The Clark County School District offices are shown in Las Vegas in May 2009.
Published Monday, Dec. 18, 2023 | 4:32 p.m.
Updated Monday, Dec. 18, 2023 | 7:02 p.m.
The Clark County School District must release the body-worn camera footage of a school police officer tackling and kneeling on a Black student outside a Las Vegas high school last winter, a Clark County District Court judge ordered Monday.
The order from Judge Danielle “Pieper” Chio requires CCSD to release video from the February incident outside Durango High School, including footage of the boy being forced to the ground, with minors’ faces blurred. The school district must also release other redacted records, including the incident report, the citation issued to one of the boys and dispatch notes.
The ACLU of Nevada, which is representing two of the boys involved, sued CCSD in April for the video and other records that CCSD was resistant to releasing, claiming that withholding the records violated the state public records law.
“For nearly a year, our community has been demanding the release of the bodycam footage related to the Feb. 9 incident near Durango High School. Every step of the way, CCSD has fought to hide these records from the public, an egregious waste of public resources,” ACLU of Nevada Executive Director Athar Haseebullah said in a statement. “With the judge’s order today, we can finally look forward to seeing what really happened when our clients were attacked by school district police. As we’ve said on a number of occasions, if government bodies refuse to act transparently, we will take them to court and leave them no choice but to act transparently.”
“We are in the process of reviewing the order,” the district said.
According to Chio’s 11-page order, the videos and documents relating to two minors referred to in court filings as ACLU clients M.W. and J.T., plus a third unidentified juvenile, are public records. With faces blurred and other specific personally identifying information like names, birth dates, Social Security numbers and home addresses redacted, the videos must be released within 30 days. The redacted incident report, misdemeanor citation issued to M.W., and dispatch notes must be released within two weeks.
Only the internal affairs investigation into CCSDPD Lt. Jason Elfberg, who tackled the teen, will remain confidential, Chio decided. That is because Elfberg did not receive any punitive discipline from CCSD or CCSDPD for the incident, and as such, under state law, he has not seen the investigation file himself.
A cellphone video clip of the incident, which is just under a minute long, roiled the community when it went viral. The clip shows a uniformed CCSDPD officer walking in the street to a police vehicle, detaining a teenage boy with his hands behind his back. As he leaned the teen against the hood, another boy walked through the frame, holding out what appeared to be his phone.
The officer then followed him, and they exchanged words, which were largely inaudible over the voices of several other people, although the second teen told the officer what sounded like “don’t touch me.” Within seconds, the officer wrapped his arms around the second teen from behind and took him to the ground, pinning him in the gutter with his knees on the young man’s back.
The officer also shoved another teen who approached and yelled “back the (expletive) up” several times. All of the teens in this incident are Black.
The incident led to a protest outside district headquarters, critical public comment at a School Board meeting, a town hall with CCSD Police Chief Mike Blackeye and local civil rights organizations, and a special hearing where Blackeye and Superintendent Jesus Jara appeared before lawmakers to testify on use-of-force practices.
The ACLU sued CCSD about two months after the organization first informed CCSD that it was representing M.W. and J.T., ninth-graders at the southwest valley school and requested records.
CCSD cited statutory provisions, case law and district regulations to justify not releasing the records. The district also said the records were part of pending juvenile justice and employment matters.
However, in her order directing release of the records, Chio said two of the boys were never in the justice system, as they were never arrested or cited. And regardless, J.T.’s parent signed a waiver to release the records, court records show. M.W.’s parent also signed a waiver, and at this point, M.W. does not have a pending case, as prosecutors did not follow up his citation with a delinquency petition, records show. A delinquency petition is the juvenile equivalent of an adult complaint or indictment.
“Despite the lack of confidentiality issued as a result of the confidentiality waivers from the parents/legal guardians of J.T. and M.W., the court is cognizant of the strong public policy in favor of protecting a juvenile’s identity. Accordingly,” the videos and reports that exist must be released with some redcations, Chio wrote.
“Our objective in this case was always to represent our clients’ interest in fighting for transparency and accountability for themselves and other young people harmed by police violence,” ACLU of Nevada Legal Director Chris Peterson said. “We will fight any effort by the government to weaponize privileges against the people that those laws were meant to protect. This ruling is a step in that direction, and we’re pleased to see it. It is impossible to hold the government accountable for misconduct if the government is operating in the shadows.”
Chio’s order does not apply to the ACLU’s continuing battle with CCSD over emails related to the incident. That will be argued in court today.
The district has argued that emails potentially related to the incident, based on certain keywords, are so voluminous that it would be a crushing burden to sort through them.
CCSD has also denied media requests for the video and other records.
In a meeting with Jara in August, the Sun made a request for the video wherein it offered to pay the costs associated with blurring faces of students to avoid the possibility of identifying minors. The district did not turn over the video or respond to the request.
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