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Boston police and the DA’s office have cited concerns that releasing the footage could jeopardize the investigation and influence potential witnesses.
Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden speaks during a press conference in June. Finn Gomez for The Boston Globe
A legal nonprofit organization sued the Boston Police Department and Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office on Tuesday, alleging the agencies unlawfully withheld footage from the fatal police shooting of Stephenson King despite months of public calls for transparency.
Lawyers for Civil Rights filed the lawsuit in Suffolk Superior Court after both agencies denied public records requests seeking body-camera and dashboard-camera footage from the March 11 shooting that left King, 39, of Dorchester, dead.
The nonprofit argues the agencies improperly relied on the state’s investigatory exemption to the public records law and is asking the court to order the release of the videos, along with attorney’s fees and other relief.
“Few records implicate a greater public interest than footage of a police officer taking a life,” LCR senior attorney Victoria Miranda said in a press release. “The public has a right to see what happened. Every day that BPD and the DA’s Office refuse to release the footage is another day the community is denied the transparency and accountability the law demands.”
Boston police officer Nicholas O’Malley fatally shot King after he and other officers responded to a reported carjacking and located a vehicle matching the description in Roxbury, authorities said.
O’Malley has since been charged with manslaughter in connection with the shooting and has pleaded not guilty.
After finding the vehicle, O’Malley and another officer confronted King, who partially opened his window but did not stop the car, prosecutors wrote in a document filed in court. King then allegedly attempted to flee and struck a cruiser behind him in the process. O’Malley subsequently fired three shots at King through the driver’s window.
BPD Officer Nicholas O’Malley, 33, attends his arraignment in Roxbury Municipal Court in March. – Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe
The shooting sparked months of public calls for the release of police video. Two Boston city councilors urged the department to make the footage public, the City Council later unanimously voted to request broader access to body-camera footage involving Boston police officers over the last year and several months, and King’s family publicly demanded the videos be released.
According to the lawsuit’s complaint, LCR submitted public records requests to the Boston Police Department and the DA’s office on June 12, seeking all officer body-camera footage of the shooting and dashboard-camera footage from police cruisers at the scene.
Twelve days later, BPD denied the request for body-camera footage, saying the records are part of an active death investigation and criminal prosecution. The department also said it had no “responsive” dashboard-camera recordings, according to an email, filed with the complaint, purportedly from a BPD administrator.
“The Department is denying your request at this time because the records are part of a death investigation,” the administrator wrote in the email. “The records requested are now evidence in a criminal case that has not yet been adjudicated. The release of these records at this time may prematurely disclose details of the case prior to trial and may influence potential witnesses.”
The DA’s office likewise denied the request on June 26, saying the records fall within the “investigatory exemption” because releasing them could influence the ongoing prosecution and witness testimony.
“It is this Office’s position that production of the records related to this case is not in the public interest, as it could jeopardize an active and ongoing investigation,” the DA’s office wrote in an email to LCR.
LCR argues neither justification is sufficient under the state’s public record laws.
“To the extent a witness’s account materially changes after viewing an objective recording of the events, that discrepancy bears on the witness’s credibility and the weight of the testimony — not on the public’s right to access records of extraordinary importance,” the complaint states.
BPD did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday evening.
A spokesperson for the DA’s office declined to comment and instead pointed to a July 23 protective order approved by Suffolk Superior Court Judge Joshua Wall that limits public dissemination of two body-camera videos before O’Malley’s trial.
In the motion requesting the order, prosecutors argued public release of the videos before trial could generate extensive publicity and expose potential jurors to commentary about the shooting.
“[Releasing the footage] will prompt members of the public to give their opinions — some as self-styled experts — on whether O’Malley’s shooting of Stephenson King Jr. was a justified use of force, a cold-blooded killing, or something in between,” prosecutors wrote. “Release of the video before trial would therefore expose the jury pool not just to footage of the homicide itself, but to a barrage of inadmissible commentary about it.”
Following the news of the filing, former Suffolk County DA and former U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins, who is challenging District Attorney Kevin Hayden for her old job, pledged to adopt a policy requiring critical incident footage to be released within 30 days if elected.
“Transparency, trust, and accountability are not just campaign slogans; they are the building blocks of a fair justice system,” Rollins said in a statement. “For too long, the delay in releasing vital footage has created a vacuum filled by uncertainty and grief. My administration will treat the public as partners in safety.”
Lawyers for Civil Rights, Inc. v. Boston Police Department, et al. by samantha.genzer
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