Thread by @jtlarsen

South Bend Mayor @PeteButtigieg is facing intense scrutiny for refusing to release tapes of SBPD and other police, police reportedly using racist language.

I went to South Bend. And it's more than just tapes.

tyt.com/stories/4vZLCH…

Karen DePaepe sued the city for firing her after she found and reported the tapes' racist contents.

The city's settlement agreement, signed by Buttigieg, requires her to keep them secret to avoid "negative impact" on prosecutions.

.@NAPD2013 told me, “The city's obligation is to make those tapes available to the prosecutor.”

The Hill reported that black leaders estimate that scores of convictions could come into question if the tapes reveal racist language by arresting officers.

thehill.com/homenews/campa…

Buttigieg writes in his book, “Infuriatingly, I had no way of finding out if this [racist remarks] was actually true.”

But DePaepe's lawyer told me the deal didn't prevent her from discussing NON-legitimate law-enforcement activity & "there was never any attempt" to ask her.

(I should note that I emailed @PeteButtigieg and his campaign on Friday with an admittedly long list of questions. They said it would take a while to respond, and in their defense I should've been more clear about the timing. Mea culpa.)

(We'll of course update our article in the event of a response, or in the event we get any information re the 2011 campaign finance disclosure forms we asked for on April 8. (The county destroyed their copies in accordance with Indiana state law.))

DePaepe's lawyer says Buttigieg "knew exactly what was on those tapes" because legal documents detailing their contents were sent to the city.

And there are other ways to find accounts of SBPD racism.

Multiple sources, SBPD vets and others, shared racist incidents with me.

Other forms of corruption aside from racism were also shared with me by law-enforcement vets, mostly SBPD, who requested anonymity.

The most serious story was shared with me by two independent sources.

It's important to point out that even among SBPD veterans, there was disagreement on the extent of the problems. One said he knew of only one cop who bent the rules. Another said it was only ten out of 250.

And the worst allegations appear to predate Buttigieg.

Former South Bend Board of Public Safety Pres. Pat Cottrell, however, told me he believes Internal Affairs covered up a 2013 incident in which the chief allegedly failed to back up a black officer during an altercation.

A source in city government at the time said the same.

Cottrell also claimed a city attorney was fired for failing to prevent the board from asking state police to investigate.

He gave us a 2013 journal entry he says recounts her call to him, claiming she was fired for failing to "deep six" the investigation. [We redacted her name].

The ex city attorney asked us not to identify her by name and said attorney ethics prohibit any comment, but she vouched for Cottrell's integrity generally.

Our city-government source could only confirm the attorney's involvement in the probe, but also vouched for Cottrell.

Re demoting Boykins, Buttigieg said that "mistakes serious enough to bring on a federal investigation" were enough to merit it.

But we obtained an FBI document suggesting an asst. U.S. atty considered at least one of the wiretapping "victims" to be "less than candid."

One cop accused of using racist language, Tim Corbett, almost won election to county sheriff last year -- his lawyer told TYT "none" of the allegations we shared with him about Corbett were true -- and appears never to have faced official scrutiny about possible racist language.

In fact, the three people who backed a $45,000 loan for Corbett's campaign last year are Buttigieg supporters, including his political inner circle.

(Thread picks up here:

https://twitter.com/jtlarsen/status/1120010931822526464

)

Our article has been updated with the Buttigieg campaign's full response to the lengthy list of questions we sent them.

Qs included...

Has Mayor Buttigieg ever publicly cited his interest in protecting prosecutions as a rationale for not releasing the tapes? (If not, why not?)

Did Mayor Buttigieg take any steps--independent of listening to the tapes--to determine whether any officers, on the tapes or otherwise, were known for using racist language? (If not, why not?)

If the USA office really did make such a suggestion [that Boykins had to go], why did Mayor Buttigieg rescind Boykins' termination? And how does he explain the fact that the USA didn't file charges even though Boykin remained a captain?

Is it true that the mayor or his administration fired a city attorney in response to her failure to prevent the board from seeking the ISP [Indiana State Police] investigation [of the King Center incident]?

In his book, Mayor Buttigieg says "major...reforms" of the police department had to wait when he took office. Did they ever happen? In what form?

Can the mayor offer any comment on one of his earliest and most consistent backers, Bob Urbanski, joining his special counsel on the tapes case, Rich Hill, joining [sic] Corbett's lawyer to back a substantial loan to Tim Corbett's 2018 sheriff's race?

And...

What role, if any, did Bob Urbanski play in the mayor's thinking or decision-making about staffing at the SBPD prior to or after the election?

Buttigieg Press Secy. @chrismeagher responded to those questions (and some other related Qs), saying, "These unsubstantiated allegations and rumors are too far-fetched to merit a response."

He was kind enough to give us a response, anyway, which appears in full in our story:

Still no word on whether Buttigieg kept or will release his 2011 campaign-finance disclosure reports.