As we reported last week, the Texas Civil Rights Project is suing the city for access to an unredacted copy of the report on the independent investigation into the Nathaniel Sanders II shooting case (see “What’s Hidden in Sanders Report?,” News, April 16). Pressure on the city has since ratcheted up another notch, with an online petition calling on City Manager Marc Ott to cut to the chase and release the report, authored last year by KeyPoint Government Solutions.
Debbie Russell crafted and posted the petition with the backing of the Austin Center for Peace and Justice and the Black Austin Democrats (Russell is vice president of the former and a member-at-large of the latter). The petition argues that the city is “erroneously hiding behind” a Texas attorney general opinion to withhold the full report from public disclosure and notes that no judge has yet ruled as to whether or not it should be released: “[T]he public still doesn’t know whether the findings of the report show that [Officer Leonardo] Quintana’s actions amounted to excessive or justified use of force,” reads the petition. “If it was excessive, then the public deserves to know why Officer Quintana only received 15 days suspension for failing to activate his in-car camera and deserves to know if disciplinary action was taken on only one policy violation to prevent release of key internal information in the case.” The petition – which was posted April 15 and has some 175 signatures at press time – is available at www.austinpeacecenter.org.
Meanwhile, a hearing in civil court on the TCRP-filed lawsuit, seeking release of the full report, is scheduled for the afternoon of April 27.
This article appears in April 23 • 2010.