A district judge ordered the release of a video depicting the struggle with deputies that led to the death of a Washoe County jail inmate last year, denying a request by deputies to block the release.

Washoe District Judge Jerome Polaha ruled the public has the right to see the video from inside the jail under the state's public records law, but ordered the "discernible faces" of deputies involved in the struggle be blurred to protect their safety.

"We are in the age of Black Lives Matter and cops are getting killed all over the place," Polaha said. "I think you are entitled to the video, but there has to be some blurring of the faces for the officers' safety."

In February, the Reno Gazette-Journal submitted a public records request for the video involving the death of 35-year-old Justin Thompson as part of the newspaper's investigation into a dramatic spike in deaths at the Washoe County jail. Thompson was one of three men to die since 2015 after an intense struggle with deputies at the jail.

Washoe County Sheriff Chuck Allen planned to release the video, arguing the public has a right to know what happens inside the jail. He had already released videos of the other two deaths.

But the Washoe County Sheriff's Deputies Association and the Washoe County Sheriff's Supervisory Deputies Association filed a request for a temporary restraining order to prevent Allen from releasing the video. They said a state law prevents police agencies from releasing any photos of peace officers in Nevada without their consent.

The associations argued releasing the video would violate the privacy of the deputies depicted in the footage and would interfere with their due process rights as the sheriff's office conducts an internal investigation into whether they followed department policies and procedures.

Michael Langton, the lawyer for the two associations, said the deputies' jobs could be at stake and argued release of the video could enflame public opinion, which could sway decisions on whether the deputies should be disciplined.

Polaha, however, sided with Allen and the Reno Gazette-Journal, who argued the video is a public record because the criminal investigation into the death is finished and found no criminal wrongdoing by the deputies. He rejected the argument its release would influence the internal affairs investigation into the deputies' conduct.

But Polaha appeared concerned by a posting on social media by the brother of an inmate who died during a struggle with deputies, which Langton described as a threat. The posting includes video from the Reno Gazette-Journal of inmate Niko Smith's death and says things are "about to get ugly." The post also includes an emoji of a police officer next to an emoji of gun.

"If that's not a threat, I don't know what is," Langton said.

The RGJ's lawyer, Scott Glogovac, argued Smith's brother had already seen the video, which was shown to the family by the sheriff's office well before the newspaper started reporting on it.

Polaha ordered the sheriff's office to "expeditiously" blur the faces of the deputies in the Thompson video and release it to the newspaper "without unnecessary delay."

The sheriff's office still must order the software necessary to blur the video. Lt. Bill Ames, president of the supervisory deputies association, said he would "make every attempt to get it done as fast as possible."