I have never ran into this problem but my brother has with other vehicles, if you can get the panel off you want to see if you can disengage the linkage that way you can "unlock" the latches by hand. As of if its possible to get the panel off with it shut greatly depends. A simple visual look will give way to how difficult it will be. Sometimes the removable trim covers the entire tailgate which means some of it would be blocked. Take a look and see what your chances are.
