South Bend Common Council files request for Indiana Supreme Court to take up tapes case

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The South Bend Common Council has requested the ongoing police tapes lawsuit be transferred to the Indiana Supreme Court. The council wants the state's highest court to reconsider a decision made by the appeals court in June.

The Indiana Court of Appeals released a decision in June 2022 that reinstated the original intervenors, Steve Richmond, et al., and the new intervenors, Scott, Taylor and Hanley, as parties to the case. In addition, the appeals court remanded the case to the lower court to determine whether any of the tapes were legally recorded and subject to release.

The council appeals the decision to the Indiana Supreme Court alleging it was inappropriate to reinstate the former police officers, the original intervenors, to the case because they had already released any and all claims in this case.

It also alleges the new intervenors should not have been reinstated because they acknowledged they were not on the tapes, and therefore did not have standing in the case.