Missoula court judges demand full report on city attorney conduct
Missoula Municipal Court Judge plaintiffs filed suit against the City of Missoula, Mayor Andrea Davis, and City Attorney Keithi Worthington seeking release of a city-commissioned investigation report about tensions between the Municipal Court and the City Attorney’s Office, arguing the report is a public record under Montana’s constitutional right to know and should be disclosed, with only narrow redactions if needed.
MISSOULA, Mont. — Three sitting Missoula Municipal Court judges are suing the City of Missoula, Mayor Andrea Davis and City Attorney Keithi Worthington, saying the city is wrongly withholding a full investigative report tied to the judges' complaints about Worthington's conduct.
The lawsuit, filed June 29 in Missoula County District Court, was brought by Judges Jennifer Streano, Jacob Coolidge and Eli Parker, along with Court Administrator Kari Dady. Davis and Worthington are named as defendants only in their official capacities.
The judges want the full report released, or reviewed privately by a judge before any limited redactions are made. They're also asking the court to block the city from requiring a non-dissemination agreement or mediation as a condition of release.
At the center of the case is a report by outside attorney Jordan Crosby. According to the complaint, the judges met with the city's chief administrative officer, Dale Bickell, in June 2025 to raise concerns about Worthington's communication and conduct toward the court. The judges say they asked for management action, not a formal investigation — but the city's human resources department opened one anyway, hiring Crosby the following month.
Crosby's report runs 44 pages with hundreds of pages of supporting exhibits, according to the filing.
The complaint says the city gave the judges only a six-page summary of the findings on Oct. 27, 2025. Per that summary, as described in the complaint, Crosby found room for improvement on both sides: areas where Missoula City Attorney Keithi Worthington could improve her tone, communication and decorum, and separately, areas for improvement within the Municipal Court, specifically naming Court Administrator Kari Dady.
According to the complaint, the city's position on releasing the report shifted over several months. In late October, Bickell told the judges the city needed time to redact witness names before sharing it. By early December, the complaint goes on to state, the city's tone had changed: Bickell said investigation reports like this one were "not public documents" and offered to share a redacted version only if the judges signed a non-dissemination agreement and agreed to mediation.
According to the complaint filed, the judges declined that offer, saying in a January letter that they couldn't promise not to disclose or act on the report's contents if it touched on obligations under judicial ethics rules. In February, the city reiterated its position that the report was a confidential personnel matter, though it said it remained open to mediation and to revising the proposed agreement.
The judges argue Montana's constitutional right to know, under Article II, Section 9, requires disclosure because the report concerns public business — including court operations, warrant processing, victim-notice procedures, public safety and the working relationship between the court and the City Attorney's Office. Montana's Constitution presumes public access to government documents unless a public body shows that "the demand of individual privacy clearly exceeds the merits of public disclosure."
The city has not filed a response in court.