The chairman of the task force investigating the November pepper-spraying of Occupy UC Davis protesters has again called off the release of its findings.

Former California Supreme Court Justice Cruz Reynoso had set the first week of April to release the reports, but he will now push that back, UC general counsel Charles Robinson said in a statement Thursday.

No new date has been set while Reynoso confers with the 13-member task force made up of students, staff, faculty and alumni.

Alameda Superior Court Judge Evelio M. Grillo on Wednesday cleared the release of the task force’s report and the Kroll Associates fact-finding report on which it is based after April 18.

Grillo rejected the Federated University Police Officers Association’s argument for a preliminary injunction barring the release on the ground that the reports violate a state law protecting police personnel records.

The judge issued a 21-day stay of his ruling to allow the Federated University Police Officers Association time to consider an appeal.

Subject to the stay are what Robinson has described as about one-quarter to one-third of the task force’s findings and about half of the Kroll report. Grillo has cleared the remainder — uncontested portions that do not including the actions of officers — for release.

UC has so far refused to make the uncontested portions approved by Grillo available to reporters despite public records requests.

Releasing portions early remains a possibility, Robinson said Wednesday, but the task force previously has insisted that doing so would not accurately reflect the group’s findings.

Grillo did rule that the names of five officers under investigation for their actions should be blocked out because of threats received by the most widely known among them, Lt. John Pike, along with the names of officers who witnessed what took place Nov. 18.

That’s when about 35 officers cleared the last tents from a small Occupy encampment from the Quad, arresting 10 protesters. In a confrontation viewed around the world in a viral online video, another dozen were then pepper-sprayed when they sat down and refused an order to clear a path for officers.

Robinson did not indicate Thursday whether UC would appeal Grillo’s ruling on officer names.

Said to weigh in at more than 100 pages combined, the reports cover an array of topics, including officer training, campus policies and decisions made by administrators.

The repeated delay of the documents, originally due Dec. 21, has stalled other reviews of the incident.

Having chosen not to file charges against the protesters, the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office has indicated it would like to look at the reports as it considers criminal charges against UCD officers.

Faculty are also planning a formal review of the reports and state legislators a second hearing into the incident, probably after the documents are made public.

Robinson has said setting a date for the release of the findings of yet another review — one of the policies regarding nonviolent protests at all 10 UC campuses — has been complicated by the court action.

UCD Police Chief Annette Spicuzza; Pike, the incident commander shown spraying protesters; and another officer UCD won’t name but who used the spray, identified from still photos as A. Lee; remain on administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal affairs investigation.

— Reach Cory Golden at [email protected] Follow him on Twitter at @cory_golden

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