Court asked to unseal Lanza warrants

DANBURY -- An attorney representing The News-Times is asking court officials to reconsider their decision to shield from public view the search warrant affidavits for the cars and home of Sandy Hook massacre gunman Adam Lanza and his mother.

While saying there are unlikely to be any arrests in the case, State's Attorney Stephen Sedensky argued last month that the documents should remain sealed for the next three months to allow detectives to work on the investigation, "unencumbered by distractions."

Attorney Stephen Yuhan said in a letter sent to Judge John Blawie that the prosecutor gave no information about how the investigation would be compromised if the documents were released to the public.

"We feel strongly that it is in the public's interest to know what's in these documents," said Barbara T. Roessner, executive editor of Hearst Connecticut Media Group, of which The News-Times is a member.

The News-Times was joined in the request by The New York Times, The Washington Post Co., The Associated Press, and The Journal News of Putnam, Westchester and Rockland counties in New York.

Sedensky said in a motion filed last month to have documents sealed that any release of the information would "jeopardize the investigation and any chances of solving any crimes involved."

Sedensky also said in his motion that releasing sensitive information could identify people cooperating with the investigation, "possibly jeopardizing their personal safety."

The prosecutor declined to elaborate on the request Monday except to say the court felt it was appropriate.

"The court considered our request to seal the warrants and decided that our request was appropriate," Sedensky said.

Yuhan, however, argued that simply because a case is open and still under investigation doesn't give law enforcement officials the right to seal the documents under state law.

"The plain language of (state law) ... indicates than an open investigation, without more, is not sufficient grounds for continued sealing," the attorney said in the letter sent to Blawie last Thursday.

Yuhan added there are several reasons why releasing the information would not hamper the investigation, including Sedensky's own comments that no arrests in the case are anticipated.

Yuhan said the reason the state sought the search warrants is "neither secret" from the public "nor difficult to discern."

The five search warrant affidavits include three for the Yogananda Street home where the 20-year-old Lanza fatally shot his mother, Nancy, four times in the face on the morning of Dec. 14 before embarking on the rampage that left 20 first-graders and six educators dead.

The sealing order also covers the search warrants for the 2010 Honda Civic that Adam Lanza drove to the school and for Nancy Lanza's 2009 silver BMW, which was parked in the garage attached to the home.

If the order sealing the documents for 90 days had not been granted, the affidavits -- along with an inventory of evidence seized by investigators -- would be publicly available.

dperrefort@newstimes.com; 203-731-3358; www.twitter.com/DirkPerrefort