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HARTFORD, Conn. – Connecticut officials will hear arguments Tuesday on whether state police can refuse to say whether a trooper and two sergeants were disciplined on allegations they retaliated against a protester at a sobriety checkpoint by arresting him on bogus criminal charges — an encounter that was recorded by the protester’s camera.
State police rejected requests made under Connecticut’s public records laws earlier this year by The Associated Press and the Journal Inquirer for copies of the internal affairs investigation report as well as the results of the probe, including whether the officers were disciplined. The AP and the newspaper appealed to the Freedom of Information Commission, which scheduled a hearing for Tuesday.
The Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, which oversees state police, is citing “invasion of privacy” concerns of the officers, state law and the troopers’ labor contract. The AP and the Journal Inquirer argue that citizens have the right to know whether public employees are disciplined for wrongdoing.
The investigation centered on the encounter between protester Michael Picard, of East Hartford, and the three officers — Trooper John Barone, Master Sgt. Patrick Torneo and Sgt. John Jacobi — at a sobriety checkpoint in West Hartford on Sept. 11, 2015.
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