Lead Sandy Hook Shooting Investigator Appeals Decision To Release 911 Tapes
HARTFORD, Conn. (CBSNewYork/AP) - The prosecutor leading the investigation into last year's massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School said he will ask Connecticut's courts to block the release of 911 tapes from the shooting by appealing a state Freedom of Information Commission decision.
The commission on Wednesday ruled unanimously in favor of The Associated Press, which sought access to records withheld by investigators. The recordings will not be made available immediately as Danbury State's Attorney Stephen Sedensky III said the decision will be appealed in Superior Court.
"Any decision by the FOI Commission can be appealed in Superior Court and can be taken all the way to the Connecticut Supreme Court," Tom Hennick of the FOI Commission told WCBS 880 Connecticut Bureau Chief Fran Schneidau.
The recordings could shed light on the law enforcement response to one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history. In all, 26 people, including 20 first graders, were killed inside the school on Dec. 14 by the gunman, Adam Lanza, who committed suicide as police arrived. Lanza also killed his mother, Nancy, at their Newtown home before the rampage.
Lead Sandy Hook Shooting Investigator Appeals Decision To Release 911 Tapes
Although 911 calls are typically released, Sedensky directed Newtown police not to turn over the recordings while the inquiry into the massacre was underway. Sedensky argued that the calls should be exempt from public information laws because they contain information that could be used in a law enforcement action.
Owen Eagan, the chairman of the commission, said Sedensky did not make clear in his previous testimony how the information might be used or how its release could damage an investigation in which no arrests are anticipated.
"You never even reviewed the tapes,'' Eagan said, reminding Sedensky of his testimony from June.
After hearing from lawyers from both sides during the hour-long session, the commissioners unanimously agreed to accept an earlier recommendation from a hearing officer, Kathleen Ross, who dismissed each of Sedensky's arguments for making the tapes exempt from public information laws.
Sedensky also said that releasing them could subject witnesses to harassment from conspiracy theorists and violate survivors from the school who deserve special protection as victims of child abuse.
"This is a case about crime victims and witnesses who shouldn't have to worry that their calls for help in their most vulnerable moments will become fodder for the evening news,'' Sedensky said.
On the day of the shooting, the AP requested documents, including copies of 911 calls, as it does routinely in news gathering, in part to examine the police response to the massacre that sent officers from multiple agencies racing to the school. If the recordings are released, the AP would review the content and determine what, if any, of it would meet the news cooperative's standards for publication.
The town's police department denied the AP's request, and the AP appealed to the FOI commission.
A Connecticut law passed earlier this year in response to the massacre creates exemptions to the freedom-of-information law for the release of photographs, film, video and other images depicting a homicide victim if those records constitute "an unwarranted invasion'' on the privacy of the surviving family members. It also created a one-year moratorium on the release of certain portions of audiotape and other recordings - with the exception of 911 tapes - in which the condition of a homicide victim is described.
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