In the latest development in the long-running South Bend police tapes case, the Common Council has filed an appeal with the Indiana Supreme Court over whether the officers captured on the tapes have legal standing to challenge the release.
The issue goes back to 2011, when a former South Bend Police Department communications officer came across recorded phone calls from the line of an officer who didn’t know they were being recorded.
Allegedly, the tapes contain recordings of racist comments and discussion of illegal activity. The Common Council has been fighting in court since 2012 to force the city to hand them over, while seven former officers captured on them have sought to block the release, arguing the recordings violated their privacy and state and federal wiretapping laws.
The case appeared to be headed back to trial in St. Joseph County after the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled in June that the officers have standing in the case, overturning a May 2021 ruling by St. Joseph Superior Court Judge Steven Hostetler.
In addition, the June opinion said that despite a decade of various judicial proceedings in state and federal courts, “the fundamental question of whether any or all of these recordings constitute a violation of either state or federal wiretap laws has never been resolved.”
Unless a settlement agreement is reached between the officers and the council, the opinion said that question “must be answered” in order to resolve the case.
But the Common Council’s appeal to the state Supreme Court, filed Monday, argues that the officers don’t have standing and that Hostetler’s ruling was the correct outcome. It’s unclear when, or if, the Supreme Court will take up the case.
The seven former officers recorded on the tapes are Brian Young, Sandy Young, Tim Corbett, David Wells, Steve Richmond, Sheldon Scott, James Taylor and Scott Hanley.
Contact Jakob at jlazzaro@wvpe.org or follow him on Twitter at @JakobLazzaro.
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