The lawsuit accuses the Columbia Police Department for failure to abide by Missouri Sunshine Law provisions. 

Wyse was the previous attorney for Columbia resident Nicole Palmer.  Police arrested Palmer last month in connection with the murder of Nicole Crumby at the Red Roof Inn in Columbia.  Police charged Palmer with possession of a controlled substance and hindering prosecution.  Palmer allegedly let her boyfriend Blake Logan use her car after he murdered Crumby in the motel's parking lot.  Police arrested Palmer and Logan at the Midway Travel Plaza off I-70.

According to Wyse, Palmer called his cell phone three times throughout the night while in custody.  She asked Wyse for his legal counsel with a concealed cell phone.  Wyse arrived at the Columbia Police Department lobby around 2:15 a.m., fifteen minutes after Palmer's first call.  But for the next three hours, police refused Wyse access to Palmer, saying she never requested him.  Wyse left the department at 5 a.m. after almost three hours of failed attempts to speak with Palmer.

On Oct. 9, Wyse filed a Sunshine Law Request for surveillance video throughout the police department.  The request went on to ask for all video between 9:45 p.m. on Oct. 8 and 6 a.m. on Oct. 9.  According to Missouri Sunshine Law Provision 610.023, "Access to a public record shall be acted upon as soon as possible, but in no event later than the end of the third business day following the date of request." 

It goes on to say, "If access to the public record is not granted immediately, the custodian shall give a detailed explanation of the cause for further delay and the place and earliest time and date that the record will be available for inspection."  

The department wrote back to Wyse on the third business day after his request.  However, the department's records clerk wrote a brief note without clarifying when the video surveillance tapes would be released to Wyse.  Click on the first link in the upper right hand corner, to see the Columbia Police Department's letter to Stephen Wyse.

After back-and-forth correspondence with the department and no clear progress, Wyse filed his lawsuit on Oct. 28.  KOMU tried to speak with four separate members of the Columbia Police Department, but they couldn't discuss matters of the lawsuit.  Instead, they forwarded us to the city's legal department who also said they couldn't comment on active litigation.  KOMU will continue to follow this story as the case develops.