RICHMOND, Va. — The Richmond Sheriff's Office is withholding information about what happened at a Turnstile concert at Brown's Island two weeks ago when now-viral video appeared to show a deputy pepper spray a fan. Witnesses said it happened during a part of the show when the band was inviting people on stage.
While Sheriff Antionette Irving said an internal review of the incident is still ongoing, she has not answered questions as to why the officer used this kind of force. According to the department policy and video of the incident, law enforcement experts told CBS 6 that using spray in this situation may have been unwarranted.
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Experts react to deputy pepper spraying fan at Richmond concert
To get a better understanding of what happened and why, CBS 6 filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with the sheriff's office. FOIA allows members of the public to access government records with some exceptions.
But the way Sheriff Irving responded to the requests, in which she mostly declined to provide the requested records, doesn't fully comply with the law, according to FOIA expert Megan Rhyne with the Virginia Coalition for Open Government.
“The sheriff's response is incomplete. The request asked for several different things, and one or two of them, there's no response whatsoever to it," Rhyne said. "It looked very rushed, just saying 'no,' but without going through the motions of why the answer was no."
We asked for all emails and text messages sent and received on the day of and day after the incident (September 24 and September 25) by Sheriff Irving and who is believed to be the deputy involved. To those requests, Irving simply responded, "NONE," indicating no records exist.
At a minimum, we know that a CBS 6 reporter emailed and texted with Irving about this story the day after the incident.
“Shouldn't we expect that at least our own communications would be a responsive record?” reporter Tyler Layne asked.
“If you ask for all of the records, and there are no records, that tells me that they have been either deleted on the one hand... or on the other hand, they're just being withheld," Rhyne said. "If and when you have confirmation that a public record exists or existed at one point, you do need more answers about, well, then what happened to that record."
Irving has not clarified what she meant when she indicated that she received and sent zero emails and texts for the two days in question.
We also requested incident reports and training records of who is believed to be the deputy involved. Irving initially didn't respond to those parts of our request and then later listed general discretionary exemptions including personnel and law enforcement protects.
"As of this time we have no further information to report Pursuit [sic] to 2.2-3705-1, 2.2-3706D and 2.2-3706B," Irving said.
Rhyne said this response lacked specificity and failed to identify how many documents were being withheld and the subject matter of those documents as required.
By identifying the volume and nature of withheld records, the sheriff's office would have at least confirmed whether incident reports had been filed. Department policy requires deputies who deploy pepper spray to file incident reports at the end of their shifts.
“It is as important to know what you are not getting as it is to know what you are getting. There is value in knowing when a record either doesn't exist or when it does exist, but it's being withheld," Rhyne said.
While Rhyne noted some of the violations seem technical in nature, she said transparency ultimately suffers when the requirements of FOIA aren't followed.
“It's about accountability, and we as taxpayers and members of a democratic society, we have the right to see what our government is doing," Rhyne said.
Irving did promptly provide her office's use of force policies as requested.
She has not identified the deputy involved nor confirmed his current work status.
CBS 6 is committed to sharing community voices on this important topic. Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
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