The lawyer for Rutland Police Cpl. Christopher Rose, who fatally shot a man in a McDonald’s bathroom this summer, is asking a judge to force Vermont State Police to turn over a video taken inside the restaurant at the time of the fatal shooting.
Susan Edwards, Rose’s attorney, held true to her pledge in October to file a lawsuit seeking the video. A hearing in the case is set for next week in Rutland County Superior civil court before Judge Helen Toor.
Edwards has said she believed a restaurant camera captured footage of the inside corridor leading to the bathroom.
Investigators said Jonathan Mansilla ran into the restaurant bathroom after his vehicle crashed at a nearby intersection the afternoon of Aug. 25. Police said he was attempting to evade them as they sought him in connection with an earlier crash in the city.
Vermont State Police are leading the investigation into the fatal shooting of Mansilla, 33, of Coral Gables, Florida.
According to investigators, Rose told them in a statement that he believed Mansilla was raising a weapon and charging at him when Mansilla came out of a stall at the restaurant. Rose fired three shots, according to investigators, killing Mansilla, who was holding a cellphone in his hand, not a weapon.
Rose and Mansilla were the only two people in the bathroom at the time of the shooting, and there were no cameras in there, authorities have said. Rutland police do not wear body cameras.
Edwards has acknowledged that the footage she is seeking does not show the shooting but argues it would provide a more complete picture of what happened leading up to the shooting.
Edwards alleged in her three-page court filing that Vermont State Police have violated the Vermont Public Records Act by rejecting her earlier public records request for the video.
“Defendant has incorrectly asserted the (Public Records Act) exception regarding the ‘possibility of interfering with enforcement proceedings’ contained within the law for failing to release the video,” Edwards wrote in the filing.
“Defendant is unable to show that disclosure of the requested records will result in a ‘reasonable … possibility of interfering with enforcement proceedings,’” Edwards wrote.
Edwards is asking the judge to grant a preliminary injunction ordering the Vermont State Police to provide the video.
“Plaintiff has now obtained all but the McDonald’s restaurant video footage from other sources so she now asks the court only to order provision of the same,” the filing stated.
Vermont State Police, through spokesperson Adam Silverman, declined to comment Tuesday on the lawsuit.
Meanwhile, Vermont State Police have already completed their investigation into the fatal shooting and have turned it over to prosecutors for review.
There is no timeline for when prosecutors will release their findings.
