Judge Arthur Spatt
Barella, a white man, is a member of Freeport’s police department. Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, he alleged that defendant village, and former mayor Hardwick, failed to promote him to Chief of Police or other Command Staff position because of his race, color and/or national origin, and that Hardwick systematically hired and promoted less qualified and less experienced black and Hispanic employees over more qualified and more experience non-Hispanic white employees. The village objected to a magistrate judge’s grant of Barella’s third motion to compel discovery, seeking the personnel files for 24 non-party individuals not employed by the police department. Personal information could be redacted from the records demanded. Denying the village’s objections to the magistrate’s order, district court ordered the records to be sealed. Because the 24 personnel records may shed new light on Barella’s allegations against Hardwick, Barella’s discovery request was neither unreasonably cumulative nor duplicative. Similarly the village’s reliance on FOIA Exemptions 6 and 7 was misplaced. The magistrate judge’s order sufficiently protected the personal information of the 24 individuals, none of whom were involved in law enforcement.
