City accused of withholding information in Hardy v. City of Nome lawsuit

By Diana Haecker
The City of Nome stands accused of deliberately withholding information sought in a civil lawsuit, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Clarice Leota Hardy in February 2020. Hardy, a former Nome Police Department dispatcher, sued the City of Nome and then-Nome Police Chief John Papasodora and former Lt. Nicholas Harvey for failing to investigate a sexual assault she was subjected to. The case is filed in the U.S. District Court in Nome.
In its latest filing, the ACLU asked the court to enforce its decree from last summer which ordered the City to produce records pertinent to resolving Hardy’s case and involved documents about the state of affairs of the Nome Police Department at the time. The ACLU accuses the City of defying the order as they learned through a KNOM investigative series that documents exist that were not included in the City’s court-ordered production of discovery. “The improperly withheld documents included records showing that the NPD was poorly run, with specific individuals – including defendants John Papasodora, former police chief, and Lt. Nicholas Harvey – ignoring their responsibilities to investigate cases and supervise police work,” the ACLU states.
The Nome Police Department, under the leadership of former Chief John Papasodora, has come under scrutiny for not properly investigating cases and accumulating a huge backlog of investigations. Internal documents are now surfacing as part of discovery in the Hardy v. City of Nome case, shedding light on how badly NPD was run.
In the latest motion filed by the ACLU, it states “documents withheld by the City — all of which should have been produced nearly a year ago in response to Plaintiff’s discovery requests — are so incriminating to both the City and the two other defendants that they would have altered the way the Plaintiff pursued further discovery and presented its case.” Three examples were named. One was that the City withheld documents demonstrating that Harvey was a malfeasant, underperforming employee and had resigned under a cloud of suspicion. In memo investigator Mike Heintzelman informed then Sgt. Nick Harvey that he had violated professional standards of behavior, failed to follow orders, failed to perform duties properly and exhibited improper conduct as well as failing to complete case reports. Harvey was told he had to surrender his badge and gun until the internal investigation is complete. Harvey was first put on administrative leave and then resigned.
Heintzelman came to Nome with newly hired Chief Bob Estes, who took over NPD after John Papasodora retired. Estes conducted an internal audit and came to the scathing conclusion that the City’s governing body is unwilling to fund the police department at the level needed. Estes said in an email to two FBI agents and an office with the Alaska office of the Dept. of Justice that “we inherited stage 4 cancer that took years to develop and will take years to correct without additional support.” Attached to the email was one-year assessment of NPD that Bob Estes compiled and submitted to then-city manager John Handeland. Estes said in the memo: “in my current assessment of Nome’s law enforcement is not sustainable.”  Estes presented his findings before the City Council on Sept. 23, 2019, telling the council of the lack of personnel and expressed his frustration, which eventually led to his resignation. At the time, there was a backlog of 460 sexual assault cases and over 2,000 domestic violence cases. And sexual assaults kept on happening, but NPD had no personnel to investigate those cases. Estes said in his report that NPD was in critical need of hiring more officers, improving benefits packages for recruiting and improving housing in Nome. He said there is a need for two officers per shift and that supervisory officers can be used as back up, “but it is a failure to believe the city can sustain a shift with police supervisor being the primary call taker.” Estes’ report puts the fault squarely on the council for “a lack of involvement of the city government to include that historical data shows former police chiefs have requested more support.” He said the budget of $2.9 million is not adequate and NPD needs $2 million more to support training and increase personnel. According to data, he said 98 percent of sexual assault victims are Alaska Native and 98 percent of suspects are Alaska Native. He suggested to improve the relationship with the Alaska Native community and to recruit Alaska Native officers to work shifts with NPD to support the needs of the Alaska Native community. Estes’ report also “uncovered poor to no management of cases of all types” and “poor to no training,” outdated equipment, poor management of evidence and repeatedly called for more officers to allow proper investigations and completion of reports. For example, he said, of the 460 sexual assault cases, 75 have been submitted to the District Attorney; 54 cases were declined, 21 cases were returned to NPD for additional investigation, but at the time, there was not enough personnel to continue investigations. Also, he said, Nome was the first agency to receive sexual assault kits back from the lab and out of the 114 returned results, 40 were in need of DNA elimination but follow up was delayed until more personnel was hired.
During the city council meeting in Sept. 2019, Estes asked what level of risk the city is willing to take as former Chief Papasodora had asked for additional funding and was denied. He told the Council that they need to appropriate more funds to the department or he’ll be resigning. Shortly thereafter, he resigned. In the meantime, the backlog has been reduced as investigators were brought in to tackle the task.
At issue is in the latest court filing that the city has withheld these documents and ACLU attorneys petition the court to award plaintiff attorneys’ fees “for the fact that the City’s withholding of incriminating discovery has delayed the prosecution of this case” and will require additional discovery. The City had until Feb. 1 to respond to the filing.
The lawsuit is ongoing and the City has filed its own motion to dismiss the case. As of press time, the motion to dismiss could not be obtained by this reporter.
The original lawsuit Hardy v. Nome asks the court to issue injunctions that order the City of Nome to cease any discriminatory practices by law enforcement and to take steps to ensure all reports of sexual assault are investigated thoroughly without regard to the victim’s race or gender, and to train law enforcement to adequately investigate reports of sexual assault in an effective and thorough manner.