City Asks $929.84 to Release Body/Dash Cam Video of AAPD 911 Call to Home of Mitchell Irwin and Ann Arbor Council member Jen Eyer Irwin
by P.D. Lesko
The Ann Arbor Independent submitted a March 21, 2021 Freedom of Information Act request to the Ann Arbor Police Department for the body and dash cam footage from the January 13, 2021 911 call at the home of Ann Arbor Council member Jen Eyer Irwin (D-Ward 4). The request asks for “All records, including December 2020 or January 2021 arrest report for the suspect, detective report(s), victim(s) complaint(s), AAPD complaint submitted to the Prosecutor, records that document interview(s) with the suspect, incident report(s), photos or other audio/visual materials, if any.” The public records request also included the police report referred to in 15th District Court records released to Michigan Advance on March 22, audio of the 911 call, and the responding officers’ body and dash cam footage from their response, arrest of former Michigan state Sen. Mitchell L. Irwin, and transport of Irwin to jail. The AAPD responded to the newspaper’s FOIA for the Mitchell Irwin domestic violence body and dash cam records with a “Free estimation” that asks for a total of $929.84 to release only the video records.
The City of Ann Arbor “free estimation” includes 724 minutes (12 hours) of work for a city worker to view and redact the video records.
In March of 2019, The Ann Arbor Independent obtained the body and dash cam public records concerning the stop, sobriety testing, arrest and transport of former Ward 3 Council member Zachary Ackerman on a DUI charge. The Novi Police Department responded within three days to the public records request with an estimate of the cost for release of the 90 minutes of video footage: $88.55. The Novi officials estimated 300 minutes (5 hours) of work to locate, view and redact their officers’ body and dash cam videos.
In December 2019, when Ann Arbor State Representative Rebekah Warren was arrested for drunk driving, multiple news outlets, including The Ann Arbor Independent, obtained the arresting Michigan State Police officers’ body and dash cam footage. Warren, the current Michigan Representative for the 55th District was shown on dash cam begging police officers not to take her in for a DUI because the move would end her career and go down in history as their most “famous arrest.” Michigan State Police said she was nearly three times the legal limit of .08 after she was pulled over. Throughout the encounter, Warren was heard bragging about her status in the community, including misidentifying herself as a state senator.
The Michigan Freedom of Information Act requires governmental agencies use the lowest paid employee capable of searching for and redacting public records. The AAPD in its response calculated that a “PSS Sergeant” at an hourly rate of $75.41 is the lowest paid employee capable of video viewing and redaction. The 2019 Novi Police Department’s FOIA response calculated the hourly rate of the “lowest paid employee capable of performing the search, location and examination” of all the requested records at $17.12. An official from the Novi Police Department confirmed that the Department charges 10 cents per page for public records and that, when necessary, charges $17.54 per hour to locate, examine and redact public records.
When the A2Indy asked the AAPD to provide the remaining public records requested without the videos, AAPD FOIA officer Amy Cervantes responded within minutes with notice that the Department would need an additional 10 business days to provide those records. The Michigan Freedom of Information Act allows a government entity to request one 10-day extension under specific circumstances, such as the amount of time necessary to gather the records.
Governmental bodies openly discourage open records requests by assessing large fees, and by dragging their feet when responding to requests. Courts take a dim view of such practices. As a result of a 2017 lawsuit filed by the Mackinaw Center, the University of Michigan was ordered by a judge to provide 75 percent of all FOIA requests without charge and to publish an annual FOIA report.
In 2015, the Michigan Legislature, with the support of the Michigan Press Association, changed Michigan’s FOIA law in order to make public records cheaper and easier to access. Government agencies are not allowed to charge more than 10 cents per page for copies of public records; they can face increased fines for delaying responses, and people seeking the records now can sue if they consider the fees to be exorbitant. Ann Arbor has no policy to provide public records to individuals who are low-income or indigent. Instead, the City offers a $20 discount to individuals “due to indigence.” In Ann Arbor, low-income and poor residents have no access to obtain public records, even their own, if the fees assessed are too high.
Michigan law allows requesters who believe they are being overcharged to sue and ask a court to lower the fee. If the court concludes the public body arbitrarily and capriciously charged an unreasonable fee, the court must assess $1,000 in punitive damages. The 2015 law also increased punitive damages from $500 to $2,000 on public bodies that arbitrarily and capriciously break the law by refusing or delaying the release of public records. The 2015 law also requires courts to fine public bodies $2,500 to $7,500 for willfully and intentionally failing to follow the law. The fines are paid to the state.
The City of Ann Arbor and its Attorney’s Office now face multiple allegations of willfully and intentionally failing to follow the law in order to protect one member of City Council, Jen Eyer Irwin. The City of Ann Arbor, Eyer and her husband have been criticized for allegedly conspiring to cover up a crime committed by the former Granholm cabinet appointee and Democratic Michigan state senator. Mitchell Irwin is the father of Ann Arbor’s current State Senator Jeff M. Irwin. Sen. Jeff Irwin has been silent on the conviction of his father for assaulting Eyer Irwin, his step-mother.
According to a statement from Mitchell Irwin’s attorney released after Irwin’s March 23 sentencing, on January 13, 2021 Mitchell Irwin, intoxicated, pushed past his wife and she fell down. Eyer’s teen daughter phoned 911 and officers responded. Irwin’s statement to the media said that the teenager was right in calling 911.
Melissa M. Styles, M.D. teaches at the University of Wisconsin Medical School. She says that children who view alcoholism and domestic violence in the home, “are at greater risk for internalized behaviors such as anxiety and depression, and for externalized behaviors such as fighting, bullying, lying, or cheating.” A study published by the American Medical Association in 2019 concluded that, “witnessing domestic abuse carries the same risk of harm to children’s mental health and learning as being abused directly.”
Tanja Jovanovic is a neuroscientist who directs the Grady Trauma Project, a research institute at Emory University in Atlanta. She says, “The risk to adolescent children of PTSD from domestic violence is high, because it’s a betrayal by someone who is supposed to be to a protector.”
Specialists say the law and courts have a long way to go in recognizing the impact of domestic violence on children’s well-being. Parents accused or even convicted of domestic violence in many cases are able to gain visits with their children.
Fifteenth District Court records show that on January 27, Mitchell Irwin’s attorney petitioned Judge Miriam Perry to amend the terms of a no contact order and permit Irwin to have contact with his wife, as well as her children. Perry granted the request with the permission of Jen Eyer Irwin, as well as Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit.
While Mitchell Irwin released a statement through his attorney, and Council member Eyer Irwin added nothing to her husband’s short description of his assault of her, the audio of the 911 call, AAPD officer body and dash cam videos, witness statements and investigative reports will show exactly what Mitchell Irwin did on January 13.
On January 27, 2021, MLive submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for AAPD reports from the home addresses of every Ann Arbor City Council member. City Attorney Stephen Postema withheld from MLive all AAPD records related to the January 13, 2021 domestic violence 911 call at the home of Council member Eyer Irwin and her husband, former Michigan Senator Mitchell Irwin. Police reports for all other Council members were turned over, lightly redacted, to MLive, including a police report related to an incident at Council member Ali Ramlawi’s (D-Ward 5) place of business. The MLive FOIA asked only for police reports related to Council members’ home addresses.
Two months after the MLive FOIA, Ann Arbor resident Eric Sturgis asked to receive the City’s response to the January 27 MLive public records request. Likewise, in its response to Sturgis, AAPD reports for all other Council members were turned over, lightly redacted, but no records documenting the January 13, 2021 domestic violence call to Council member’s Eyer Irwin’s residence were included.
Reportedly, the City Attorney informed Council member Eyer Irwin the police report documenting the domestic violence call to her home was being withheld in its entirety to protect her “privacy.” Eyer Irwin, a former MLive journalist and self-described “First Amendment nerd,” is quoted as having raised no objections to the alleged violation of Michigan law for her benefit.
The Michigan FOIA statute allows governmental entities to withhold public records for very few reasons, including if a police investigation is ongoing. Mitchell Irwin had been arrested and charged by Prosecutor Eli Savit on January 13. MLive’s January 27 FOIA, then, was submitted after the AAPD investigation had ended. Likewise, Stugis’s March FOIA was also submitted after the AAPD investigation had ended.
The City Attorney’s explanation that the public records related to the 911 call to the Eyer/Irwin home were withheld to protect the “privacy” of the Council member, is suspect. In 2017 the City of Ann Arbor released to The Michigan Daily the police report from a domestic violence call at the home of former U-M football player Jourdan Lewis. Lewis was subsequently found not guilty by a jury. Mitchell Irwin entered a plea of no contest, and was sentenced for his domestic violence crime.
The Ann Arbor Independent has submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for the police report released to The Michigan Daily in 2017.
The Ann Arbor Independent was the first Michigan newspaper to report on the January 13 arrest of Mitchell Irwin, as well as his March 23, 2021 sentencing. After sentencing, MLive, Michigan Advance and other news outlets also reported on Irwin’s domestic violence charge.
On March 23, Ann Arbor 15th District Court Judge Miriam A. Perry sentenced Mitchell Irwin on a single count of domestic violence, a misdemeanor. Irwin appeared for sentencing from his home via Zoom, his face hidden by a blue mask and glasses. Under the Michigan statute that governs sentencing of first-time domestic violence offenders, Irwin’s court record was sealed on March 23, and is no longer available to the public. Had The Ann Arbor Independent not reported on the crime and obtained the 15th District Court records related to the arrest, which contained the case number of the relevant police report, coupled with the City’s allegedly unlawful withholding of the police records related to the 911 call to the Eyer/Irwin home, the crime would have been concealed from the public.
MLive recently filed a FOIA to obtain the police report withheld from the newspaper in response to its January 27, 2021 Freedom of Information Act request. Eric Sturgis filed an appeal with City Administrator Tom Crawford to receive the AAPD records withheld from the response to his March 2021 FOIA. The Ann Arbor Independent has appealed to City Administrator Tom Crawford the City’s “free estimation” of $929.84 to release the public video records requested. Crawford has 10 business days to respond to FOIA appeals.
You can justify it however you want, but you are asking for the public release of a recording and a video of a teenage girl calling the police because her stepdad hurt her mom. There is no public value in that. The video is a body cam recording, so it doesn’t show anything that happened other than the police arresting Mitch Irwin.
The city broke no laws. DV cases have different rules and I’m guessing they were trying to figure out how to do minimal harm to the victim and her family — something you don’t seem to understand or care about.
How dare you keep talking about the trauma of witnessing violence and then treating the impact of your actions on this girl. Have you or your children been a victim of domestic violence? Clearly not.
Your outrage, while understandable, is misplaced. The Ann Arbor Independent wasn’t the scene of a crime and no one here was sentenced to jail for domestic violence. Without the police records, no one knows what happened and the public has a right to know about the workings of government. The City Attorney was trying to figure out how to do minimal harm? Then why has the City attorney released DV police reports about other people? Why are 15th and 22nd district court records public? Why would anyone think these records were any different or treat the request any differently than other similar records requests?
The media are asking a simple question: Why was Michigan’s FOIA statute violated to withhold this one public record to the benefit of one elected official and her politically-connected husband? Why was MLive’s 2021 FOIA request treated by the City Attorney completely differently than The Michigan Daily’s 2017 request for the police record of Jourdan Lewis’s domestic violence incident?
The City absolutely violated the FOIA statute in withholding a public record in its entirety without telling the requester (MLive) a record in its entirety had been withheld.
Eyer’s a public official, just like all the other public officials about whose interactions with the police news media all over the world report on. No one is above the law, only people who think they should be.
CIty failed an earlier FOIA if mine. I asked for an historical contract the city claims they have with DTE and received modern council resolution instead!
The city seems to have violated the law twice now with FOIA’s regarding this specific incident, and I am wondering if they will be held accountable. I am sorry to hear about your FOIA.
I sympathize with victims of Domestic Violence and know one personally. I empathize with CM Jen Eyer for being assaulted by her husband and being a victim of Domestic Violence. I also sympathize with her daughter who had to see a much older man assault her mother. This is about transparency, and no one is trying to victimize CM Eyer more. She has said their marriage is stronger, and they are moving forward. I appreciate the statistics and Data that are provided regarding Domestic Violence, and people should learn from it, and make Data Driven decisions. This is a key element here.
Jourdan Lewis a Young Black Man at the University of Michigan was victimized and no one cared and he was found NOT guilty by a Jury of his peers. Let’s hear the outrage here please?
This is about a bigger issue, clearly drinking and alcohol was/is a problem in the home, and thankfully the judge realized that and hopefully Mitch and CM Eyer realize that and will fix that, help him face his problem and not shield it.
Gofundme?
Could be to score points or could be one of those, its not the crime but the cover up type things.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/178850790201740/permalink/456996142387202/
I’m not invested in either outcome but the amount of times I see on this forum how everyone should be treated equally or how the rich, powerful, or white get “priviledge”, I’m surprised there’s not more interest and less denouncing.
Wow, FOIAing a domestic violence video for political gain against the victim? This is really disgusting.
The subject of the videos is a 68-year-old, politically-connected white man. You’re fretting about police videos that will show exactly what former Senator Irwin said and did during the commission of a serious crime? You think the Michigan Freedom of Information Act, and revealing the facts about an act of #domesticviolence are more disgusting than this? https://www.thesun.co.uk/…/domestic-violence-women…/
As I suspected, there is a whole world of video redaction software. https://caseguard.com/…/protecting-your-agency-against…/ Perhaps the city could investigate.
I agree that this seems quite pricey, but I have to ask – why would you even want this? What public good does it serve?
I could see if the husband was the elected official, but he’s not.
So WHY? I could speculate, but I’d probably get in trouble.
The sheer volume of posts about Jen Eyer is disturbing.
I likewise don’t see much information of any genuine public value likely to come from obtaining this video (though there’s always the strategic political value, which could be quite high).
Regardless though, whether one feels this request serves any good public purpose or not (I’m leaning toward the “not” camp myself), the prohibitive price (compared to fees for similar requests from other jurisdictions) I think stands as an issue on its own.
Maybe the wonderful city of Novi just has a better, more honest and transparent government to serve the public interests than Ann Arbor could ever hope to have. 😉
Eli Bilek We obtain the truth about an extremely serious crime committed by a politically-connected man.
Is this really about Mitch Irwin? Is there something that could be revealed in the video that would affect his political-connectedness? Isn’t he pretty toxic at this point regardless?
Actually, yes. We’ll find out whether he told the truth to the Court (Judge Miriam Perry) and to the public about the crime he committed. He is on probation. Judges and prosecutors, as a rule, resent being punked by defendants in public. Mitchell Irwin received a suspended sentence. Journalism is about holding the system accountable, regardless of who’s involved.
Thank you. Some people think they are entitled to hide their crimes and in this case both Irwin and his wife tried to do that with what looks like the help of the Ann Arbor attorney.
The Council member, of course, did not commit a crime in being assaulted by her husband. What the City Attorney did in withholding the public records from MLive and a resident could be a violation of the FOIA statute, but only a judge would decide that.
That is an absurd hourly rate for someone to redact the video. Which also begs the question, what kind of things get redacted from the video? There is no ongoing investigation to protect. Is it just in case someone in the video says their social security number out loud?
But more importantly, what is the point of the FOIA request for the video? What do we gain by digging into the details of this sordid event? I get that it is newsworthy when politicians are involved, and hopefully knowing that this happens to people in all walks of life is a useful reminder and raises awareness of domestic violence, but does the public benefit from seeing the video or hearing the details? It feels icky to me, like folks are just prying into this in order to humiliate CM Eyer to score political points.
In reading this article, I was amazed at the following: Melissa M. Styles, M.D. teaches at the University of Wisconsin Medical School. She says that children who view alcoholism and domestic violence in the home, “are at greater risk for internalized behaviors such as anxiety and depression, and for externalized behaviors such as fighting, bullying, lying, or cheating.” A study published by the American Medical Association in 2019 concluded that, “witnessing domestic abuse carries the same risk of harm to children’s mental health and learning as being abused directly.”
I hope this does not have that effect in this case.
What no one is addressing is that the person who made this call is Jen’s teenaged daughter. I believe she’s still a senior in high school. The release of this video proves nothing — it’s a body cam video of the arrest, not the actual event. This is obviously to damage Jen, a domestic violence victim, because the people who support it are all politically allied against her.
But the disgusting part is the desire to take what is probably the most horrifying moment in that teenage girl’s life and make it public. For what? For political gain. I’m not even talking about Jen. I’m talking about a TEENAGE GIRL who is going to be collateral damage.
I’m a DV survivor and my son had to witness it and it did irreparable damage. Ironic that this article acknowledges that damage but doesn’t see the irony in what it is doing to further traumatize this girl.
Until the Police report is released to those who have requested it (MLive requested it in January 2021), no one knows what happened. We only know what an individual sentenced for domestic violence said through a lawyer. As a previous article points out (https://a2independent.com/2021/03/22/husband-of-ann-arbor-city-council-member-to-be-sentenced-on-domestic-violence-charge/), recent research has shown that witnessing DV impacts a child as much as experiencing it. Experts also point out that the courts often don’t engage in best practices when dealing with domestic violence. For example, abusers are frequently given access to the children you rightly note are traumatized. On January 27, the victim in this case petitioned the court to allow the abuser to have contact with her, as well as her children. The Judge and County Prosecutor did not object to the victim’s clearly poor choice.
The public records will be redacted. The A2Indy’s reason for obtaining them is to hold local government accountable. If you want to know why MLive seeks the records, you’ll have to ask someone in that outlet. It’s clear the City Attorney’s office broke the law in hiding the Irwin police report from MLive (and the public) to protect a single member of Council and her politically-connected husband.
As for trauma, you might remember when 22nd District Court Judge Carol Kuhnke’s teen son died of an overdose. The AAPD and County Prosecutor provided MLive with information and comments (https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2017/03/prosecutors_attempt_to_disqual.html) about the investigation of Kuhnke’s involvement.
No one is above the law. The public has every right to know when government is being abused for the sole benefit of one elected official.