LAKEWOOD, Colo. — Attorneys for Casa Bonita raised a red flag, not for sopapillas, but over documents the city released relating to the restaurant’s massive remodel and renovation following a 9NEWS report, and a judge Wednesday agreed to block documents from being released for the time being.
Last week, 9NEWS obtained substantial blueprints, plans and permits relating to alterations, plumbing, electrical work and alterations at Casa Bonita after filing a Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) records request with the City of Lakewood.
The plans revealed at least $12 million dollars in repairs and upgrades inside and outside the restaurant.
Documents contained schematics for new ramps for accessibility, a vertical lift, a new fountain, upgrades to the dive pool, and renovations to the kitchen and bathrooms. Plans also showed layouts for new audio and visual equipment and security cameras.
On Monday, court documents reveal attorneys for the restaurant owners, Trey Parker and Matt Stone who created “South Park,” filed a civil complaint against the City of Lakewood and Jefferson County to stop some of the plans from being released.
The name of their company is called The Beautiful Opco, LLC (TBO).
“Although the CORA Request is likely in furtherance of an innocent human interest news report, when TBO learned of the CORA Request, it had serious concerns about the release to the public of the sensitive Building Materials,” attorneys wrote.
It is unclear if the lawsuit pertains to the CORA request filed by 9NEWS, however it does appear some of the documents Casa Bonita does not want released have already been disclosed to 9NEWS, such as the security camera schematics.
“Out of more than 800 pages of Building Materials, TBO seeks the protection of only a fraction of those materials. The Sensitive Materials contain the critical schematic and security information for Casa Bonita. This information, in the wrong hands, could be used by a person intent on doing mass harm in a public space,” attorneys wrote in the complaint.
The City of Lakewood gave 9NEWS the following statement on Tuesday:
"Some of the documents that were provided to 9NEWS are the subject of litigation," a spokesperson said. "The litigation does not, however, impact 9NEWS and the documents we turned over last week."
9NEWS agreed to remove one schematic from its original article after attorneys for the restaurant called the station expressing concern about employee safety.
On Wednesday, a Jefferson County judge granted the temporary restraining order. The order states documents will not be released for at least 21 days while attorneys for TBO and the City of Lakewood work to redact or remove documents that were requested through a new CORA filing.
You can hear more on how 9NEWS obtained these documents by listening to the City Cast Denver podcast.
If you have any information about this story or would like to send a news tip, you can contact jeremy@9news.com.
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