Nonprofit asks judge to open records in case involving Daytona Beach Shores officers
A nonprofit government watchdog is seeking to shed some light on a confidential court petition filed by two Daytona Beach Shores police officers embroiled in investigations into their use of a city holding cell to potty train their 3½-year-old son.
In May, Lt. Michael Schoenbrod and Sgt. Jessica Long filed a petition for a writ of mandamus, essentially asking a judge to order State Attorney R.J. Larizza to do something. What that is, exactly, is unknown because the Volusia County Clerk's Office, citing a court rule, has marked much of the case file confidential.
The Florida Center for Government Accountability Inc. is asking Volusia Circuit Judge Mary Jolley to hold a hearing on the motion to make the petition to the court confidential.
Schoenbrod and Long have a child together. Last Oct. 5 and 6, they confined the boy in the jail, once for 3 to 5 minutes and the second time for "13 minutes or something like that," Schoenbrod told a Florida Department of Children and Families case worker in a bodycam video provided by the Volusia County Sheriff's Office. On the second occasion, Schoenbrod said he handcuffed the boy, who cried and promised not to poop his pants again.
Whether what's contained in the sealed court filings is relevant to the DCF interview is not entirely certain.
The Daytona Beach Shores Department of Public Safety conducted a professional standards investigation but has not released the findings, citing the court order.
Antonio Jaimes, an attorney for the Volusia County Clerk's Office, wrote in an email that the petitioners' motion for confidentiality must remain confidential "pending the court's ruling on the motion."
Jaimes sent that email this week in response to Michael Barfield, director of public access initiatives for the Florida Center for Government Accountability. Jaimes also wrote: "Producing the contents of this court file would subject the Clerk to potential liability."
One of the government accountability organization's arguments, made in the filing by attorney Lonnie Groot, a Daytona Beach Shores resident and the former city attorney, is that the petitioners' motion is required by rule to be acted upon by a judge within 30 days of its filing. The petitioners' "notice for confidentiality" was made on May 18, the same date as the original filing.
Groot's motion cites a court rule allowing any party to request expedited consideration of and ruling on a motion for confidentiality.
"A heightened interest exists with regard to the disclosure of records involving a public agency and its employees," the motion states. "The Florida Supreme Court has described the right of access to public records as 'the cornerstone of our political culture.'"
An attorney representing Schoenbrod and Long, Michael Lambert, hasn't responded to requests for comment.
Meanwhile, a Sheriff's Office spokesman said his agency released the bodycam footage to activist Mark Dickinson, aka James Madison Audits, who posted it to a YouTube page prior to the petition by Schoenbrod and Long.
The spokesman, Andrew Gant, said his agency should not have provided it to The News-Journal this week because of a court order and asked that the News-Journal delete its copy of the video. The newspaper has not done so.
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This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Government watchdog asks for open records in Shores officers' petition
