The public’s right to know is facing a collision with young people’s ability not to have court cases follow them around for life.
A legislative change would bar police from releasing identifying information about the initial arrest of a person under age 19 in most cases.
The bill, S.107, would allow for release of initial arrest information of those 19 and younger only if they are charged as adults and with any “Big 12” offenses, such as murder, sexual assault and aggravated assault.
However, under the bill, other crimes involving people under age 19 that could send them to juvenile proceedings in family court — including motor vehicle crashes in which someone was killed — would be protected from release. That age threshold would increase to 20 next year, when the age limit increases for juvenile proceedings in family court.
The bill has passed both the Senate and the House, and is going back to the Senate for consideration of a change the House made in the legislation last week.
Sen. Jeanette White, D-Windham, said the legislation “clarifies” that names should not be released at the point of initial arrest of people under a certain age. It doesn’t make sense for police to disclose the arrested person’s name if the case is going to family court, where juvenile proceedings are secret, said White, a sponsor of the bill.
The bill allows release of those names for matters that would affect “public safety.”
“If we know that John Smith is running around with a gun and has threatened to shoot everybody in town,” White said, “clearly they’re going to put out information about John Smith, whether he has been arrested initially or not, because it’s a public safety issue.”
White is chair of the Senate Committee on Government Operations, where the bill was first taken up.
Sen. Brian Collamore, R-Rutland, cast the lone dissenting vote when the committee recommended approval of the bill on a 4-1 vote.
He said if people are old enough to drive on the highways at 16, they should also be responsible if “things turn bad” and they cause a fatal crash.
“I think it ought to be released to the public and you ought to be responsible for your actions,” he said.
Crash in Charlotte
The bill follows a fatal crash last year in which a teenage driver crossed into oncoming traffic on Route 7 in Charlotte, crashing into a vehicle headed the other way and killing the Ferrisburgh couple inside it.
Conflicts and uncertainty over the law raised in that case prompted state police to stop releasing the names of juveniles arrested — including those facing motor vehicle charges — to give the state time to sort out the matter.
In a Sept. 11 email, Col. Matthew Birmingham, director of the Vermont State Police, informed staff about the change, noting that the commissioner’s office “became aware of potential conflicting statutory and policy guidance related to the release of juvenile information” earlier that day.
“At the direction of the commissioner, please put a temporary hold on releasing any personal identifying information on juveniles,” Birmingham wrote, noting an exception for when a juvenile has been charged with a crime as an adult.
More recently, in a fatal one-car crash in Putney last month, Vermont State Police did not release the identity of the juvenile driver charged with drunken driving with death resulting, nor the teenage passenger killed in the crash.
At least two media outlets, WCAX-TV and the Brattleboro Reformer, identified the 16-year-old killed in the crash as Jada Marie Spaulding Doyle, a student at Bellows Falls Union High School. An obituary published in The Keene (N.H.) Sentinel confirmed that she’d been killed in the crash.
For decades, the names of teenage drivers involved in accidents, including fatal crashes, had been disclosed. Last year, Vermont Public Safety Commissioner Michael Schirling halted that practice because the case could wind up in juvenile court, where proceedings are secret.
Asked why state police did not release the name of either the driver or passenger in the Putney crash, Schirling pointed to state laws.
One law, 317(c)(5)(D), states in part, “a public agency shall not reveal information that could be used to facilitate the commission of a crime or the identity of a private individual who is a witness to or victim of a crime, unless withholding the identity or information would conceal government wrongdoing.”
In addition, he pointed to 33 VSA 5117 (a), which deals with records of juvenile court proceedings. A section of that law that reads, “Except as otherwise provided, court and law enforcement reports and files concerning a person subject to the jurisdiction of the court shall be maintained separate from the records and files of other persons.
And unless a juvenile case is brought in adult court, “such records and files shall not be open to public inspection nor their contents disclosed to the public by any person.”
Asked if he supported S.107, Schirling replied in an email, ”We have been clear that our role is simply to highlight the existing challenges in statute and the operating environment to help inform the Legislature’s consideration of the policy issues.”
Two sets of standards
The Vermont Press Association testified against S.107, according to Michael Donoghue, the organization’s executive director.
“We’re not interested in reporting on the name of somebody throwing a rock through the plate-glass window in a store,” Donoghue said, but the public does have an interest in major incidents involving charges related to certain crimes.
For example, he said the legislation creates one set of standards for those under a certain age on the highways and another set for adults.
“It does seem to make sense for one standard for all on the highway,” Donoghue said.
Civil tickets for violations such as speeding are public for all drivers through the Vermont Judicial Bureau.
Donoghue said he was taken aback when state police did not release the name of the passenger in the fatal Putney crash.
Donoghue, a veteran reporter who has worked in Vermont for decades, said he could remember only one instance a couple of years ago where state police refused to provide the name of a juvenile passenger killed in a crash. Facing pushback, the agency later released it.
“The state police have stretched the gag order” by withholding names of teen passengers killed in crashes, Donoghue said.
Donoghue said the death certificate is public, the victim’s name in the Putney crash was spray-painted on the road at the scene, and a memorial had also been set up.
“It wasn’t like people didn’t know who the person was,” he said.
