In re Grand Jury, John Doe No. G.J. 2005-2

Following an arrest, a complaint was filed against an officer of a city police department (the department) for excessive use of force. The department’s internal-affairs office conducted an investigation, which included interviews with officers. The department’s policy required officers to fully comply with internal investigations or risk their employment, but the policy also guaranteed that any material uncovered during an investigation would not be used in criminal proceedings against the officers. The federal government (plaintiff) began an investigation into the same arrest incident to determine whether any civil-rights violations had occurred. As part of the government’s investigation, a grand jury issued a subpoena duces tecum demanding production of the department’s internal-investigation materials. The city (defendant) moved to quash the subpoena. The city argued that compliance would be unreasonable because removing the assurance of confidentiality would damage the effectiveness of internal investigations and because the interviewed officers’ Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination could be infringed on. The government argued that it needed the material to close its investigation file and that it did not expect the documents to lead to any prosecutable offenses. The district court granted the city’s motion to quash, and the government appealed.