Connecticut Governor's office is conspiring with the General Assembly to hide Sandy Hook records
[Source] The staffs of the state's top prosecutor and the governor's office
have been working in secret with General Assembly leaders on legislation
to withhold records related to the police investigation into the Dec.
14 Newtown elementary school massacre — including victims' photos, tapes
of 911 calls, and possibly more.
The behind-the-scenes legislative effort came to light Tuesday when
The Courant obtained a copy of an email by a top assistant to Chief
State's Attorney Kevin Kane, Timothy J. Sugrue. Sugrue, an assistant
state's attorney, discussed options considered so far, including
blocking release of statements "made by a minor."
"There is complete agreement regarding photos etc., and audio tapes,
although the act may allow the disclosure of audio transcripts," Sugrue
wrote to Kane, two other Kane subordinates and to Danbury State's Attorney Stephen Sedensky, who is directing the investigation of the killings.
The bill that's being crafted has not been handled under routine
legislative procedures — it hasn't gone through the committee process,
which includes a public hearing, for example. Sugrue's email Tuesday
indicated that a draft of the bill was being worked on by leaders in
both the House and Senate, and might be ready as soon as the end of the
day.
He wrote: "I just received a call from Natalie Wagner" — a member of the legal counsel's staff in the office of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.
"She believes that draft language will be forthcoming today (the work
of both houses) in the form of a special act. ..." Sugrue wrote that
Wagner "will send me the draft in confidence when she receives it, and I
will immediately forward it."
However, late Tuesday, the legislation proposed by Kane wasn't ready
to be acted on in either legislative chamber, said Malloy's director of
communications, Andrew Doba. He said he did not know when that might
happen.
"A lot of people, including our office, have heard the concerns
expressed by the families of Newtown victims, and are exploring ways to
respect the families' right to privacy while also respecting the
public's right to information," gubernatorial chief of staff Mark
Ojakian said in a statement released by Doba.
A major question yet to be settled is whether the legislation would
apply only to the Newtown case, or to documents from other criminal
cases that are now subject to public disclosure. A report on the police
investigation into the Newtown shooting is expected to be released in
June.
As envisioned by Kane, the bill wouldn't be limited to the Newtown file.
"We are seeking legislation to protect crime scene photographs
protecting victims and certain 911 tapes," Kane told The Courant
Tuesday. "It is something that I have been concerned about for years and
years and the situation in Newtown brings it to a head. I don't want
family members seeing pictures of their loved ones publicized in a
manner in which these are subject to be published."
He said as he sees the legislation, it would apply to "basically
crime scene photographs depicting injuries to victims and recordings,
911 recordings displaying the mental anguish of victims. Things like
that, of that category. And it seems to me that the intrusion of the
privacy of the individuals outweighs any public interest in seeing
these."
Sugrue said in his email that the "forthcoming" language would be "in
the form of a special act, not an amendment to the [state's Freedom of
Information Act]."
As originally discussed behind the scenes, the proposed legislation
would have amended the state's freedom of information law by adding a
blanket exemption to disclosure of any "criminal investigation
photograph, film, videotape, other image or recording or report
depicting or describing the victim or victims."
Colleen Murphy, the director of the state's FOI Commission, said
Tuesday that her staff had argued against the idea of such a blanket
change. She said a couple of weeks ago the office of House Speaker
Brendan Sharkey provided her agency with a draft including the blanket
exception. She said she was advised that this draft would not be put to a
vote, but she knew nothing abut the contents of the "forthcoming"
draft.
Murphy said she'd urged that lawmakers be "thoughtful and careful
about any legislation" and to "not be reactive to one situation" by
making changes that could have long-term, unintended effects.
Murphy was unaware of Sugrue's email when The Courant told her about
it late Tuesday afternoon. She said she and her staff had not been
receiving detailed updates. Asked if she would have liked to have been
kept aware of developments such as Sugrue's email, she said yes.
The killing of 20 first-graders and six women at Sandy Hook Elementary School
in Newtown has sparked a number of legislative proposals this year to
protect the privacy of the victims' families and spare them further
pain. One example is a bill that would exempt the death certificates of
minors from public disclosure for six months.
On Dec. 14, Adam Lanza,
20, shot and killed his mother at their Newtown home then drove to the
school, where he used a semiautomatic rifle in the massacre. He then
killed himself. Most investigative records have yet to be released
concerning Lanza, including any psychological reports.
If the proposed legislation ends up blocking the release of victims'
photos and tapes of 911 calls — on which Sugrue said "there is complete
agreement" — it wouldn't be a significant departure from normal
procedures with regard to photos, but would be a major departure with
regard to tapes of emergency calls.
As a matter of long practice, Connecticut police departments do not
release grisly photos of victims. These only emerge in public when
placed in evidence during criminal trials, and when they do they
generally are not published in newspapers or on television.
"Our concern is the media and the Internet and all the bloggers,"
Kane said. "If this stuff is FOI-able. ... You've seen these pictures,
which are sometimes introduced as exhibits in court at a trial. The
print media certainly doesn't print those. And normally the TV doesn't.
But this case rose to a whole different level. Subject to FOI, any
member of the public can get them."
Audio tapes of 911 tapes, on the other hand, are routinely released
by police under FOI laws in Connecticut and across the country. Law
enforcement officials have refused to release the 911 call tapes in the
Newtown case so far. Those tapes were released after other recent major
crimes, including the 2010 Hartford Distributors shootings in Manchester.
The release of such tapes are often used by the news media or lawyers to evaluate the police response to emergencies.
Sugrue's email on Tuesday discussed, in vague terms, potential
"consent" provisions under which victims' family members apparently
would have say over what information might be withheld or released. He
mentioned a proposal to "allow the written consent of one immediate next
of kin" – to accommodate one parent's "desire to obtain records that
relate to her son." But, he added, that might be unfair to "the other
families if one member thereof gives the consent."
Also unclear Tuesday was the question of which government officials
would decide whether to release or withhold information under the bill.
