Lawsuit Says MA DA Refused To Release Police Misconduct Records

BOSTON, MA — A Framingham-based journalist Monday sued the Northwestern District Attorney's Office for refusing to release police misconduct records requested under the Massachusetts public records law.

The lawsuit filed in Suffolk County Superior Court by Andrew Quemere, publisher of The Mass Dump newsletter, comes after 18 months of wrangling with the Greenfield-based Northwestern DA through the state public records appeals process and the state Attorney General.

In early 2022, Quemere filed a request seeking the release of the Northwestern District Attorney's Office "Brady list" — a term used to describe records kept by prosecutors about police who have been criminally charged or otherwise accused of misconduct.

The DA's office handed over records, but redacted the names of the 30 officers on the Brady list, and the court docket numbers in cases where those officers had been criminally charged. The DA's office cited a privacy exemption under the public records law in withholding the names.

The state Legislature in 2020 updated the public records law privacy exemption to say it "shall not apply to records related to a law enforcement misconduct investigation." But the DA's office said the language was "very vague," and sought guidance from the Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission about how it applies to public records requests. The POST Commission does not oversee the state public records law.

The DA's office said it withheld the court docket numbers per the state’s Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) law. State courts have previously ruled that criminal records of public officials, including police officers, can be disclosed under the public records law.

Quemere filed three appeals over the redactions with the state's supervisor of records, resulting in multiple orders for the DA to turn over the records. Quemere also asked the state Attorney General's office to review the matter, but never heard back. The Secretary of the Commonwealth has referred about 40 cases to the AG for review since 2016, but only about half resulted in action.

A spokesperson for the Northwestern DA, which covers Hampshire and Franklin counties and Athol, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit.

Quemere said the lawsuit is the result of a broken public records system in Massachusetts, where state records officials don't have the power to hold government officials who refuse to turn over records accountable. Public records lawsuits consume taxpayer resources, and are unnecessarily burdensome for members of the public seeking records about government operations, he said.

"We deserve a criminal justice system that is based on integrity and aims for actual justice," he said. "We deserve to know whether those ideals are being upheld by prosecutors."

Quemere said other DAs in Massachusetts have released Brady list information. The Middlesex DA released it to him almost in full quickly. The Essex County DA initially declined to release the records, but did after Quemere appealed through the Secretary of the Commonwealth's Office.

Mason Kortz, an attorney with the Harvard Law School Cyberlaw Clinic, is representing Quemere. You can read the full lawsuit here.