Re: 1/26/02 - Hartford Courant: Files In Jovin Case May Open
Files In Jovin Case May Open
January 26, 2002
By GARY LIBOW, Courant Staff Writer
The New Haven Police Department must make public a significant portion of its investigative files into the 1998 killing of Yale University senior Suzanne Jovin, a state Freedom of Information Commission member has recommended.
Commissioner Dennis E. O'Connor, who combed thousands of pages in the Jovin file, rejected the department's argument that all the documents are exempt from disclosure.
Police and state prosecutors contended disclosure of information related to the unsolved crime would hamper the investigation and place informants and witnesses at risk.
The full FOI commission is scheduled to consider O'Connor's recommendation Feb. 13.
The Courant sought the files along with Jeffrey Mitchell, a friend of James Van de Velde, Jovin's thesis adviser and the only person named as a suspect by New Haven police.
O'Connor was assigned to scrutinize the file months ago, after the commission declined to adopt a report by hearing officer Barbara Housen.
Housen concluded in August that the vast majority of the file should be exempted from public disclosure, concurring with the police department's arguments.
O'Connor's decision calls on police to provide public access to a large portion of the file, including part of the 911 audio tape recording that pertains to the discovery of Jovin's body.
He noted that the department may edit out any information that would reveal, either directly or indirectly, the identity of informants not otherwise known or witnesses not otherwise known, whose safety would be endangered if their identities were revealed.
O'Connor expressed "displeasure" that New Haven police claimed a blanket exemption to disclosure and then simply unloaded the thousands of pages on the commission to review and determine which, if any, were exempt.
The department's failure to specify which exemptions it was claiming and provide proof, O'Connor said, resulted in an "undue and unnecessary expenditure of state time and resources."
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