[B]URLINGTON — City officials have provided the police union with surveillance video of the altercation between Douglas Kilburn and Officer Cory Campbell as captured by University of Vermont Medical Center cameras.
While the start of the fight between Kilburn and Campbell is obstructed from the camera’s view by Kilburn’s car, the footage shows Campbell punching Kilburn at least three times.
Richard Cassidy, lawyer for the Burlington Police Officers Association, provided the footage to VTDigger after receiving it from the city last week as part of its public records lawsuit.
Earlier this month, the union released to the media Campbell’s body camera footage, which showed Kilburn punching Campbell before Campbell punched him back.
Kilburn, 54, died days after the March 11 encounter with Campbell at the UVM Medical Center. His manner of death was ruled a homicide by chief medical examiner Steven Shapiro, meaning Shapiro found that Kilburn would not have died without the blunt force trauma caused by Campbell.
Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo declined to comment on the video, citing the ongoing investigation. Attorney General TJ Donovan is currently reviewing the Vermont State Police’s investigation of the incident.
Charity Clark, Donovan’s chief of staff, said the attorney general could not comment on an ongoing investigation.
The union received Campbell’s body camera footage, his written report from the incident and the affidavit prepared about the incident shortly after a July 1 ruling from Judge Helen Toor that the city had to provide those records.
Since the records were “relating to an arrest,” Toor wrote that they were public and must be disclosed.
Toor wrote that because the hospital’s surveillance video was obtained by the state police for their investigation and not directly related to Kilburn’s arrest, the city’s argument to withhold it was “at least potentially” supportable.
She ordered the city to provide additional information within 10 days explaining how the hospital video “might create a danger to the investigation.”
Instead, Cassidy and assistant city attorney Joy Hovestadt informed the court July 11 that all the records requested by the plaintiff had been produced, including the hospital’s surveillance footage.
