Anderson v. Marion County Sheriff's Department

220 F.R.D. 555, 2004 WL 692054
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Indiana
DecidedMarch 31, 2004
DocketNo. 1:02-CV-01994-JDT-TAB
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 220 F.R.D. 555 (Anderson v. Marion County Sheriff's Department) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Indiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Anderson v. Marion County Sheriff's Department, 220 F.R.D. 555, 2004 WL 692054 (S.D. Ind. 2004).

Opinion

ENTRY ON PLAINTIFF’S MOTION TO COMPEL

BAKER, United States Magistrate Judge.

I. Introduction.

Aaron Anderson, an African-American male, claims that a female co-worker falsely accused him of sexual harassment. Due to this accusation, Defendant Marion County Sheriffs Department (“MCSD”) held a disciplinary hearing and ultimately found that Anderson violated MCSD policies concerning sexual harassment, cooperation with investigations, truthfulness, general conduct and conduct unbecoming an officer. Based on these findings, the disciplinary hearing board recommended that Anderson be demoted from lieutenant to corrections officer, receive a one-day suspension, and attend sensitivity training concentrating on sexual harassment. Thereafter, Colonel Larry Logsdon placed Anderson on administrative leave with pay and required him to undergo a psychological fitness for duty examination. In addition, according to Anderson, Logsdon and Deputy Chief Patrick Commiskey forced Anderson to resign by threatening to “add two (2) pages into his personal file about the sexual harassment incident which would make Anderson personally liable for defending a $300,000 lawsuit, and also, prevent him from obtaining another job.” [Compl. II18].

As a result, Anderson brought suit against MCSD claiming violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e et seq. Anderson also sued Commiskey and Logsdon in both their official and individual capacities pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, claiming violations of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. Specifically, Anderson claims that the Defendants discriminated against him by treating similarly situated Caucasian officers accused of sexual harassment more favorably. During discovery, a dispute arose regarding disclosure of certain information contained in MCSD’s internal affairs files. Unable to resolve the matter, Anderson filed a motion to compel which is presently before the Court. For the reasons stated below, Anderson’s motion to compel is GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART.

II. Focus of Discovery Dispute.

Anderson’s motion to compel involves numerous requests for production and interrogatories.1 Although Anderson explains that “[t]he dispute between the parties involves two categories of information” [Docket No. 33, p. 4], what is really at issue is MCSD’s invocation of the deliberative process privilege and law enforcement investigatory privilege with respect to internal affairs files relating to Anderson and two alleged [560]*560similarly situated individuals.2 Therefore, the Court need not trudge tediously through every request for production or interrogatory in dispute. Rather, resolution of whether the contested privileges apply to the facts and circumstances of this ease will resolve the discovery dispute.3

III. Discussion.

A. Deliberative Process Privilege.

“The deliberative process privilege protects communications that are part of the decision-making process of a governmental agency.” United States v. Farley, 11 F.3d 1385, 1389 (7th Cir.1993), citing NLRB v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 421 U.S. 132, 150-52, 95 S.Ct. 1504, 44 L.Ed.2d 29 (1975). The privilege “rests on the obvious realization that officials will not communicate candidly among themselves if each remark is a potential item of discovery and front page news, and its object is to enhance ‘the quality of agency decisions’ by protecting open and frank discussion among those who make them within the Government.” Department of Interior v. Klamath Water Users Protective Ass’n, 532 U.S. 1, 8-9, 121 S.Ct. 1060, 149 L.Ed.2d 87 (2001) (citations omitted). However, there are limitations to this privilege. For the privilege to apply at all, the document — or communication — must be “pre-deeisional” and “deliberative.” Becker v. I.R.S., 34 F.3d 398, 403 (7th Cir.1994). Moreover, the privilege “may be overcome where there is a sufficient showing of a particularized need to outweigh the reasons for confidentiality.” Farley, 11 F.3d at 1389.

The Court need not engage in this balancing process, however, because the deliberative process privilege does not extend to the circumstances of this case.

The privilege was fashioned in eases where the governmental decisionmaking process is collateral to the plaintiffs suit. If the plaintiffs cause of action is directed at the government’s intent, however, it makes no sense to permit the government to use the privilege as a shield. For instance, it seems rather obvious to us that the privilege has no place in a Title VII action or in a constitutional claim for discrimination.

In re Subpoena Duces Tecum Served on the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, 145 F.3d 1422, 1424 (D.C.Cir.1998) (citations and footnote omitted). See also Scott v. Board of Education of the City of East Orange, 219 F.R.D. 333, 337 (D.N.J.2004) (“ ‘In a civil rights action where the deliberative process of State or local officials is itself genuinely in dispute, privileges designed to shield that process from public scrutiny must yield to the overriding public policies expressed in the civil rights laws.’ ”) (quoting Grossman v. Schwarz, 125 F.R.D. 376, 381 (S.D.N.Y.1989)); Williams v. City of Boston, 213 F.R.D. 99, 102 (D.Mass.2003) (holding that disciplinary hearing officers’ final report to police commissioner was not protected by deliberative process privilege in civil rights case against the police department); Roberts v. Hunt, 187 F.R.D. 71, 75 (W.D.N.Y.1999) (“conversations between the employees of the Agency and Agency investigators regarding suspected violations of the Agency’s sexual harassment policy constitute factual material beyond the privilege.”).

Moreover, the privilege “should be invoked only in the context of communica[561]*561tions designed to directly contribute to the formulation of important public policy.” Soto v. City of Concord, 162 F.R.D. 603, 612 (N.D.Cal.1995) (emphasis added). See also Scott, 219 F.R.D. at 337 (“The Privilege is properly limited to ‘communications relating to policy formulation at the higher levels of government; it does not operate indiscriminately to shield all decision-making by public officials.’ ”) (citation omitted). Thus, as noted in Soto, “[b]oth the internal affairs investigations as well as the records of witness/police officer statements are of the type that would be routinely generated by Defendants,” making the deliberative process privilege inapplicable. Soto, 162 F.R.D. at 612-13.

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Bluebook (online)
220 F.R.D. 555, 2004 WL 692054, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/anderson-v-marion-county-sheriffs-department-insd-2004.