The state Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case centered on the internal affairs records of a Jersey City police lieutenant who got arrested in 2019 after he fired a gun at his party guests. (Photo by New Jersey Monitor)
The New Jersey Supreme Court will weigh whether internal affairs records of police misconduct should be public under the common law right of access — as an appellate panel recently decreed — or hidden from public scrutiny if officers successfully get their criminal records expunged.
The case dates to August 2019, when Michael Timmins, a Jersey City police lieutenant, fired a gun at his guests during a party at his Sussex County home. State police responded and charged Timmins with terroristic threats and possession of weapons for unlawful purposes, but Timmins went through a pretrial diversionary program that enabled him to get details of his arrest expunged.
The New Jersey Monitor obtained details of Timmins’ gun arrest in 2021 after prosecutors divulged them as exculpatory material in an unrelated murder case.
In March 2022, the state Supreme Court ruled that public officials must release police disciplinary records in New Jersey, under the state’s common law right of access, when the public’s interest in them outweighs an officer’s confidentiality concerns. The New Jersey Monitor consequently sought Timmins’ records under that ruling.
Jersey City officials denied the New Jersey Monitor’s records request, so States Newsroom — its parent nonprofit — sued the city and records custodian Sean Gallagher for the records in June 2022.
Two months later, a Superior Court judge in Sussex County agreed to expunge Timmins’ record.
In April 2023, a trial court sided with the city against States Newsroom. But an appellate panel in September partially reversed the trial judge’s decision and granted access to the records in question.
Jersey City officials appealed to the state Supreme Court, arguing that the city needs guidance on how to protect expunged information when the public seeks it via the common law right of access. Attorney CJ Griffin, representing States Newsroom, argued that internal affairs files are not listed as records subject to expungement under state statute, and without the high court’s guidance, law enforcement agencies will continue to deny access to those records in violation of the court’s 2022 ruling. Griffin also represented police reformer Richard Rivera in the case that prompted that decision.
The justices agreed last week to certify the case for a hearing.
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