In Bell v. Milwaukee, 746 F.2d 1205 (7th Cir.1984), Daniel Bell was shot and killed by Thomas Grady, a Milwaukee police officer. Another officer, Louis Krause, observed Grady plant a knife in the deceased Bell's hand, and both officers falsely claimed in their respective police reports that Grady shot Bell because Bell had threatened Grady with the knife. Twenty years later, Krause revealed that he and Officer Grady had covered up the true circumstances of Daniel Bell's death. Bell's relatives and estate sued the City of Milwaukee, the police department, and the two officers alleging, among other things, that the cover-up of the shooting deprived them of their due process right of access to the courts because by concealing the true facts, the officers prevented Bell's family members from realizing that they had a cause of action and seeking redress. The Court agreed that there was a constitutional right of access to the courts. Id. at 1261. Observing that under Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817, 822, 97 S.Ct. 1491, 1495, 52 L.Ed.2d 72 (1977), "judicial access must be 'adequate, effective, and meaningful'," we stated that "to deny such access defendants need not literally bar the courthouse door or attack plaintiffs' witnesses. This constitutional right of access to the courts is lost where, as here, police officials shielded from the public and the victim's family key facts which would form the basis of the family's claim for redress." Bell, 746 F.2d at 1261. The officers' willful and intentional concealment of the truth "rendered hollow" the right of Bell's survivors to seek redress. Id.