In Western Mass., a Muzzle Award for delaying the release of records alleging police misconduct

In June 2023, independent journalist Andrew Quemere filed a lawsuit aimed at forcing Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan to turn over the names of police officers who had been charged with violating the law.

Sullivan argued that the names should be kept secret, even though, Quemere wrote for his newsletter, The Mass Dump, “prosecutors had published some of the names and case details in online press releases and other self-laudatory documents.” (The Northwestern District comprises Hampshire and Franklin counties as well as the town of Athol, which is in Worcester County.)

Finally, on March 13, Sullivan produced the documents — two and a half months after he’d been ordered to do so by Superior Court Judge Julie Green. For dragging Quemere’s request out for several years, and for delaying the release of the documents even after being told by a judge to turn them over, Sullivan has earned a New England Muzzle Award.

The case that Quemere brought turned on several arcane aspects of the law, but the seriousness of the offenses with which the officers had been charged was not in dispute; they included possession of child-sexual-abuse materials, assault and battery, and drunken driving. At issue was that the officers were the subject of so-called Brady disclosures, which prosecutors must turn over to defendants in criminal cases if those officers testify against them. That gives defense lawyers the opportunity to challenge those officers’ credibility.

Sullivan’s office, meanwhile, countered that the officers were protected by the state’s Criminal Offender Record Information law, known as CORI. Judge Green ruled that was not the case, although she also found that the DA’s office did not act in bad faith.

In an interview with The Republican of Springfield, Quemere said he believed that Sullivan was still withholding records:

It’s been four years — 50 months — since my public records request, and the DA’s Office still has not released all of the documents. It’s misleading that they’ve only released the 191 pages, when I know there are more officers who have been investigated for criminal misconduct.

Sullivan, in turn, told The Republican that Quemere had only received records for misconduct that were investigated after 2022 because that’s all he had asked for. “I have never lied, and we’ve been very forthcoming with records,” he said, adding: “We’ve acted in good faith with Mr. Quemere this entire time.”

Clearly, though, the public has a right to know when police officers have been accused — and in some cases convicted — of misconduct. Quemere reports that several of the 13 officers whose names appeared in the newly released Brady records had been convicted of various offenses. And at least six of those cases had appeared in the press before their names were redacted by the DA’s office — which calls into question why Sullivan thought it was so important to try to put the toothpaste back into the tube.