Atlanta PD Hiding Details on Bar Raid?

In a new story an Atlanta newspaper accuses the city's police department of intentionally losing, destroying, and withholding information related to a controversial gay bar raid in 2009.

On September 10, 2009, the police department raided the Eagle, arresting 60 people. The police were accused of being abusive and using racist and antigay language. A local citizen review panel has already said the police behavior was improper, and it is in the process of a longer investigation.

Meanwhile, a federal lawsuit has been filed against the police department in regard to the raid. The Sunday Paper in Atlanta has conducted an investigation that it says shows the police have purposefully hid communications and memorandums related to the raid. Prosecutors are in the midst of the discovery process, and the newspaper alleges that police officials have not only not complied with the release of documents but have willfully destroyed some.

The Sunday Paper reports that on August 20, U.S. district judge Timothy Batten told attorneys in the case, "I must say that based on what I've read, the defendants [the city] have been woefully deficient in their responses to the plaintiffs' discovery requests." Later in the same call, he said, "I suspect that the city and the other defendants are correct in their representations that many of the items requested have been wiped out, they don't exist. They were wiped out before anybody knew anything about it. They were either destroyed or taken off the computer."

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