Earlier this week, the St. Paul city council agreed to a $33,000 settlement to end a federal lawsuit filed by local T.V. Anchor Alix Kendall. Kendall, of Fox 9 Morning News, filed the lawsuit against St. Paul and “nearly 200 cities, counties, and other agencies throughout Minnesota back in 2014.” Why? Well, according to Kendall, her “driver’s license information was accessed more than 3,800 times during a 10-year period,” and none of those searches were “for any legitimate law enforcement purpose.” The recent settlement comes even after “courts dismissed most of the instances, saying they were past the statute of limitations.”
Earlier this week, St. Paul city council agreed to a $33,000 settlement to end a federal lawsuit filed by local T.V. Anchor Alix Kendall. Kendall, of Fox 9 Morning News, filed the lawsuit against St. Paul and “nearly 200 cities, counties, and other agencies throughout Minnesota back in 2014.” Why? Well, according to Kendall, her “driver’s license information was accessed more than 3,800 times during a 10-year period,” and none of those searches were “for any legitimate law enforcement purpose.” The recent settlement comes even after “courts dismissed most of the instances, saying they were past the statute of limitations.”
When discussing the matter and her client, attorney Sonia Miller-Van Oort of Sapientia Law Group said “Kendall was probably the biggest victim that was discovered in the state of Minnesota whose information was being rampantly accessed by law enforcement.” When asked why she thought Kendall’s information was being accessed so much, Miller-Van Oort said it was likely because “she is someone who is visible to the public, an attractive woman on the news and people see her and recognize her.” However, she added that just “because someone chooses to be a news reporter does not mean they’ve authorized others to intrude in their personal life.”
So what sort of laws did the lawsuit claim were violated in this incident? For starters, the lawsuit claimed “that officers violated the federal Driver’s Privacy Protection Act and her civil rights.” By repeatedly looking at her driver’s license information, the law enforcement personnel were getting a peak in her personal life. For those who don’t know, “driver’s license data available to law enforcement includes home address, photographs, date of birth, height, weight and potentially medical information.” The lawsuit even highlighted the invasion of privacy by stating:
“More disturbing, these personnel, charged with protecting and serving the public, knowingly abused their position of trust to unlawfully peek behind the curtain into the private life of Kendall.”
Now, it’s important to point out that while St. Paul agreed to a settlement with Kendall, it “expressly denied the allegations and liability for Kendall’s alleged damages.” In fact, the only reason why the city finally settled was because it wanted to avoid “more costs and the risk of continued litigation,” according to Laura Pietan, the Interim St. Paul City Attorney. Also, even though St. Paul has settled, “other cities and counties initially sued have been dismissed from the lawsuit and Minneapolis is the only one remaining.” According to Miller-Van Oort, they’re “in the process of finalizing a settlement with Minneapolis.”
This isn’t the first time St. Paul City Council has had to deal with a case like this, though. Just last year, it “approved a $29,500 settlement in a lawsuit brought by a Minneapolis police officer who accused St. Paul officers, and others, of snooping in her personal driver’s license information.” Then, back in 2011 another former St. Paul police officer claimed “her data had been looked up more than 550 times by fellow officers,” leading to a settlement with the city for $385,000 “and with other cities for a total of more than $1 million.”
Sources:
St. Paul approves $29K to officer who says cops snooped in her driver’s license data
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