Breaking! Dunn files formal lawsuit today against Burbank for confidential file leak

These guys don’t mess around.

Just got word that Detective Dunn’s attorneys went to court this morning and filed a formal, detailed legal action against Burbank regarding their disclosure of confidential personnel file material.

Dunn had 6 months to do this; he took about 2 days.

Here’s the scoop:

Burbank Police Detective Files Suit for Leaking Confidential Officer Information

LOS ANGELES, July 28, 2009 — Former Burbank Police Detective Christopher Lee Dunn filed a detailed complaint today against the City of Burbank seeking damages and injunctive relief after the city deliberately and illegally provided his confidential personnel file to a local newspaper.

The complaint discloses that the City provided Christopher Cadelago of the Burbank Leader newspaper and other members of the media and the general public confidential documents from Dunn’s official personnel file in direct violation of specific provisions of California’s constitutional privacy protections, several state laws and numerous judicial orders.

The first direct consequence of this illegal invasion of Dunn’s privacy was a story in the Burbank Leader which defamed Detective Dunn by falsely alleging he engaged in “egregious misconduct” and “obstruction of justice”.

Soon after this article appeared a citizen made substantially the same allegations at a Burbank City Council meeting while reading from some of same illegally obtained documents.

The City of Burbank’s decision to provide the Leader with a copy of a copy of Dunn’s notice of termination from his confidential police department personnel file clearly violates Article I, Section 1, of the California Constitution, the California Penal Code, the California Evidence Code, and the recent Copley Press Inc. v. California Superior Court decision affirming that police officer personnel file materials regarding disciplinary acts are strictly confidential.

Dunn’s complaint asserts the following primary causes of action:
Invasion of Privacy: Penal Code section 832.7 embodies fundamental, substantial, and well-established public policies of the State of California, and states, in pertinent part, that, “Peace officer or custodial officer personnel records and records maintained by any state or local agency … are confidential and shall not be disclosed in any criminal or civil proceeding except by discovery pursuant to Sections 1043 and 1046 of the Evidence Code.

· Defamation of Character: The City’s false statements constitute slander in violation of Civil Code section 46 and because they exposed Detective Dunn to hatred, contempt, ridicule, or obloquy, and caused him to be shunned or avoided, and had a tendency to injure him in his occupation in violation of Civil Code sections 45 and 45a.

· Injunctive Relief: The City and its agents must show cause why they should not be temporarily and then permanently enjoined from disclosing or otherwise revealing Christopher Lee Dunn’s confidential personnel file information and documentation.

Detective Dunn is seeking punitive or exemplary, general, specific, incidental and coincidental damages in addition to the injunctive relief described above.

Wow. We predicted it. More to follow for sure.