SOUTH BEND – A spokeswoman for the United States Attorney’s office in northern Indiana said the U.S. Attorney plans to ask a federal judge to dismiss part of the wiretapping case involving the South Bend Police Department from federal court. That means a judge would decide whether the case belongs there.
The “motion to dismiss” has not yet been filed, but attorneys for the City of South Bend, the Common Council and demoted police chief Darryl Boykins say it could happen in the next week.
It is unclear on what grounds the U.S. Attorney would like to dismiss the Federal Declaratory Action that was filed by South Bend’s city attorney August 30, asking a federal judge to decide whether the conversations recorded at the police department were recorded illegally.
It’s one of two separate cases in federal court and a third in circuit court revolving around the same issue of recorded phone conversations in the South Bend Police Department.
The second case in federal court was filed in September by four police officers and one of their wives who claim they were illegally recorded on a line in the department’s detective bureau.
Metro Homicide Commander Tim Corbett, Asst. Commander Dave Wells, South Bend Police Capt. Brian Young, his wife Sandy and retired Detective Bureau Chief Steve Richmond are named as plaintiffs in that case. The city, Boykins, fired Police Department Communications Director Karen DePaepe and her attorney Scott Duerring are all named as defendants.
The third case filed days later in circuit court was on behalf of South Bend’s Common Council, demanding the city release copies of the recorded conversations. Circuit Court Judge Michael Gotsch said in a scheduled hearing Monday he would wait until February to revisit the council’s case while the others continue moving forward in federal court, because they were filed first.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg said he first became aware of an FBI investigation into recording policies and procedures at the police department in January. He’s maintained he has not listened to the recorded conversations that prompted the investigation, saying it would violate federal law to do so.
Also in January, the U.S. Department of Justice delivered a federal subpoena to the police department concerning suspected violations of the Federal Wiretap Act.
Boykins resigned and was then demoted to the rank of captain in late March. The city fired DePaepe April 10 but has never given a specific reason why. She’s said the mayor’s chief of staff told her she’d be arrested if she talked about anything she heard on those recorded conversations.
On May 31, U.S. Attorney David Capp sent a letter to the city, saying nobody would be federally prosecuted for the phone conversations recorded on that detective bureau line, and the FBI investigation was closed.
Then August 27, the DOJ told the City of South Bend it was essentially out of its jurisdiction to prosecute anyone in the case.
The city filed its federal case three days later.
Once the U.S. Attorney asks a federal judge to dismiss the city’s portion of the wiretapping case, the judge would then have to rule on it. The police officers' civil lawsuit would remain in federal court.
