South Bend Police Tapes bench trial to begin Tuesday

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind.--- The long-awaited bench trial got underway in the South Bend Police Tapes case Tuesday morning. After a 13-year wait and more than $2 million in city legal fees, testimony ended after only about 90 minutes.

However, any ruling in the case is still months away. Closing arguments will take place on March 5, then the Honorable Jamie Woods of St. Joseph County Superior Court 6 has 90 days to rule on all pending matters.

The court battle began in 2012 and asks whether recordings of phone calls between South Bend police officers were obtained legally, and whether they can be publicly released.

Testifying Tuesday were three of the intervenors, the former police officers who filed into the case to block a subpoena for the release of the police tapes back in 2012. One of them was Brian Young, who had phone line 6031 at SBPD.

He was questioned on the stand by his lawyer, Dan Pfeifer.

"There is a lot of discussion about a phone with the last four digits of 6031. Was that your phone?" Pfeifer asked, to which Young replied, "That's the phone that was assigned to me, yes."

It was a phone line that he claims he didn't know was being recorded.

"Did you have any knowledge or information that the number 6031 was being recorded?" Pfeifer asked, to which Young replied, "I did not have any knowledge of that."

Young said on the stand he found out his line was being recorded in October of 2011, and asked the recording stop. But Pfeifer pointed out that the communications director at the time, Karen DePaepe, learned much earlier.

"In January of 2011, nine months before that, Karen DePaepe was in the process of doing some troubleshooting, heard your voice on the line, and realized that that line was being recorded," Pfeifer said in court Tuesday.

Matthew Anderson, who represents the South Bend Common Council, pointed out that Depaepe reportedly testified she learned of the recorded line a month later in February 2011.

Still, Young says DePaepe never told him about his recorded line, and the allegation is SBPD leadership allowed the recording to continue, violating federal and state wiretap laws.

"My understanding, there was no recording of any line in the investigative division, once I became a detective," said another intervenor on the stand Tuesday, retired SBPD officer Steve Richmond.

Back in 2012, the Common Council believed the tapes contained unethical, possibly illegal, possibly racist comments, and believed then-Police Chief Darryl Boykins was improperly ousted over allegedly ordering copies of the line to be made. Anderson, representing the Common Council, offered no further testimony Tuesday.

Judge Jamie Woods ordered both parties to file written submissions of arguments for him to consider ahead of closing arguments; they have until Jan. 20 to do so.

Closing arguments are scheduled for March 5th. Then, Judge Woods will have 90 days to rule on all pending matters.