Montville ― The state Freedom of Information Commission on Wednesday ordered the police department to release body camera footage and audio of an arrest in the station lobby in which an officer’s gun discharged.
The Day had filed a request for the footage, but the police department refused to release it. The Day then filed an appeal with the commission seeking release of the video.
Representatives for the police department did not attend Wednesday’s commission meeting. The town and police department now have has 30 days to release the video unless they appeal the decision to Superior Court.
Mayor Leonard Bunnell said Wednesday night the town would not appeal the ruling.
The commission’s decision came exactly one year after the incident in the police station lobby. On July 24, 2023, suspect Zachary Barbarossa entered the lobby where police said he tried to steal drugs from a prescription drug drop box.
While police apprehended Barbarossa, an unidentified officers’ gun, a Sig Sauer P320, fired. Police said the gun firing was a “spontaneous” discharge, while Sig Sauer maintained the discharge was the result of the officer improperly holstering his gun. No one was struck by the bullet.
The department initially provided The Day with two video clips of the incident, one six seconds and one seven seconds, captured by an officer’s body camera and a lobby surveillance camera. There was no audio with the clips.
Three days later, the Day filed an FOI request with police asking for a copy of the body camera footage, with sound, from the time Barbarossa entered the lobby of the police station, up to and including when he was escorted out of the lobby.
The department refused to release the video and audio, saying that New London State’s Attorney Paul Narducci had told them not to release it until the case was resolved in New London Superior Court. Barbarossa was charged with attempted possession of a controlled substance, third-degree criminal mischief and interfering with a police officer/resisting arrest. He is free on a $2,000 bond and is next scheduled to appear in Norwich Superior Court, where he has six other pending cases, on Aug. 15.
At a March FOI hearing on The Day’s appeal, police department attorney Michael Collins presented a November 2023 letter from Narducci, in which he advised the department not to release the requested body camera footage and audio until Barbarossa’s case was concluded. Narducci wrote the “footage is highly material to the state’s prosecution of the case and the release of such footage at this time would be highly prejudicial to the prosecution of this matter.”
Narducci argued state public records law provided an exemption that allowed the department to withhold the video and audio.
The Day had argued that a pending criminal case was not grounds to withhold the body camera footage and audio, especially with the advent of a state law regarding the use of body-worn cameras that requires police to release recordings no later than 96 hours after a request.
The law does offer several exemptions for not releasing body camera footage, such as the depiction of minors and victims, but The Day had argued that none of those exemptions were applicable to its request.
The decision
The commission voted unanimously to uphold the decision of Hearing Officer Danielle McGee, who, after the March hearing, drafted a report in which she presented to the commission her recommendation that the police department be ordered to release the video and audio to The Day.
McGee, in her report, had found that the state law cited by Narducci pertains to the release of records of arrest, which agencies can withhold. But McGee found the audio and video requested by The Day did not constitute such a record.
McGee further found that Narducci’s office, although advised the case was pending before the commission, did not move to intervene, and did not provide evidence to support its claim that releasing the body camera footage and audio would be prejudicial to prospective law enforcement action.
She also found the police department did not cite any exemption in asserting the audio and video could be withheld other than Narducci telling it not do so.
d.drainville@theday.com
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