Officials have refused to hand over bodycam footage that may show a police officer cop stealing a photographer’s bag, according to a new lawsuit.
On May 30, photojournalist Angelina Katsanis was covering the protests outside Delaney Hall, Newark, where immigrants are being held by ICE. Katsanis, who was working for the Associated Press, was then struck by the wooden beam as police and demonstrators clashed.
The photographer sought medical attention and left her camera bag behind during the incident. She later returned to the area in a wheelchair to retrieve her gear, by which time it was gone. While in hospital, the AirTag on Katsanis’ camera bag showed that it was at a home in Sparta, New Jersey, an address listed to Essex County police sergeant Darryl Brown.
Brown’s body camera footage was reviewed by officials, and it showed him “interacting” with Katsanis’s bag. Brown’s home was then searched, and officers recovered several of the photographer’s missing items, some of which had Katsanis’ name and phone number on them. Sergeant Brown was reportedly suspended without pay and will appear in court charged with third-degree theft. The charges Brown faces carry a sentence of three to five years in prison and a fine of up to $15,000.
However, according to northjersey.com, a non-profit news outlet has now filed a lawsuit against the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office for refusing to hand over Brown’s body-worn camera footage to the public that could show whether one of its officers stole a photojournalist’s camera outside Delaney Hall last month.
Steve Janoski is a reporter with The Jersey Vindicator, an online news service published by the New Jersey Center for Non-Profit Journalism. He filed a request with the prosecutor’s office on June 5 seeking footage from the camera affixed to Brown’s uniform the night the bag went missing, as well as all documents, recordings, and investigative reports created prior to and during Brown’s arrest. Five days later, the office denied his request, stating it was prohibited from releasing Brown’s bodycam footage while the matter remains under investigation.
The Jersey Vindicator sued claiming the prosecutor’s office violated the state Open Public Records Act by denying Janoski’s request and that the footage should not be withheld under any legal exemptions in New Jersey’s public records or police body camera laws. In a court filing, the news outlet argues that the footage isn’t covered by any exceptions because it was recorded before Brown became a suspect in the investigation, and therefore should have been available to the public at the time.
“There is no justification for keeping the video from the public,” CJ Griffin, a government transparency attorney retained by The Jersey Vindicator, says. “We deserve to see what occurred.”
The case comes after weeks The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a lawsuit against ICE, accusing it of failing to turn over records of its practice of threatening and surveilling photographers who film federal agents. ACLU’s lawsuit followed multiple reports of photojournalists covering protests outside Delaney Hall saying they have been targeted and attacked by ICE agents.
Image credits: Photo by Will Allen-DuPraw/GoFundMe
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