Rear door latch will not open

[Dscott]

This is on the back door, not the front cab access. 2021 SR175. The rear door latch handle lifts and we can see it raising the tab on the latch, but the jaws on the latch do not open to release the door. The switch is currently on so the skid steer can be driven and it has been parked level and on different grades to see if that affects the latch, but no luck. We have put a rod in the latch opening and tried to push the jaws open, but no luck. We are thinking of cutting the rod that the jaws are latched onto and then welding it back on once the latch has been repaired, but that will surely cause cosmetic damage that we would like to avoid. I cannot find anyone else posting about this same situation, I have only found posts about the rear door not latching closed but that is an easy fix to replace the latch when the door is already open. Anyone else have this happen and what did you do?