Sisson

INTRODUCTION

In this petition, we must decide whether a criminal defendant charged with provocative act murder showed good cause for discovery of complaints of dishonesty, false reporting, and excessive force in peace officers’ personnel records. We must also decide whether a trial court, when conducting an in camera review of such records, must examine the records itself or whether it may rely in whole or in part on the custodian’s sworn testimony about the records’ contents and the custodian’s opinion about whether any information in the records is discoverable.

We conclude defendant showed good cause for discovery of complaints of dishonesty or false reporting as to some officers, but did not show good cause for discovery of complaints of excessive force as to any officers. We further conclude a trial court conducting an in camera review of peace officer personnel records must examine the produced records itself and may not rely on the custodian’s assessment of the discoverability of information contained in the records. We, therefore, grant the petition in part and direct the trial court to conduct further proceedings consistent with our…