An effort by former Fort Dodge Mayor Matt Bemrich to prevent video evidence from his October drunk driving arrest from being released to the public was rejected by a judge.

District Associate Judge Joseph L. Tofilon denied the request on the grounds that Bemrich filed the wrong kind of complaint in the wrong court.

Late last year, Toiflon relied on the video evidence Bemrich aimed to keep sealed to rule that the officer who stopped him did not have the grounds to do so. In the criminal complaints filed against Bemrich former officer Keaton Schultz alleged Bemrich committed numerous traffic violations.

Toflion said the police vehicle dashboard camera video didn’t show those violations, He ruled that Schultz did not have the right to stop Bemrich.

Therefore, the judge ruled that any evidence obtained after the traffic stop was not admissible in court. The Webster County Attorney’s Office then moved to drop the case, and the charges were dismissed on Dec. 16.

A motion to suppress evidence filed by Bemrich’s attorney, Stu Cochrane, led Toflion to review video and rule evidence as inadmissible in court.

Following that decision, Bemrich had sought to prevent video from the police vehicle’s dashboard camera and the officer’s body-worn camera from being released to the public. He filed a motion to seal inadmissible evidence. In the motion, Bemirch’s lawyer wrote that release of the video “would constitute an ongoing violation of the defendant’s constitutional rights against unreasonable search and seizure.”

But filing that motion was the wrong legal move, according to Tofilon. In his ruling, he wrote that Bemrich’s “avenue for relief lies in the civil or administrative, not criminal realm.’

Tofilon added that Bemrich’s motion “has not provided any legal authority, however, to support the proposition that he is entitled to an order after the criminal case has been dismissed barring the state from releasing the video evidence to the public. The court also finds none.”

“In summary, the court finds no authority to seal the police videos from public disclosure in the context of the criminal case,” the judge wrote. “The issue of public release may be litigated in civil court or with the Iowa Public Information Board.”