Jay-Z’s social justice organization Team ROC has filed a new lawsuit against the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department alleging an “unjustified failure” to produce records involving alleged police “abuse and misconduct” spanning decades.
In the new lawsuit filed Tuesday in partnership with The Midwest Innocence Project, Team ROC says the KCKPD and city officials failed to comply with a November 2023 public records request seeking records related to the department’s alleged “longstanding” and “alarming” pattern of abuse primarily affecting minority and immigrant communities.
“Defendants have stonewalled plaintiffs for almost a year,” the lawsuit filed in Wyandotte County District Court and obtained by Rolling Stone states. “Defendants have produced zero documents relating to any complaint or investigation into even a single instance of misconduct by any member of the KCKPD.”
Team ROC claims police and city officials have used “improper and unsubstantiated boilerplate objections” to fight the process and that they also “gouged” plaintiffs by charging more than $2,200 for allegedly non-responsive documents including field manuals and training materials. They claim the “excessive” fees were levied “presumably in an attempt to discourage [plaintiffs] from pursuing the records at issue.”
“Kansas City residents have suffered enormously as a result of KCKPD abuses. Some have been framed for crimes they did not commit; some have been coerced into providing false testimony; some have been sexually assaulted; some have endured brutal beatings; and some have even been killed,” the 37-page complaint reads. “Rather than promoting a culture of transparency and accountability, the KCKPD has a long history of turning a blind eye to, at best, and even covering up, if not worse, abusive and/or corrupt conduct by its officers.” (The KCKPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent Tuesday by Rolling Stone.)
“We have to set a precedent that transparency and accountability are non-negotiable,” Team ROC managing director Dania Diaz said in a statement. “For the past year, we’ve been pushing for documents from the government and have been continuously met with non-compliance. It’s unacceptable – getting access to those materials is critical to exposing the corruption, reforming local policies, and helping the local community heal.”
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The new lawsuit – filed by lawyers Rachael Trummel, Loreal Rock, and Kristen Dupard of Jenner & Block LLP and Lindsey Runnels of Morgan Pilate LLC – comes just weeks before disgraced former KCKPD detective Roger Golubski’s begins a December trial on federal charges he used his badge to kidnap and rape vulnerable Black women during his decades-long career. Golubski, who denies the charges, is facing up to life in prison if convicted.
The new lawsuit filed by Team ROC and MIP is asking for a court declaration that Kansas City officials “failed to comply” with their records request and that the request documents must be turned over to plaintiffs within 30 days.
