GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The city of Grand Rapids has released five recorded police phone calls between Grand Rapids police officers about a former prosecutor’s wrong-way car crash.
The calls were made after a November 2016 wrong-way crash involving then-Kent County assistant prosecutor Josh Kuiper. The recordings were released Wednesday after a Michigan Court of Appeals ruled in favor of MLive Media Group, ordering the city to release the recordings.
A photo from court documents filed in federal court by Matthew Janiskee’s attorneys shows a GRPD phone lists line 3407 as “non recorded.”
>>PDF: Kuiper crash police call transcripts (NOTE: 24 Hour News 8 has redacted portions of the transcripts to protect personal information and inappropriate language.)
On Nov. 19, 2016, Kuiper drove the wrong way down Union Avenue SE, hitting a parked car and injuring its driver.
The responding officer, Adam Ickes, called Grand Rapids Police Department headquarters and told then-Lt. Matthew Janiskee, who was the watch commander that night, that Kuiper was “hammered.”
Janiskee ordered Ickes to switch to line 3407. That line was marked “not recorded,” but was actually being taped — inadvertently, the city says.
>>App users: Access the audio recordings and see the full transcript (with redactions) here.