Judge considers summary judgment in South Bend Police Tapes case 

 SOUTH BEND, Ind.-- The 13-year fight over the South Bend Police Tapes case continued Wednesday with a hearing on the South Bend Common Council's Motion for Summary Judgement.

If St. Joseph County Superior Court Judge Jamie Woods grants the motion, it means he can decide the case without it going to its scheduled bench trial.

ABC57's Annie Kate was the only reporter in the courtroom for Wednesday morning's summary judgment hearing.

The South Bend Common Council, represented by Counsel Matthew Anderson, also aims to narrow their subpoena, the subpoena that started this whole legal battle to cover just the cassette tapes in question.

"It's a wound that's never been healed," said current At-Large Council Member Dr. Oliver Davis. Davis was also on the Common Council over a decade ago, when these events unfolded.

That wound, he says, is not knowing what is on the South Bend police tapes.

We still don't know what's on those tapes, but it was concerning enough for the communications director at the time in 2011, Karen DePaepe, to report what she accidentally heard on one officer's phone line.

"The scuttle bug was a lot of different things, from racial slurs to a lot of different kinds of inappropriate behaviors," Davis said. "We just needed to know what was going on."

But DePaepe got fired, and then-South Bend Police Chief Darryl Boykins got demoted and ousted as chief.

Boykins died in late 2024.

"When I got the phone call about the late chief now, Chief Boykins, being removed, I along with others called a press conference," Davis said. "I was the first to announce that we need to subpoena the tapes to see what exactly was on them for the people of South Bend to know what's going on."

Boykins was the first Black police chief in city history. The whole case is now a stain on the political career of then-Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

The council's subpoena has since been in legal limbo.

Intervenors in the case are fighting to stop the tapes from being released, arguing the recordings of conversations were not obtained legally.

Anderson said they don't want this case to go to trial.

They're not even seeking the recordings of the tapes, Anderson said, they just want the judge to rule on whether what's on the actual cassette tapes can be released.

Anderson said in his arguments Wednesday, "Whatever's on the tapes are conversations between officers and Brian Young." ABC57 previously reported all the calls came from one phone line, 6031, which was Officer Brian Young's line in 2011.

"I've made an effort to really stay with this, and I'm glad that hopefully this coming summer of 2025, we can finally get it resolved," Davis said. "I was hoping to get it resolved way before now and way before the chief passed, but justice oftentimes takes time."

Judge Woods will rule on the motion for summary judgment and other motions by March 28th, but hopefully sooner, he said. The two-day bench trial is still set for June 18 and 20 at this time.

Again, the matter at the heart of this: were the tapes legally obtained, and can they be released to the public?

To follow the case, search Case No. 71D06-1209-MI-000159 on mycase.in.gov.