A defense attorney’s attempt to get a copy of a client’s traffic stop video has resulted in a lawsuit against the city of Carrollton and accusations of wasted taxpayer money to defend itself from the request.

Carrollton attorney Stephen Le Brocq sued five city officials after his attempts to get the video by “friendly requests” were rejected.

1 / 2Stephen Le Brocq 2 / 2Erin Rinehart

Named in the suit in Dallas County court were City Manager Erin Rinehart, City Attorney Meredith Ladd, Municipal Judge Meredith Lyon and prosecutors Mary Scanlon and Susan Keller. It seeks a restraining order to prevent them from "using taxpayer dollars to fund their employment of a private law firm."

In an emailed statement, Carrollton officials said they were aware of the lawsuit and considered it meritless.

"The city has contracted with outside counsel to represent the city's position,” said the statement from Ladd. “The city values transparency, and we will continue to comply with all relevant laws in order to serve our community with the highest of integrity."

Request for video

According to the suit and an interview with Le Brocq, Scanlon refused to provide him with a copy of the traffic stop video. Le Brocq wanted the video after his client raised concerns about his interactions with police. He said he offered to provide or pay for a DVD or flash drive for the city to use.

Instead, Le Brocq told The Dallas Morning News, prosecutors told him to schedule a time to view the footage on a city-owned computer and record it with his iPhone.

After Le Brocq noted scheduling difficulties and suggested other options for getting the footage to him, prosecutors told him he could take the matter up with the municipal court, the suit states. He then filed a motion with the court.

At a court hearing, Keller argued the city lacked the technology to download a video file to a flash drive, the suit states. "This new argument surprised Le Brocq ... because he had never ... been told Carrollton lacked technology until this hearing date," it states.

The municipal court denied his request, so Le Brocq petitioned the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. On May 2, that court ordered Lyon, the municipal judge, to respond, Le Brocq said.

Not long after that, Le Brocq said he received an email informing him that Carrollton now had the technology to download video files to flash drives.

Dispute over bill

Le Brocq said he found the timing suspicious so he filed an open records request with the city for invoices, messages and other documents proving its technology upgrade.

Carrollton told Le Brocq it would cost $7,056 to retrieve the documents for him, records show. Considering that amount to be unreasonably high, he filed a complaint with the state attorney general's office and is awaiting a response.

"It shouldn't be hard to pull an invoice or a contract that was done a few weeks ago," he said.

Carrollton’s emailed statement said Le Brocq is free to "reduce the scope of his request." As submitted, it noted, LeBrocq’s request would require over 300 hours of labor to fulfill.

The suit also states that Le Brocq later emailed his concerns to Mayor Kevin Falconer, City Council members and other city officials and asked to meet with them "to address the widespread issues with the justice system in the Carrollton Municipal Court."

That was met with a cease-and-desist letter from Fanning, Harper, Martinson, Brandt & Kutchin, the law firm representing the sued city officials, according to the suit.

Le Brocq said Carrollton should have informed the public that they were going to use taxpayer money to hire a private law firm to file a response to his petition with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Under the Texas Constitution Gift Clause, he said, payments made with public money must have a public benefit.

He also said he believes the city attorney could have handled the response to his petition.

“It wasn’t a complicated matter,” he said. “There was nothing extraordinary about what was filed, and they fixed the issue. All they needed to say was that the issue was gone.”

He also said he doesn’t know why the city continues to pay the firm to respond to the petition with the court of appeals if the issue has been resolved.

City's view on hiring firm

Ladd said via an emailed statement that the city attorney’s office has the authority to retain counsel to represent the city of Carrollton, and that it is not required to provide a public notice to do so.

“For contract procurements, the City Council has delegated approval of all contracted expenses under $50,000 to the City Manager,” Ladd’s statement says. “If the amount exceeds $50,000, Council would vote to approve or deny funding, thus creating the occurrence of a public notice.”

She said the city was “pleased to hear” that Le Brocq believes the issues in his petition have been resolved and that it looked forward to receiving his request to dismiss the petition, “thereby relieving the City of the need to continue to employ an outside law firm in this matter.”

Ladd also said that Le Brocq had offered to discuss settlement terms regarding the petition but that he had yet to make a motion to dismiss the petition and hadn’t yet asked the city for a “specific settlement demand.”