Editor’s note: This story was updated on April 24 at 2:05 p.m. with a comment from police union vice president Richard Weinisch.
[B]URLINGTON — The Burlington police union has sued the city, seeking Officer Cory Campbell’s body camera footage from an altercation currently under investigation by the Vermont State Police.
Douglas Kilburn, 54, died days after an encounter with Campbell at the University of Vermont Medical Center. Police say Kilburn punched Campbell in the face during a March 11 interaction, which lead Campbell to punch Kilburn before subduing him.
Rich Cassidy, the lawyer for the police union, said he does not want Campbell to be interviewed in the investigation until he has had a chance to review the footage, according to Seven Days, which reported the filing of the lawsuit.
Cassidy filed the suit Monday after the city rejected a public records request seeking the body camera footage, surveillance video from the University of Vermont Medical Center, Campbell’s report from the incident and the affidavit prepared about the incident.
Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo said that the department’s policy is to allow officers to review their own body camera footage before making statements to investigators. But Vermont State Police asked the department not to give Campbell the footage, del Pozo said.
“The state police asked us not to give him the footage because they feel it would interfere with their investigation,” del Pozo said.
Del Pozo said the city department’s policy states that officers have the right to review the footage at the discretion of the chief, and he was invoking his right to withhold the footage at the request of the state police.
Cassidy wrote to the Burlington city attorney that he could not recommend that Campbell “voluntarily submit to an interview unless I first have an opportunity to review the video camera recording, in the presence of a qualified use of force instructor,” Seven Days reported.
The lawsuit states that the city’s rejection cited exemptions in the public records law for ongoing investigations, identifying private individuals who were witnesses or victims of crimes, and personnel documents including medical or psychological records.
Cassidy argues that the city cannot prove that those exemptions were warranted.
Del Pozo said that the department’s policy to allow officers to view their body camera footage came from recommendations from a Police Executive Research Forum report.
“We feel like every American, they should have the right to inspect the evidence the state holds about their conduct before making statements,” he said. “Under normal circumstances, we understand why an officer wouldn’t want to speak to an investigator before being able to view the evidence that the state has, and that’s a right that’s afforded to every American.”
Del Pozo said the BPD’s policy on letting officers view their own body camera footage before speaking to investigators differs from the policy of the state police.
“The question is, is it a fair practice to expect them to make statements without viewing evidence with their counsel?” he said.
Richard Weinisch, the vice president of the police union, said in a statement Wednesday that the state police’s policy not allowing officers to review footage “interferes with an officer’s right to effective legal counsel.”
“Police officers who are the subject of use of force related investigations want to provide investigators with their account of what they saw, what they heard, and what they felt,” Weinisch said. “But it’s just not fair for interrogators to base their questions of a frame-by-frame analysis of the video without affording the officer and the officer’s attorneys the same opportunity to understand the events.”
The case garnered more attention last week when VTDigger obtained communications showing that del Pozo and Mayor Miro Weinberger had reached out to the state’s health commissioner, Mark Levine, to challenge the medical examiner’s findings that Kilburn’s death was a homicide.
While del Pozo and Weinberger have defended their decision, members of Gov. Phil Scott’s administration questioned their conduct.
Thomas Anderson, the head of Vermont’s Department of Public Safety, called del Pozo’s actions “completely inappropriate,” in an email to other administration officials, while the governor’s chief of staff, Jason Gibbs, said efforts by Weinberger to have the governor’s office intervene “did not feel right.”
Anderson also wrote that the state police had to “repeatedly advise Delpozo (sic) that he has recused his Department from this investigation.” Del Pozo said Tuesday he had “no idea” what Anderson was referring to.
