The Warren Police Department is refusing to release public records to Metro Times, including video footage that shows cops allegedly beating a man with a mental health emergency.
Christopher Gibson, 26, was “brutally battered, tasered and threatened with a barking K-9” by Warren cops while detained in December 2022, according to a recent lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Michigan. He ended up in the hospital with damage to his heart and kidneys.
Ironically, an attorney for Warren claimed in the city’s denial that releasing the records would somehow harm Gibson because he “did not authorize release of his protected or private information to any third-party,” calling the information “an invasion of privacy.”
“Your demand for copies of everything obtained by Mr. Gibson’ attorneys is therefore improper,” city attorney Raechel M. Badalamenti wrote to Metro Times on Wednesday.
Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) laws are very clear: Public agencies are required to disclose records that document official actions by government employees, regardless of whether the subject of the records authorizes their release.
Badalamenti also insisted that law enforcement personnel records are exempt, a claim that has been repeatedly contradicted by Michigan courts. In general, routine information, such as disciplinary records, complaints, use-of-force reports, and internal affairs findings, are considered public because they reflect how government employees perform their official duties.
Notably, Badalamenti’s firm Kirk, Huth, Lange & Badalamenti, PLC is representing the city in the lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Michigan.
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Hoping to learn more about the allegations against the officers accused of assaulting Gibson, Metro Times sent a request to Warren police on Aug. 18 that sought the same records turned over to the ACLU of Michigan under a FOIA request. But Badalamenti appeared to suggest that some of those records were received through discovery in the lawsuit, not a FOIA request.
“As you may know, there is ongoing litigation regarding the subject-matter of this request,” Badalamenti wrote to Metro Times. “In this regard, you are not entitled to the same documents and tangible things requested by the American Civil Liberties Union as this organization represents the Plaintiff in that ongoing case. Documents available to an attorney, in discovery or with a client release, are not necessarily available under the Freedom of Information Act (the “Act”).”
Badalamenti’s argument is moot because Metro Times only asked for documents that were already turned over to the ACLU under a FOIA request.
Metro Times plans to appeal the denial. In the meantime, Warren police are exposing the city to a potential lawsuit for refusing to release the records.
According to the ACLU’s lawsuit, Gibson was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was experiencing a mental health emergency. His mother asked police to take him to a psychiatric hospital, but instead, cops arrested him and locked him in a jail cell.
While in police custody, Gibson repeatedly told the officers he was struggling with mental issues and was clearly disoriented and confused. An officer responded, “You’re mental, that’s fine. You can still follow directions,” according to the ACLU of Michigan.
Video obtained by the ACLU shows Gibson clearly agitated and unwell when he was in a jail cell. Rather than get Gibson psychiatric help, as he and his mother requested, officers forced their way into his cell, pepper-sprayed him, covered his head with a mesh fabric hood, and tasered him while he was pinned to the ground, causing serious injuries to his body.
“I have a mental illness going on,” Gibson yelled out as officers approached him.
After cops wrestled him to the ground, a confused Gibson screamed, “They are killing me, literally! Judge! Judge!”
Police then forced him into an elevator, which malfunctioned, causing Gibson more confusion. When the elevator opened, cops carried him out as he screamed.
At no point during these confrontations did Warren police use mental health professionals or get Gibson psychiatric help.
Asked about the way police handled the situation, Lt. John Gajewski declined to answer any of Metro Times’s questions.
“At the recommendation of attorneys for the City, no additional statement or response is available,” Gajewski told us in an email.
His mother said police refused to give her any information, and it wasn’t until three days later that she found out he was in the hospital with severe injuries.
This is not the first time Badalamenti and Warren cops were accused of withholding public records. In March 2024, the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards (MCOLES) told Metro Times it was investigating a 2018 email that appears to show Badalamenti attempting to hide public records. In an August 2018 email, Badalamenti offered to keep in her office “the entire original file” involving an internal affairs investigation into a deputy police commissioner accused of punching a suspect that was in custody. By doing so, the deputy commissioner would have had an easier time finding another job at a police department following a 2017 law intended to crack down on wandering cops, or officers who move from department to department amid allegations of misconduct. The law requires police to reveal those records to state officials if the documents are related to an officer leaving the department.
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This article appears in Sep 3-16, 2025.