HARTFORD, Conn. — A Superior Court judge Tuesday ordered the release of the 911 calls made from Sandy Hook Elementary School to Newtown police on the morning of the Dec. 14, 2012, shootings, rejecting arguments from prosecutors that the audio recordings should remain private.
At Superior Court in New Britain, Judge Eliot D. Prescott, who listened to the 911 calls Monday, ordered the tapes to be released Dec. 4.
In a 33-page decision released Tuesday, Prescott criticized Danbury State’s Attorney Stephen J. Sedensky III’s efforts to keep the tapes private. He described Sedensky’s argument for continued seal as bordering on “frivolous” and “at its heart … an assertion that the records are exempt because ‘I say so.'”
The Freedom of Information Commission in September ordered Newtown police to release tapes of 911 calls made from inside the school during the attack that killed 20 first-graders and six educators, ruling unanimously that the calls were not exempt from mandatory disclosure. Sedensky appealed the ruling in court and sought a stay of the order to release the tapes.