Judge stops release of UC Davis pepper spray report

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Tuesday, University of California officials were supposed to release two reports on the pepper-spraying incident that took place at UC Davis back in November. But a judge has temporarily halted the release.

Nearly four months after UC Davis Police Lt. John Pike pepper sprayed peaceful student protestors, the university planned to release two reports detailing exactly what happened and why. But now that won't happen for at least 10 days after an Alameda County superior court judge issued a temporary restraining order and scheduled a special hearing for March 16.

The order came after the UC police officers union moved to halt the disclosure of certain information.

"Our concern is not just the names, but rather any types of conclusions related to discipline or allegations of misconduct that would be released to the public; that would be a violation of state law," police union attorney John Bakhit said.

Attorneys for UC regents wanted the reports released in their entirety immediately.

"I do believe that it would be better for the public if we released an unredacted report that would fully disclose all of the information and all of the facts that were found by Kroll and the Reynoso task force," David Robinson said.

The reports were completed by a task force headed by former state Supreme Court Justice Cruz Reynoso and independent security consulting firm Kroll.

UC Davis senior Fatima Sbieh was among the 19 students pepper sprayed.

"We know what happened; as a protestor, I know what happened, but I want to see from the school's perspective what happened," Sbieh said.

Besides the university's own investigations, the state legislature is also looking into the November incident.

With the help of the ACLU, the students who were pepper sprayed have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the University of California.

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uc davis, UC, lawsuit, protest, ACLU, california news, laura anthony

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