SPD, prosecutor go to court to secure documents for Fine investigation
Lawyers for the city and district attorney’s office involved in the dispute over releasing records related to the Bernie Fine investigation appeared before state Supreme Court Justice Thomas Murphy on Tuesday, according to an article published by The Post-Standard on Tuesday.
Fine, associate head coach of Syracuse University’s men’s basketball team, is under investigation after two former ball boys came forth and accused him of sexually molesting them. The Onondaga County District Attorney’s Office obtained a subpoena on Monday requiring Syracuse police to turn over records from 2002 to the present relating to the child molestation allegations against Fine, according to the article.
District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said when the subpoena was delivered to Deputy Chief Shawn Broton, it was greeted with an obscenity, according to the article. Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner said in a press release on Monday the Syracuse Police Department will not release information as it arises during its investigation, including to the prosecution.
Murphy adjourned the hearing to next Tuesday and Fitzpatrick said the records will be presented to a Grand Jury then.
Fitzpatrick said the police department was given a 10 a.m. deadline Tuesday to provide the records sought in the subpoena. After the police department missed the deadline, chief assistant district attorneys James Maxwell and Christine Garvey left the prosecutor’s office shortly after 11 a.m. and headed across the street to the Onondaga County Courthouse, according to the article.
Garvey is the head of the office’s Special Victims Unit and is the prosecutor in charge of the Fine investigation. Maxwell is the head of the office’s law unit and generally handles appeals and legal issues.
The district attorney’s office declined to release any information other than the hearing would resume Tuesday when called by a reporter from The Daily Orange. No one involved in the 30-minute hearing would comment on the proceedings after the judge ordered the hearing’s proceedings be sealed.
— Asst. News Editor Jon Harris contributed reporting to this article.
Published on November 22, 2011 at 12:00 pm
