Re: 9/19/02 - Hartford Courant: Lawyers Battle Over Releasing Jovin File
Lawyers Battle Over Releasing Jovin File
September 19, 2002
By GARY LIBOW, Courant Staff Writer
NEW BRITAIN -- For more than two hours Wednesday, a judge heard lawyers spar over making public the investigative file on the unsolved 1998 killing of Yale University student Suzanne Jovin.
The city of New Haven, its police and State's Attorney Michael Dearington are trying to overturn a state Freedom of Information Commission decision ordering release of much of the 4,500-page file to The Courant and Jeffrey Mitchell, a friend of the only identified suspect, James Van de Velde.
Superior Court Judge George Levine did not indicate when he would render his decision on the appeal.
In February, the Freedom of Information Commission ruled that much of the Jovin file should be open to the public, ruling that the police department and city had failed to prove why the documents should be exempt from disclosure.
In New Haven Police Chief Mel Wearing's appeal of the decision, city deputy corporation counsel Martin Echter argued that release of documents such as interviews with potential witnesses and identification of physical evidence endangers potential witnesses and could damage the investigation.
Attorney Ralph Elliot, representing The Courant, countered that the plaintiff's appeal failed to prove why specific documents should be exempted from disclosure.
Echter and Assistant State's Attorney James G. Clark, representing Dearington, argued that the commission violated its own regulations.
They said that commission hearing officer Dennis O'Connor - who examined the file page by page and ruled that it should be released - was not present at commission hearings when testimony on the issue was heard. Another hearing officer had previously ruled that most of the file should remain closed.
Elliot argued that because private investigator Andrew Rosenweig was allowed to review the file, reporters from The Courant should receive the same opportunity. Rosenweig was hired by Yale University.
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