By Conrad Dudderar
Associate Editor
EL RENO – A bench trial has been set in a civil action filed by a Canadian County citizen against the Yukon Police Department and its chief.
Yukon’s Charles Edward “Trey” Bishop is plaintiff in the suit he filed in 2024 seeking the release of unredacted body cam video and audio of the YPD officers’ response to a 911 call.
The trial is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 25 before Canadian County District Judge Paul Hesse. A pretrial conference is set Jan. 21.
This case was pending for a year with no filings before Judge Hesse on Oct. 30 signed an order to retain the case on the active court docket. The judge on Dec. 12 approved the pro-se plaintiff’s motion to enter on the non-jury trial docket.
Bishop petitioned the court to compel the YPD to release records “in the public interest” at no charge so people may determine whether law enforcement officers are “appropriately performing their duties as public servants,” according to his two-page petition.
Through their attorney, Yukon Police and Chief John Corn have denied wrongdoing in this case.
In March 2024, Bishop made a request through the Oklahoma Open Records Act related to the police response to a 911 call about a reported domestic dispute at a home on Calliope Court.
Bishop requested the YPD provide audio of the 911 call, body cam footage from all responding officers, the incident report, and any supplemental reports of responding officers.
Bishop alleged Yukon Police officials then replied with a demand for “unreasonable fees” to redact this body cam footage and did not mention the other requested documents.
They cited a sentence in the Open Records Act that states a law enforcement agency may redact or obscure specific portions of an audio or video recording that identify alleged victims of sex crimes or domestic violence.
“After determining through discussion with defendant Corn that no party involved in the call was arrested and that neither party alleged domestic abuse, plaintiff repeated the record request on May 17, 2024 for unredacted body cam footage and again was denied under the same exception for cases of domestic violation,” Bishop’s petition reads.
“The occupants of the home which gave rise to the domestic call responded to by defendant Yukon Police Department are a high-ranking Canadian County deputy and her husband.”
The August 2023 shooting death of a former sheriff’s deputy by her former deputy husband and rape allegations against other deputies “call into question the character, behavior, and performance of some law enforcement working in our community,” Bishop wrote in the court petition.
The plaintiff referred to Article 2 of the Oklahoma Constitution, which opens with: “All political power is inherent in the people.” He strongly believes the people are vested with the inherent right to know and be fully informed about their government.
THE RESPONSE
Yukon Police and Chief Corn responded to the civil suit in a court-filed answer Sept. 10, 2024 signed by Yukon city attorney Roger Rinehart.
In the four-page document, defendants denied making a demand for unreasonable fees to redact the body cam footage requested by Bishop.
Also in their response, they denied the other critical allegations made by the plaintiff and demanded he provide proof of them to the court.
The defendants’ answer listed two affirmative defenses – that Bishop “fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted” and his claims “may give rise to estoppel and/or waiver.”
The YPD and Corn had previously tried to get the case dismissed.
In a brief in support of that motion filed July 2, 2024, attorney Rinehart cited sections of Oklahoma State Statutes when listing four reasons to dismiss this civil action:
Insufficiency of process, lack of jurisdiction over the person, insufficiency of service of process, and failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.
Bishop’s petition was initially filed May 23, 2024. An amended petition was filed Sept. 3, 2024.
