What is the District Court hiding?

We have extensively reported on Bob Lucey using Washoe County Sheriff’s Deputies as his personal security detail during a visit to the District Court on April 19th, where he sat in to view a hearing to determine Mike Clark’s eligibility for office. You can read the original story here. In obtaining the security footage from the court through public records requests we met some resistance from the Court and were perplexed by their response.

We made many requests, and understandably, some of our requests were denied for bona fide security reasons. Two of our requests stood out to us.

The allegation against Lucey, is that he received special treatment from the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office and the District Court. It is alleged that he then paraded into the Courtroom flanked by deputies through a private entrance, presumably to intimidate Mike Clark, who was sitting at the defendant’s table. To provide evidence to the public, we pieced together a video sequence of Lucey walking through the Courthouse and entering the Courtroom.

The one clip we are missing is of Lucey entering the Courthouse. We requested footage of the security screening area that the general public - and Mike Clark - use to enter the court; the request was denied, to protect the privacy of people entering the Courthouse. We understand why. So we requested footage of Lucey entering the secure garage under the Courthouse; the request was denied, but there are two things to consider.

First, it was denied because showing Lucey’s car or license plate could violate his privacy, or lead to a violation of his privacy - so why not blur the video like law enforcement agencies do? That being said, we understand the complexity of that, and understand why our request was denied. We made a second request for footage of an actual security breach - Judge Breslow being followed into the garage - and it was denied. It make sense.

The language of our email response is interesting though. It groups our requests together and implies that there are, “… records responsive to our requests…,” but for security reasons and privacy reasons they won’t release them. For now, this email confirms our suspicions of the special treatment of Bob Lucey to intimidate Mike Clark.