A federal judge has issued an opinion about video that details an incident that ended with the fatal shooting of a driver by a member of the Fort Wayne Police Department, which the city has refused to release to the media.

In the opinion, federal Judge Roger B. Cosbey said that a protective order from the court could not be issued to keep the video from being released. The release of the video was being denied because the case is still under investigation.

Despite Fort Wayne Police Officer James A. Arnold being cleared of wrongdoing for killing Jose B. Lemus-Rodriguez on Dec. 23, 2007, City Attorney Carol Taylor has refused to release the videos.

Supporters of Arnold - who fired 18 shots at the 24-year-old Rodriguez, striking him nine times - say the videos show he was justified in fearing that Rodriguez was about to run him or fellow officers over. Rodriguez - a Guatemalan illegal immigrant who had a blood-alcohol content of 0.31, nearly four times the legal limit - was wanted on probation violation charges related to drunken driving, driving without a license and driving with false registration.

Taylor previously refused a Freedom of Information request by The News-Sentinel to view the videos. Attorney Carolyn M. Trier, a private lawyer paid with public money to represent the city, contended making the videos public would prejudice potential jurors if a civil suit filed by the Rodriguez family goes to trial because television media would not show the entire videos. Cosbey was unconvinced.

“Only one of the dashboard video recordings shows the actual pursuit of Rodriguez's vehicle,” Cosbey wrote in a Feb. 18 opinion. “To the extent that the videos even show the shooting, they are brief and unlikely to cause prejudice or taint the jury pool.”

Cosbey noted that if the suit goes to trial, jurors would see the entire videos. “Consequently, the prospect of any prejudice, or the inability to cure it, is minimal,” Cosbey wrote.

Cosbey also found no merit in contentions that disclosure would endanger Arnold - a 26-year-old decorated combat veteran who joined the police force less than two months before killing Rodriguez - or the other officers involved in the approximately four-minute chase that ended by the intersection of Oxford and Warsaw streets. He noted the videos do not identify the officers and expressed doubt that their release would stop police from using cruiser cameras.