Despite having in-house counsel, the city of Uvalde and its police department are working with a private firm to seal records of the horrific shooting at Robb Elementary School, records obtained by VICE show. Cynthia Trevino, a private attorney for Denton Navarro Rocha Bernal & Zech, wrote to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, inquiring about what records the city is required to release. The records the city are trying to seal include body camera footage, photos, 911 calls, emails, text messages, criminal records, and more. The letter says the city doesn’t want to release records due to ongoing litigation, investigations into misconduct by the FBI and others, and the fact that some records could be seen as “highly embarrassing,” “not of legitimate concern to the public,” and potentially could cause “emotional/mental distress.” Christopher Schneider, a professor of sociology at Brandon University, told VICE that most of these arguments have holes. “It’s rather ripe to say any of this is not of legitimate public concern,” Schneider said. “The whole country is trying to figure out how to not allow this to happen again.”
