Re: 4/29/00 - Daily News attorneys file suit for records in A.S. Goldmen case
Daily News attorneys file suit for records in A.S. Goldmen case
Saturday, April 29, 2000
By CATHY ZOLLO, Staff Writer
Lawyers for the Naples Daily News have filed a lawsuit against the Manhattan District Attorney's Office over records that office is withholding related to the A.S. Goldmen & Co. stock fraud case.
Prosecutors have refused several attempts by Daily News reporters to obtain copies of investigations that involve 36 defendants associated with the Naples-based firm. The suspects were indicted between November 1998 and July 1999.
The Goldmen case has received national attention, including in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times.
Daily News Editor Phil Lewis said he hadn't wanted to sue, but stonewalling by prosecutors forced the issue.
"We've tried for almost a year filing the requests that newspapers file for what we feel are public documents, and we're being denied at every turn. . .We think it's an important enough case involving a lot of people's money, and we think these records should be public."
Officials with the Manhattan DA's Office refused to comment on the lawsuit Friday because it is pending.
Daily News reporter Gina Edwards began requesting the information in May 1999 through a series of letters to the DA's office, citing New York's open records law.
In their response to Edwards, representatives from the DA's office contended disclosing the records would interfere with their ongoing investigation into activities at A.S. Goldmen, identify a confidential source and reveal criminal investigative techniques.
Bob Freeman, executive director of the New York Department of State Committee on Open Government, said prosecutors' claims don't stand up to the state's Freedom of Information Law.
"An agency has the ability to withhold records in certain instances," Freeman said. "But there must be identifiable harm based on the disclosure."
Exemptions to that law include the potential harm that the Manhattan DA's office is citing, but Freeman questioned that assertion.
"How could discovery possibly interfere if the records have been given to the defendant?" Freeman asked.
Discovery refers to records that prosecutors have assembled in a case; these documents are provided to defendants and their attorneys so they can prepare for a trial.
"The last thing you want to do is tell the bad guys what you intend to do and allow them to evade effective law enforcement detection," Freeman said. "But if the records have been distributed already to the defendant, it seems there would be no harmful effects of disclosure."
The 36 defendants include 11 employees of Goldmen's Naples office, associates of the firm and, in some cases, their wives and girlfriends.
Among those charged is Anthony Marchiano, owner of Naples brokerage A.S. Goldmen & Co. He was indicted in July on charges of running the corrupt stock enterprise that bilked thousands of investors around the country out of almost $100 million.
Marchiano is accused of running a boiler-room operation in Naples where brokers used high-pressure phone sales tactics to sell stocks until the firm closed in 1998. The defunct company also had offices in New York and New Jersey.
Among other criminal allegations, Marchiano and the 35 other defendants are charged with manipulating the stocks of 10 small companies, including the failed Stadium Naples golf arena venture.
Bruce Sanford, lead counsel for the Daily News in its case against the Manhattan DA, said Friday that he's confident of winning the case.
On the larger issue around freedom of information, Sanford said newspapers that sue in such cases act on behalf of the public to keep a light on government.
"The most important thing to remember is that newspapers . . . have to file cases like this as a surrogate for the public," he said. "This is important public information that the public deserves having, so when newspapers go to the expense to do this, the public ought to remember that."
Copyright ¸ 2000 Naples Daily News. All rights reserved.
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