AG says Greene County sheriff likely wrong to withhold 'Live PD' video of fatal shooting

A cameraman from the cable TV show “Live PD” was recording last year as Greene County deputies shot and killed an armed man east of Springfield.

Video footage of the fatal encounter helped the prosecutor make a quick determination the deputies were legally justified in shooting the man.

But after the case was closed, the raw footage was not released to the public — despite two formal requests from the News-Leader.

The sheriff’s office denied the requests, saying the video did not belong to the sheriff’s office based on its contract with the producers of “Live PD,” a show that embeds photographers with several law enforcement agencies across the country and follows along during their nighttime patrols.

Last week, the Missouri Attorney General’s Office sided with the News-Leader, saying the Greene County Sheriff’s Office likely went against the state's open records laws when it denied the newspaper access to video footage of the deadly deputy-involved shooting.

The decision from the Attorney General’s Office doesn’t have much teeth — no criminal charges will be filed against the sheriff’s office and the full video will not be released to the public, since the sheriff’s office says it no longer has a copy.

To resolve the complaint, the sheriff's office will be required to host representatives from the Attorney General’s Office sometime in the next six months for a training session on complying with the Sunshine Law.

For his part, Greene County Sheriff Jim Arnott said Monday he stands by the decisions his office made in regards to the “Live PD” video.

The shooting

On April 18, 2018, 45-year-old William Simcoe Jr. led Greene County deputies on a lengthy pursuit that ended with him bailing from an SUV and running in the area of State Highway YY and Farm Road 134.

Two deputies caught up to Simcoe and fatally shot him after they say he raised his gun toward them while boasting he had a "full clip."

When Greene County Prosecutor Dan Patterson reviewed the case and determined the shooting was legally justified, he said he relied on dashcam video and that video from "Live PD" to corroborate the deputies' accounts of the shooting

Following the announcement, nine days after the shooting, that charges would not be filed against the deputies and the case was closed, then-News-Leader reporter Giacomo Bologna requested the full investigative file — including video.

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The sheriff's office responded that it could turn over all of the requested records except the "Live PD" video because the footage did not belong to the sheriff's office.

A portion of the video was shown on an episode of "Live PD" days after the shooting.

AG Office responds

The Attorney General's Office determined that the sheriff's office was in possession of the "Live PD" video on a USB drive at the time of Bologna's request on May 2 and a subsequent request on May 8 specifically for access to the "Live PD" footage.

But rather than give a copy of the video to the News-Leader or allow Bologna to watch the footage, the sheriff's office instead turned over the two USB drives with the video footage to a law firm representing "Live PD" on May 9.

Justin Smith, deputy attorney general for special litigation, wrote in a letter to the sheriff's office that this decision likely went against Missouri's open records laws.

"The Sunshine Law likely required the Sheriff's Office to provide access to the Live PD video for viewing in response to Mr. Bologna's request, before it returned the video to a law firm representing Live PD," Smith wrote.

Sheriff would make the same decision

In a phone interview Monday, Sheriff Arnott said his office did its due diligence before denying Bologna's request.

"I just feel that what we did was correct," Arnott said. "We followed the advice of our attorney."

Arnott said the raw video did not belong to the sheriff's office and his office has not been able to retain its own copy — even though he would like to have a copy for training purposes.

According to the Smith's letter, the sheriff's office's February 2018 contract with Big Fish Entertainment LLC makes the producers of "Live PD" the sole and exclusive owner of any video they capture "with the right for the full period of copyright, including all extensions and renewals thereof, and thereafter in perpetuity, throughout the universe."

Arnott said his failure to turn over the "Live PD" video to the News-Leader was not about trying to shield evidence from the public, but rather an effort to comply with copyright laws.

"It's not being not-transparent," Arnott said. "It's being legally proper."

Arnott said if the same situation happened again, he would again not allow a News-Leader reporter to watch raw video from "Live PD" of a deputy-involved shooting. He said where he feels like the sheriff's office erred in the Simcoe case was by not having representatives from "Live PD" pick up the video from the prosecutor directly. That way, the video would not have been in the possession of the sheriff's office any time after the case was closed and might not have fallen under the purview of Bologna's request.

Arnott said the sheriff's office was transparent in its handling of the shooting since it gave the unedited footage from "Live PD" to Patterson, the county prosecutor, so Patterson could determine whether criminal charges were appropriate.

"The person that needed to see it was the prosecutor," Arnott said.

Marijuana bust 

A second complaint from the News-Leader, which the Attorney General's Office also ruled to be "substantiated," centered around the sheriff's office initially declining to release the names of suspects arrested in a large marijuana bust, saying the investigation was still ongoing.

The Attorney General's letter says the sheriff's office was likely required to provide the names of the suspects, since arrest reports are open records in Missouri. The sheriff's office eventually did release the names.

Arnott explained that his office delayed releasing the names of the suspects to protect witnesses and the integrity of the investigation.

"We did provide the information when we felt that it was safe," Arnott said.

In his letter to the sheriff's office, Smith acknowledged the sheriff's office was faced with difficult legal decisions in both situations.

Although the Attorney General's Office determined the sheriff's office likely made the wrong decision in both cases, Smith did not find a "knowing or purposeful" violation of the Sunshine Law that would merit criminal charges being filed against the sheriff's office. Instead, some sheriff's office staff members will have to go through additional Sunshine Law training.

Arnott said Monday he had just received the letter from the Attorney General's Office that day and had not had time to schedule a training session but he had no issues complying with that term of the decision.

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