City settles with former mayor on public access lawsuit for $32,000

The Columbus Police Department and the city of Columbus have reached a settlement with former mayor Kristen Brown, agreeing to pay her $32,000 for attorneys fees, court costs and other expenses Brown incurred in a public access lawsuit.

The settlement agreement was announced today, along with the city and Brown’s request that the court dismiss an appeal as the parties have resolved the matter. Brown had said  her attorney fees were approaching $50,000 in the case.

The city has paid Faegre Baker Daniels $79,813.50 in fees for legal representation in Brown’s lawsuit, according to city records.

The settlement agreement was signed Aug. 9 by Alan Whitted, Columbus City attorney and Aug. 12 by Brown, according to court documents.

Special Judge Richard W. Poynter ruled in June that the Columbus Police Department’s response to Brown’s public information request about an incident involving a Bartholomew County Jail corrections officer violated the Indiana Access to Public Records Act.

“The court finds that the information CPD initially provided to Brown pursuant to her public records request in the Public Incident Report contained insufficient ‘information’ to meet the requirements of (the Indiana Access to Public Records Act),” Poynter wrote in the decision. “… Merely listing ‘Criminal Mischief/Vandalism’ and ‘Domestic Disturbance’ does not provide any factual evidence. There was no general description of any injuries, property or weapons involved. The only reference to any injuries, property or weapons involved was ‘other weapon,’ which is an insufficient description; nor was there any description of the property damage involved in the incident.”

Poynter ruled June 17 that the police department should pay Brown’s “reasonable attorney fees, court costs and expenses in litigating this matter.” The parties were ordered to agree upon an amount within 60 days.

The dispute between Brown and CPD that is subject to the lawsuit started in September 2016, when Brown submitted a public records request about a domestic dispute that occurred on Aug. 23, 2016, according to the lawsuit.

The Aug. 23, 2016 incident involved former jail commander Gary Myers and his then-wife Sabrina S. Myers, according to the public incident report. The report also lists that two vehicles were involved in the incident, one of which was owned by the sheriff’s department. No charges were filed related to the incident, according to court records.

On Sept. 26, 2016, Columbus Police Chief John Rohde responded to Brown’s request, providing an incident report that classified the incident as criminal mischief/vandalism and domestic disturbance and listed the weapon or tools involved in the incident as “other weapon.” No other factual circumstances or description of any injuries, property or weapons involved in the incident were disclosed at that time, the lawsuit states.

Four days later, Brown filed a formal complaint with Indiana’s public access counselor, alleging that the incident report provided to her did not meet the standards of two provisions of the Indiana Access to Public Records Act because it didn’t include “the factual circumstances surrounding the incident” and “a general description of any injuries, property or weapons involved.”

For more on this story, see Tuesday’s Republic.