Most aldermen say they won’t settle on shredding lawsuit

Several Springfield aldermen say they aren’t willing to settle a lawsuit involving the shredding of police internal affairs files until the truth comes out. Attorneys for both sides have had “broad discussions” about settling out of court but have reached no conclusions, according to Don Craven, one of Calvin Christian III’s attorneys.

The city has admitted that it “willfully and intentionally failed to comply” with a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Christian when it destroyed the internal affairs file of now-Deputy Chief Cliff Buscher of the Springfield Police Department.

Christian’s lawsuit alleges dozens of other disciplinary files were shredded after the police union’s contract was changed to allow them to be destroyed after four years instead of five.

Christian says he would entertain a settlement — with conditions. He still wants access to all the internal affairs files he requested and he wants the people involved to be held accountable. He says any settlement agreement will need to identify the people who were responsible for the document shredding.

But an informal poll by The State Journal-Register found that only two aldermen, Ward 5 Ald. Sam Cahnman and Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin, think the city should try to settle the case out of court. Both are attorneys.

McMenamin said the legal fees and fines the city may have to pay are “massive,” especially if the case is appealed. “We’re talking about endless litigation that’s highly expensive to Springfield taxpayers. It makes sense when you have a really weak case – and I’m going to go on record: The city has a weak case,” McMenamin said.

***In the interest of space this story has been edited from the original.