Riske v. Superior Court
Annotate this CaseIn 2008, while working as a narcotics detective, Riske reported two fellow officers for filing false reports and testified against them at an administrative hearing that ultimately resulted in their termination. Afterward, Riske’s colleagues refused to work with him. Riske retired in 2014. He sued the city, alleging retaliation based on his protected whistleblower activity by failing to assign or promote him to several positions. Riske filed a discovery motion, seeking to obtain records of the officers selected for the positions to which he had applied. Riske asserted the documents were necessary to show the city’s stated business reason for its promotions—the successful candidates were more qualified than Riske—was pretext for retaliation. The city claimed the officers’ personnel records were not subject to discovery because the officers were innocent third parties who had not witnessed or caused Riske’s injury. The superior court denied Riske’s motion. The court of appeal directed the superior court to vacate that order and to require the city to produce the reports for an in camera inspection and to then order production of all discoverable information. The statutory scheme is not limited to cases involving officers who either witnessed or committed misconduct.
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