Too dangerous: Judge rules Goodwin can’t see some parts of his court file

A judge signed off on the State of Iowa’s request to prevent a patient at the Cherokee Civil Commitment for Sex Offenders from accessing some information that would be gathered from his own lawsuit against the state and civil commitment unit. 

Jeff Goodwin won’t be allowed to see “personal information of any witnesses or individual through discovery,” per a ruling Cherokee County District Court Judge John Sandy handed down on Thursday. The ruling limited Goodwin from seeing addresses, phone numbers, family member information, dates of birth, social security numbers of CCUSO employees, current and former.

“The court makes the above ruling balancing the need for (Goodwin)’s right to discovery and meaningful representation with the protection of others given (Goodwin)’s history of inappropriate misuse of personal information he has obtained,” reads Sandy’s ruling, referring to reports from a CCUSO administrator and an outside expert that detail the danger Goodwin allegedly poses with personal information of CCUSO staff.  

Last month the state requested Judge Sandy rule Goodwin too dangerous to see personal information that was generated from his lawsuit against the state and CCUSO. The state also requested increased security when Goodwin would be at depositions. And it requested barring Goodwin from accessing the personnel file of his former psychologist, Shannon Sanders, with whom Goodwin allegedly developed an emotional affair in 2019. 

Sandy’s ruling limited Goodwin from accessing personal information of Sanders, CCUSO employees and other non-parties. In other words: “information that tends to establish location or personal patterns,” per the ruling that was handed down after an hourlong hearing on Thursday. 

Goodwin won’t be barred from other contents of Sanders’ personnel file or redacted reports with personal information of CCUSO staff. And he won’t be barred from attending depositions, so long as he is excused when personal information is discussed. 

Sandy acknowledged the ruling would essentially make Schroeder act as a “filter of information,” but the judge deemed the information that Goodwin was barred from seeing as administrative in nature. Sandy believes Goodwin can pursue his claims to the fullest extent of law without knowing personal information he wouldn’t otherwise know. 

“I know that this puts the onus on you to kind of be as somewhat of a filter on your client, but I’m only talking about contact information,” Judge Sandy told Schroeder as he handed down the ruling. “I’m not talking about the content of the report itself or the file. So if there’s something in there about a disciplinary action or who knows… If you can’t determine where (Sanders) is or how to contact her, you can have (the document).”

Schroeder and Stan Thompson, an assistant attorney general representing the state, accepted Judge Sandy’s ruling. 

The state and Schroeder were arguing for over a month on what information Goodwin could access. 

Thompson claimed the state’s requests were to “protect witnesses” and CCUSO employees, who “have to work in a difficult job no doubt.”

“Our request is narrow. It strikes a fair balance,” Thompson told Judge Sandy. “When we’re talking about the safety of state workers who are already in a difficult job, to protect them and their families from unnecessary risks or threat of harm, without jeopardizing the ability for the plaintiff to prosecute this case.”

Thompson pointed to a pair of filings that highlighted Goodwin’s penchant for misusing information, as recently as 2021. An affidavit by Brad Wittrock, the CCUSO administrator, alleged Goodwin manipulated Sanders, the opposite of what Schroeder is claiming. And it alleged Goodwin once conspired with another CCUSO patient to obtain personal information about 12 female staff with the intent to kidnap, torture and murder them with a woodchipper. A report provided by the outside expert, Anna Salter, outlined other incidents that demonstrated Goodwin couldn’t be trusted with certain information. Thompson declined to specify the contents of Salter’s report during an hourlong hearing on Thursday because the report would otherwise be protected.  

Hence Goodwin was barred from accessing personal information. 

But Judge Sandy declined the state’s request in its entirety. The order allowed Goodwin and Schroeder to access Sanders’ personnel file; Schroeder will have access to an unredacted version with contact information if he requests it.

Schroeder claimed an adverse ruling on Sanders’s personnel file and contact information would have amounted to “requiring us to battle with both hands behind our back.”

It was the relationship between Sanders and Goodwin that gave rise to the lawsuit’s claims, which were also investigated by the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services and the Cherokee Police Department, Schroeder stressed during the hearing. She is essential to the lawsuit, and hence, Schroeder claimed, must be accessible during discovery. 

Sanders has essentially disappeared from public view since Goodwin complained to CCUSO administrators in June 2019 about being manipulated. The two would share sexual discussions in a room that wasn’t monitored by video cameras; he would also fondle himself in her presence, according to Goodwin’s lawsuit. 

“Shannon Sanders is not there to protect or act as gatekeeper for,” said Schroeder, asking Sandy to deny the state’s request to prevent the release of information pertaining to Sanders’s whereabouts. “I don’t think there’s any legitimate basis whatsoever for particularly keeping a litigating attorney from having otherwise discoverable information about a key witness in the case that underpins all of the claims that are in the petition.”

Schroeder claimed the state’s position effectively covered for what he believes is a CCUSO workforce that is “divided.” He pointed to anonymous letters he has received from current and former CCUSO employees that have raised questions that have extended beyond Sanders, one of the highest ranking CCUSO officials before her firing. Schroeder claims his client’s lawsuit seeks to correct what is a deep-rooted management issue at CCUSO. (Schroeder has demanded his client receive $2.25 million from the state for prolonged confinement in the civil commitment unit and castration he has since undergone.)

“There is great division among staff there about the way that facility is being managed, and we have to be able to get to the root of that, judge,” Schroeder said. “I don’t think that my client knowing anything or not knowing anything is going to cause any greater division. I think they just don’t want to talk about it, judge. And I think they don’t want what has already happened and what is happening at that facility to become further public.”