![]() Many law enforcement agencies now cite the law to withhold names of officers who use deadly force, saying they are crime victims because they fired their gun after a crime such as an assault or battery was committed against them. Support Local Journalism: Get a digital subscription to the Herald-Tribune for as low as $1 for 6 months. The Sheriff’s Office contends the identities of the deputies, including the one who killed Evans, are confidential under Marsy’s Law, which voters added to the Florida Constitution in 2018 and gives certain protections to crime victims. The last names of three deputies involved in a call for a court-ordered eviction in which one of them shot and killed Jeremiah Evans in Sarasota on April 1 were provided to the Herald-Tribune by the State Attorney’s Office in response to a routine public records request for a letter in which prosecutors had ruled the shooting was justified. Late Wednesday afternoon, that hearing was scheduled for Tuesday, June 21, 11 days after the injunction was issued. “We appreciate that the chief judge has signed a temporary order preventing the release of information until an expedited hearing can be held to resolve the parties’ differing interpretations of the privacy protections afforded to our deputies by Marsy’s Law and the Florida Constitution,” Sarasota Sheriff Kurt Hoffman wrote in a statement released Tuesday through the agency’s general counsel. “We fully expect that, once our arguments are heard, the injunction will be set aside.” “Freedom of speech means that it’s up to the Herald-Tribune to decide whether to report information in its possession, especially facts about such a significant matter as a fatal shooting by law enforcement,” Lake said. Lake, from the firm of Thomas & LoCicero in Tampa, which represents the Herald-Tribune. The motion was filed Monday by Carol Jean LoCicero and James B. Constitution as well as the Florida Constitution, according to the newspaper’s emergency motion to dissolve the injunction. The ruling, which granted the injunction without notice to the Herald-Tribune, is an unconstitutional prior restraint of the press, prohibited by the First Amendment to the U.S. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune is seeking to overturn an emergency injunction granted by a judge Friday night to the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office and the 12th Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office barring the news organization from publishing the names of two of the deputies involved in a fatal shooting.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |