The Minnesota Star Tribune is suing the city of Minneapolis, alleging that the Police Department has refused to release crime report information in violation of the state public records law.
The complaint filed Dec. 23 in Hennepin County District Court contends the city has improperly withheld homicide victims’ names and addresses from the news organization on multiple occasions over the last 18 months, though the lawsuit concerns a single incident.
Attorneys for the Star Tribune are asking the court to order the city and its clerk, Casey Carl, to comply with state records laws and promptly release the requested information.
“The Star Tribune has been more than patient with the City over many, many months,” Leita Walker, an attorney for the news organization, said in a statement. “Sometimes litigation is what it takes to get government to pay attention and follow the law.”
Minneapolis City Attorney Kristyn Anderson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Minneapolis Communications Director Scott Wasserman said in a statement that the city has repeatedly told the Star Tribune that the medical examiner, not the city, is charged with identifying deceased individuals.
“To avoid misidentification of a deceased individual, which would create devastating consequences for a deceased individual’s loved ones in addition to confusing the public, we defer to the Medical Examiner to do its job and make the identification,” Wasserman said.
The lawsuit stems from a Star Tribune reporter’s repeated attempts to obtain the name and address of a man found dead Dec. 2 near a homeless encampment in the Kenwood neighborhood, as well as the address of another man found nearby who was stabbed but survived.
The complaint states that the reporter asked the Minneapolis Police Department for an incident report about two weeks after the men were found. On that report, the name of the man who died was redacted without reference to a legal statute that would justify its removal.
