SPRINGVILLE, Utah (KUTV) — A continuing 2News Investigation found the Springville Police Department went to extraordinary lengths to keep Officer Kati Powell’s body camera video of a DUI investigation hidden from public scrutiny. We fought their denials and then challenged the heavy-handed redactions when we finally received the video. All the while, the police chief claimed he first learned of this incident after we requested the body camera video, but a recording tells a different story.
The body camera footage from July 14, 2023, is at the center of a 2News Investigation. On that video – a disclosure made by then suspect Conner Monfredi. He told Sergeant Kenneth Eley that he had a traumatic brain injury from a motorcycle accident in 2021. This was as Officer Powell was searching his car after she pulled him over for speeding. Eley makes no mention of that to Officer Powell who put Monfredi through standardized field sobriety testing.
On February 26, 2024, 2News Investigates requested the body camera video from Springville PD in this specific case asking for all police body camera footage from the night of Monfredi’s arrest. Two days later we received a denial letter from the Springville Police Department, which was emailed to us by Records Custodian, Megan Mendell. It was denied due to it being a “protected record” under Utah’s GRAMA law, which is the public records law. They cited records created or maintained for civil. criminal, or administrative enforcement purposes or audit purposes, or for discipline, licensing, certification, or registration purposes, if release of records:
(a) Reasonably could be expected to interfere with investigations undertaken for enforcement, discipline, licensing, certification, or registration purposes;
(c) would create a danger of depriving a person of a right to a fair trial or impartial hearing.
The letter further stated that the case has been referred to the Springville Justice Court. The video was denied but we could appeal. When in fact, the Monfredi case was referred to Springville Justice Court long ago and he pled guilty to "Driving with a Measurable Controlled Substance," a Class B Misdemeanor on August 31, 2023, approximately 6 weeks after his arrest. Springville Justice Court Judge Eric Jewell sentenced Monfredi to 180 days in jail but suspended the sentence, put him on court probation, and ordered him to complete drug treatment. In effect, SPD’s basis for denial that it was referred to the Springville Justice Court was a moot point. The case had been adjudicated but that didn’t seem to matter when the denial was issued in two days from the time it was requested.
2News called Mendell and she told us a legal assistant in the Springville City Prosecutor’s Office told her she could not release the body camera footage because the case is still open. We emailed City Prosecutor Carl Gustaveson who had charged Monfredi with DUI on July 31, 2023, and asked how SPD arrived at what we perceived to be a wrongful denial under the GRAMA law. We also cited an exception under the law where audio and video recordings created by body cameras are not private when they record any encounter that is the subject of a complaint or legal proceeding against a law enforcement officer which is exactly what applies to Powell in this case. We did not receive a response until two weeks later when Mendell sent us the police report and a link to download the body camera footage of Monfredi’s arrest.
We responded telling her there was a slight problem in that we requested all body camera footage from that night and had only received Officer’s Powell’s footage. We were missing footage from two other officers at the scene.
When we paid for Powell’s footage, we were told there was no body camera footage of either one of them and that Corporal Sampson was not equipped with a body camera at that time and Sgt. Eley must have had his battery die or some other reason as to why he didn’t activate his camera.
Chris Burbank, the retired Salt Lake City Police Chief, serving as the Law Enforcement Strategy Consultant for the Center for Policing Equity (CPE) reviewed the body camera footage we received and documented evidence of our fight to obtain it.
“You don’t have a story if they just give you all this in the first place and say here you go, go ahead, and review it we’ve looked at it and taken care of the issue. Now you have quite a story to tell, as does this particular officer who has been terminated,” says Burbank.
He does not believe this was handled transparently by Springville Police Chief Lance Haight and the department in and of itself.
“It calls into question the entire department’s integrity as well as the office of the chief simply because they inappropriately denied access to a public video.”
When SPD finally produced the video, Mendell put a black box over Monfredi making it difficult to see him attempt to perform the field sobriety tests Officer Powell was administering. An undercover detective also at the scene that night was obscured with a black box for which we understood and respected. However, we argued there was no basis whatsoever for continuing to obscure Monfredi.
We sent the following email to Chief Haight, Mendell and City Prosecutor Carl Gustaveson:
“Respectfully, why was Conner Monfredi blurred during the encounter with SPD during his DUI arrest? We believe that to be wrongfully redacted and there is no basis for doing that, certainly not to that degree where it obstructs the ability to fully see the FST’s. Nor was an exception cited. Could you please resend it without the big box over Monfredi. The public has a right to see Monfredi who was convicted and an inherent right to see law enforcement in the course of their duties. The department has engaged in heavy-handed redaction of this body camera footage. It is a public record- it occurred on a public street and therefore, we ask that you lift the redactions as soon as possible and within 24 hours. The case was adjudicated and that is why I have the video.”
Mendell responded on May 7, writing:
“The DUI has been redacted the way it is, as it discloses the identity of one of our major crimes detectives. We are required to protect their information as their identities are not readily known to the public due to the nature of their work. Having their faces and identities available to the public could put their safety at risk, as I am sure you can understand. I have attached a couple of GRAMA codes to help better understand why the video was redacted in such a way. 63G-2-301(i)(ii), 63G-2-303(1)(a)(i)(ix), 63G-305(10)(d)(11). I have included 63G-2-302 (2)(d) to explain why we have redacted Mr. Monfredi’s identity.”
Continuing to justify the redaction over Monfredi, they cited that it was a clearly unwarranted invasion of his personal privacy.
The day our initial report was to air, just after 2:30 p.m. we received a response to some of our questions from Chief Haight.
He then elaborated on the redaction of Powell’s body camera video which at that point, was in serious question over the amount of obscuring. With little time until our first report was scheduled to air – the chief reversed the decision regarding what we believed to be heavy-handed redaction of a public record because Monfredi was arrested on a public street, it was a public record and there was no unwarranted invasion of his personal privacy. Chief Haight claimed the “black box” effect is strictly the result of limited redaction technology.
“With regard to your requests for BWC video, our redaction technology is limited, thus the “black box” effect you encountered in your review. This is strictly the result of the limited technology, and I am working on a way to get that video to you in a way that only the identity of the officer whose identity needs protection is obscured.”
At 3:36 p.m. Chief Haight sent an email saying that they were successful in redacting the video per our request and we received a link to download it shortly after. We thanked him for helping us so that we could add the newly unredacted video in time for our report.
RECORDING TELLS A DIFFERENT STORY
When asked why he looked at Powell’s body camera video 57 minutes after we requested it, he responded by writing, “I was not aware of this incident prior to receiving your GRAMA request. I watched the camera footage in an effort to determine why this case had garnered interest from an investigative reporter.”
We also asked him if he was aware of what was on the video. He wrote, “I was not aware of the body camera footage until your GRAMA request brought it to my attention.”
But that contradicts what he was told on November 16, 2023, during a disciplinary hearing for Powell.
2News Investigates obtained a recording from that disciplinary hearing held at an office in City Hall. Powell’s attorney Jeremy Jones accompanied her, and they were met by Springville Director of Administration Patrick Monney, Chief Haight, Lieutenant Jeremy Leonard who conducted the internal affairs investigation of Powell, and Heidi Westerman, Human Resources Generalist. Both sides recorded the nearly 26-minute hearing.
Powell previously told 2News Investigates and records show she later complained about Sgt. Eley’s conduct at the Monfredi DUI investigation for not disclosing he told him he had a TBI and hiding evidence. Records show she complained about this to Sgt. Teuscher who seemingly did nothing about it other than tell her to write a supplemental report to disclose exculpatory evidence.
Additionally, Powell sent a text message dated August 21, 2023, to Teuscher asking him if he had advanced her complaints to Lieutenant Leonard or Chief Haight. Teuscher did not respond to that text message. Then Powell filed the same complaint with Sgt. McCoy, and he advanced it to Lt. Leonard. Powell met for an interview with Lt. Leonard about this back in August.
Powell explained that she was being sexually harassed by Officer Richard Jorgensen and that she had filed a complaint against Sgt. Eley. After another employee made similar complaints of pervasive sexual harassment by Officer Jorgensen, he was terminated, Powell's appeal of termination letter dated December 8, 2023, shows.
In our previous reporting, Chief Haight wrote that Officer Jorgensen was no longer with Springville PD, but he would not answer if he had been fired. He provided Officer Jorgensen's dates of employment with SPD which shows he was only on the force one day shy of five months.
“The sexual harassment was Jorgensen, Eley was the sergeant complaint,” she told those in the room.
Her attorney Jeremy Jones told everyone, “My client had made her complaint on August 20th.”
He continued saying, “Never an issue, never part of any interim coaching, never brought up in an IA context, never brought up in a disciplinary context until all of a sudden, my client had a complaint filed.”
We asked Chief Haight why he told us on May 8, he was not aware of this incident when both Lt. Leonard and Sgt. Teuscher received a detailed account of the Conner Monfredi situation, and Powell’s attorney referenced the “complaint” against Eley two or three times during the disciplinary hearing he attended. The recording both sides have revealed he was informed about the complaint against Sgt. Eley on November 16th.
We did not receive a response. We also left him a voicemail message.
