REQUEST FOR DOCUMENTS ABOUT AN UNSOLVED 1987 HOMICIDE SHOULD HAVE BEEN DENIED; APPEAL FROM A NONFINAL ORDER ALLOWED.
The First Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined petitioner was not entitled to all documents held by the NYC Police Department (NYPD) concerning an unsolved 1987 homicide. The court noted that, although an appeal as of right does not generally lie from a nonfinal order in an Article 78 proceeding, leave to appeal was granted here given the important, substantive issues raised:
NYPD properly withheld the requested materials pursuant to the exemption to FOIL for documents that “are compiled for law enforcement purposes and which, if disclosed, would . . . interfere with law enforcement investigations” (Public Officers Law § 87[2][e][i]). NYPD met its burden of “identify[ing] the generic kinds of documents for which the exemption is claimed, and the generic risks posed by disclosure of these categories of documents” … . In particular, NYPD submitted an affidavit by a detective averring that he was handling an active, ongoing investigation into the homicide, and had recently pursued potential leads. The detective's affidavit established that disclosure of the records could interfere with the active investigation by, among other things, leading to witness tampering or enabling the perpetrator to evade detection. Given the foregoing determination, we need not reach the other exemptions cited by NYPD. Matter of Loevy & Loevy v New York City Police Dept., 2016 NY Slip Op 04099, 1st Dept 5-26-16
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION LAW (FOIL) (REQUEST FOR DOCUMENTS ABOUT AN UNSOLVED 1987 HOMICIDE SHOULD HAVE BEEN DENIED; APPEAL FROM A NONFINAL ORDER ALLOWED)/APPEALS (REQUEST FOR DOCUMENTS ABOUT AN UNSOLVED 1987 HOMICIDE SHOULD HAVE BEEN DENIED; APPEAL FROM A NONFINAL ORDER ALLOWED)