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Pastimes : Murder Mystery: Who Killed Yale Student Suzanne Jovin? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jeffrey S. Mitchell who wrote (961)	8/29/2001 12:30:35 AM
From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1397

Re: 8/29/01 - Hartford Courant: Official Recommends Jovin File Stay Shut Official Recommends Jovin File Stay Shut By GARY LIBOW The Hartford Courant August 29, 2001 Thousand of pages detailing the New Haven Police Department's investigation into the 1998 killing of Yale senior Suzanne Jovin should not be released to the public, a state Freedom of Information hearing officer says. Barbara Housen, the hearing officer, concludes in her report to the full commission that divulging the contents of the bulky investigative file could disclose the identity of informants and taint continuing law enforcement efforts to solve the crime. The full FOI panel will consider her findings in September. In April, Jeffrey Mitchell and Les Gura, city editor of The Courant, testified at a hearing that New Haven police violated FOI laws and the public's right to know by withholding documents in the massive investigative file. Gura wrote an extensive Sunday magazine piece about the Jovin killing and about the fact that police have never dropped former Yale lecturer James Van de Velde as a suspect. Mitchell is a longtime friend of Van de Velde, Jovin's thesis adviser. Jovin was found stabbed the night of Dec. 4, 1998, about two miles from campus. The investigative effort appears to be stymied by a lack of witnesses and forensic evidence. Mitchell requested a record of the 911 tape reporting Jovin's injuries and other information detectives shared with Andy Rosenweig, a private investigator hired by Yale to crack the case. Gura requested the entire Jovin file. In letters to Gura and Mitchell, Housen states she is not recommending public release of the requested information because it would not be in the public interest. Housen says release would result in the disclosure of the identities of informants and witnesses whose safety would be endangered or who would be subject to threat or intimidation if their identities were known. She says release of other documents and the 911 recording would result in the disclosure of information to be used in a prospective law enforcement action and would be prejudicial. Housen recommends that some information be made public, including copies of assorted newspaper and Internet articles and a May 10 police department memorandum regarding the freedom of information request. Disclosure of that material is insignificant and falls far short of the information both Mitchell and Gura sought. A disappointed Mitchell vowed to appeal Housen's recommendation. "The fact that the [hearing officer] didn't find even a single page of over 4,000 pages of material to release either means [she] couldn't, over the course of five months, determine what in the police files was relevant to the case and what was not, or the police could not,'' Mitchell said. Ralph G. Elliot, the lawyer representing The Courant at the hearing, said he did not receive Housen's decision Tuesday. He declined to comment until he has read the decision. ctnow.com

To: Jeffrey S. Mitchell who wrote (961)	9/10/2001 11:00:58 AM
From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1397

Re: 9/7/01 - FOIC: Notice of Rescheduled Commission Meeting Jeffrey Mitchell, Complainant(s) against Chief, Police Department, City of New HAven, Respondent(s) Docket #FIC 2001-131 September 7, 2001 Notice of Rescheduled Commission Meeting This will notify you that the Freedom of Information Commission has rescheduled the above-captioned matter which had been noticed to be heard September 26, 2001 at 2 p.m. The Commission will consider the case at its meeting to be held at the Freedom of Information Commission, Hearing Room A, first floor, 18-20 Trinity Street, Hartford, Connecticut, on October 10, 2001 at 2 p.m. Any brief, memoranda of law or request for additional time, as referenced in the August 29, 2001 Transmittal of Proposed Final Decision, should be received by the Commission on or before October 2, 2001. By Order of the Freedom of Information Commission Dolores E. Tarnowski, Clerk of the Commission