GRAND JURY MINUTES SHOULD NOT BE RELEASED IN THIS CIVIL RIGHTS ACTION STEMMING FROM A FATAL SHOOTING BY A POLICE OFFICER.
The Fourth Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined the grand jury minutes surrounding a fatal shooting by a police officer should not be released. Decedent’s wife sought the grand jury minutes in a federal civil rights action:
We agree with the County that plaintiff failed to “demonstrat[e] a compelling and particularized need for access’ ” to the grand jury materials… . Such a showing must be made in order to overcome the “presumption of confidentiality [that] attaches to the record of [g]rand [j]ury proceedings” … , and is a prerequisite to the court’s exercise of its discretion in “balanc[ing] the public interest for disclosure against the public interest favoring secrecy” … . Here, plaintiff failed to establish that the discovery proceedings in federal court would not be sufficient to ascertain the facts and circumstances surrounding the shooting … . Williams v City of Rochester, 2017 NY Slip Op 04646, 4th Dept 6-9-17
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION LAW (FOIL) (GRAND JURY MINUTES SHOULD NOT BE RELEASED IN THIS CIVIL RIGHTS ACTION STEMMING FROM A FATAL SHOOTING BY A POLICE OFFICER)/GRAND JURY MINUTES (FREEDOM OF INFORMATION LAW, GRAND JURY MINUTES SHOULD NOT BE RELEASED IN THIS CIVIL RIGHTS ACTION STEMMING FROM A FATAL SHOOTING BY A POLICE OFFICER)