By Steve Klamkin WPRO News
A judge Monday rejected a bid by a government watchdog group seeking unfettered access to internal affairs reports into allegations of misconduct by members of the Pawtucket Police.
Superior Court Judge Melissa Long ruled the Rhode Island Accountability Project could not gain access to redacted internal records stripped of personal or other sensitive information without a further level of review, in line with an earlier opinion issued by the former Attorney General, Peter Kilmartin.
Judge Long left open the prospect of conducting a review of the records in her chambers out of public view, if the RIAP and City of Pawtucket decide to pursue the case further.
“I believe secret government won today and the people lost,” said RIAP member Dimitri Lyssikatos outside the courthouse.
“How can you have faith in the system, or faith in the integrity of the system without being able to look at these reports?”
“It really shouldn’t be up to the government agency to be deciding what is and isn’t important,” said Steven Brown, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island, which pursued the lawsuit on Lyssikatos’ behalf.
An attorney for the City of Pawtucket had no immediate comment on the judge’s decision.
