Common Council to consider appeal options following South Bend Police Tapes ruling

ABC57 was the first to bring you the breaking news on Thursday that a ruling came down in the 14-year court battle. The tapes are never to be played publicly but must be preserved until all appeals processes are exhausted.

Now, it's possible the years-long court battle may not be over.

St. Joseph County Superior Court Judge Jamie Woods stated in his conclusion that he believes the recordings of phone conversations from 2011 at the South Bend Police Department (SBPD) violate both the Indiana and Federal Wiretap Acts, rendering them illegal and subject to destruction.

"Officers reasonably assumed that their own assigned phone lines were private and not subject to continuous recording," the court order stated.

The South Bend Common Council subpoenaed the tapes in 2012, believing they possibly contained racist or illegal language and that they led to the unjust ouster of South Bend's first Black police chief. Several police officers, known as the intervenors in this case, blocked the subpoena, believing the recordings were obtained illegally.

ABC57 was the only camera in the courtroom during the closing oral arguments in March. Ultimately, the judge sided with the intervenors, concurring with their argument that officers had a reasonable expectation of privacy on their individually assigned phone lines at SBPD.

"He obviously put a tremendous amount of time and effort into his decision," said attorney Dan Pfeifer, who represents the intervenors, in a Thursday phone call with ABC57's Annie Kate. "We're glad that we had the opportunity to present the evidence, and we appreciate and respect Judge Woods' analysis and thorough consideration of all of the evidence in the decision that he made."

The common council argued the opposite, essentially saying there was no expectation of privacy on the phone lines at SBPD.

"Those were public, taxpayer phones," Oliver Davis, at-large common council member, who also called for the subpoena in 2012, said to ABC57 on Thursday. "It needs to be appealed."

Throughout the past 14 years, the common council has remained steady in its push to make the recordings public.

Now, that seems not to have changed.

ABC57's Annie Kate spoke with Canneth Lee, president of the common council, on Friday, to get his reaction to Thursday's ruling.

"Highly, highly disappointed," Lee said. "Highly disappointed that the judge thought that this case shouldn't be heard or that the tapes should be destroyed. We're very disappointed in that."

He said he's calling for an executive session with the rest of the council to go over all options for next steps, including an appeal.

"Transparency is very important, and I believe that those who started this process 14 years ago actually wanted to make sure that the contents of those tapes would be able to be heard by the community. I know that this is very, very important to the African American community," Lee said. "It is our mindset that transparency is important; what's on those tapes has been important. They started 14 years ago, and we want to see this through... From the previous years and previous administrations of presidents, they've been consistent with that thought."

South Bend Mayor James Mueller supported this call for transparency on Friday, releasing the following statement:

“Although the St. Joseph Circuit Court removed the City Administration as a party in 2018, I support the Common Council's call for transparency. South Bend deserves a full accounting of what happened, and this community is capable of handling difficult truths. After more than a decade and millions in taxpayer costs, it's time to bring this case to a final resolution."

ABC57 will continue to follow the case and the council's decision. Their attorney told ABC57 they have 30 days to file an appeal or a Motion to Correct Errors in court. If nothing is done by that 30-day deadline, the case would be considered closed.