An appellate judge blasted former Staten Island DA Daniel Donovan Tuesday for putting “a very pretty gloss over what happened and sweeping everything else under the rug” when his office released only a limited amount of grand jury information in Eric Garner’s chokehold death case.
“Now it’s out there, with or without disclosure of what happened in the grand jury room. The cat is out of the bag,” added Supreme Court Justice Leonard Austin.
His comments came during a two-hour hearing to determine whether to disclose the grand jury minutes to the NAACP, New York Civil Liberties Union, Legal Aid Society and city Public Advocate’s office.
Anne Grady, who represented the Donovan’s office, argued before the panel of four appellate judges that unsealing the information would only create more problems.
“Further disclosure will only raise more questions,” she said. “Most of the information they are seeking is publicly available without the need of piercing grand jury secrecy.”
Justice Sandra Sgroi shot back: “Where is the line? We’re in a dance. The information is already out there.”
In December, a limited amount of evidence was publicly released after a grand jury failed to indict NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo in Garner’s July 2014 death.
Three months later, a Staten Island judge ruled to leave the rest of the grand jury minutes sealed, prompting the four advocacy groups to appeal the decision.
“They cherry picked their disclosure … not disclosing the rest … is fueling the public interest,” said Natalie Rea, an attorney for the Legal Aid Society.
Justice John Leventhal noted during the hearing that releasing the information in Garner’s case could set a precedent that discourages witnesses from testifying in future grand jury cases.
“Your adversary is going to say every time there is a public interest, the rule will be swallowed up by the exception,” the judge told a lawyer from the NYCLU.
“If the rule is swallowed up by the exception, you’re going to chill people from coming forward.”
Public Advocate Letitia James, who sat in on the hearing, said she needs certain information, including correspondence between the jurors and the district attorney, charges presented to the jury and Pantaleo’s testimony, in order to investigate Donovan’s office.
“All we are seeking to do is reform a system which, in my humble opinion, is broken and to let everyone know what happened behind closed doors,” James told reporters outside the courthouse.
“Obviously, there was a miscarriage of justice.”
The panel has yet to rule on the appeals case.
Donovan, a Republican, won a seat in Congress last month that was vacated by disgraced Rep. Michael Grimm.