A judge Friday ordered the Lakewood Police Department to release blurred body-worn camera footage of officers shooting and killing a 17-year-old crime suspect in March 2023.

The city withheld the video from Scripps News journalist Lori Jane Gliha, contending it was required to do so by the Colorado Childrens Code — which restricts the disclosure of most juvenile records — and privacy provisions in the Law Enforcement Integrity Act, passed by the legislature in 2020 following the killing of George Floyd.

But Jefferson County District Court Judge Chantel Contiguglia found that the footage must be released under the four-year-old statute.

“I don’t see that there is a choice,” Contiguglia said, ruling from the bench during a morning hearing. “I see that it has to be disclosed with a plain reading of the law.”

The “entirety” of Mariana Martinez’s head and face must be blurred before the video is released because of the “distinct coloring of her hair,” added the judge, who earlier reviewed the footage in private.