, Rep. Karlee Provenza (D-Laramie) also asked for and was denied the Ramirez settlement agreement.

The legislator correctly said it doesn’t promote positive community relations when people “can’t get answers, when they feel there’s secrecy, when they feel like law enforcement doesn’t answer to them, despite getting their paycheck from the public.”

Given the attention the public initially showed about the police killings of Oneyear and Ramirez, it’s disconcerting that people and organizations have not expressed much, if any, desire to know what’s contained in settlement agreements, and to hold Casper and Albany County officials accountable.

Why aren’t the meetings of the Casper City Council and the Albany County Board of Commissioners overflowing with people who demand to see these documents? 

The Wyoming Supreme Court has opened the door for the release of vital public records in killings by police, but if people aren’t willing to challenge government officials whose only answer to record requests is to tell the public no, I’m afraid the opportunity to significantly improve policing policies in Wyoming will disappear.