Police Chief James Lewis took a swing at the New Haven Register at a community meeting, questioning a reporter’s “ethics” for an article that appeared this week on a freedom of information battle.
The unexpected outburst came at the end of a 45-minute get-to-know-you speech before members of the Whalley Edgewood Beaver Hill Management Team Tuesday night.
After telling neighbors about changes he plans to make on the police force, Lewis turned to a Freedom of Information battle between the newspaper and the city.
The State Freedom of Information Commission recently ruled that the city violated state law in failing to give the Register a copy of a crime scene videotape.
(Click here to read the FOIC ruling.)
The video shows the moments leading up to the 2006 shooting death of 13-year-old Jajuana Cole. It was made by one of the teenagers convicted in the case and reportedly showed the killers boasting about their exploits on the night of the murder. The city has argued that it doesn’t have the tape, and that the only copy of the tape is in possession of State’s Attorney Michael Dearington, whose office prosecuted the case.
“FOI order ignored,” read a headline in Monday’s Register. The article reported that the city may face a penalty if it fails to produce the tape.
In a room packed with three dozen people, Lewis defended his actions.
“I don’t have the tape,” Lewis said. The Register was being unfair by reporting that he refused FOI orders, he argued. “They know I don’t have the tape.”
Lewis singled out Register reporter Bill Kaempffer in the crowd. “The reporter is here. He can defend himself if he wants,” Lewis said.
The coverage “speaks to the ethics” of the reporter, Lewis said.
It turned out that Kaempffer didn’t even write the article the chief was fuming over — reporter Randall Beach did. Kaempffer filed the initial FOI request but did not report any of the articles following the FOI case. He remained silent Tuesday night as the chief repeatedly made reference to him.
The chief’s complaint was directly addressed in the FOIC ruling. The FOIC ruled that even though the city doesn’t have the tape, it failed in its FOI duties because it didn’t try hard enough to get a hold of it from State’s Attorney Dearington. Dearington himself is exempt from FOI laws. He wrote a letter refusing to give the tape to the city.
“It’s an unfair criticism of Bill,” Register Editor Jack Kramer said Thursday. “It has nothing to do with Bill.
“Every decision about this case, we’ve won. We just want to review the tape to make our own determination if it’s newsworthy or not.”