ALBANY — A federal magistrate on Tuesday ordered the city of Troy to turn over a 62-page internal affairs report to the attorneys for a woman whose husband was fatally shot by a police officer in the aftermath of a 2016 DWI traffic stop.

The report, which is dated Sept. 28, 2018, was never made public or disclosed to the attorneys for Cinthia Thevenin, whose federal lawsuit accuses the city and Sgt. Randall French of civil rights violations and other abuses that led to the shooting death of Edson Thevenin.

"Our position is they had an ongoing obligation to disclose the information, which they failed to meet," said Michael L. Rose, a Manhattan attorney for Cinthia Thevenin.

City officials, through their attorney, had objected to turning over the report to Thevenin's attorneys. They cited a 40-year-old state statute that allows police agencies to keep secret any records that are used to discipline or terminate a police officer for misconduct. It's unclear whether the internal report would qualify as a "personnel record" that was used to discipline an officer.

Troy police officials have never said whether any officers were disciplined in connection with the fatal shooting. They also have publicly supported French's use of deadly force as justifiable, claiming that he was pinned between Thevenin's revving Honda Civic and French's police cruiser when he fired the eight rounds that killed Thevenin.

But an attorney general's report issued in January 2018 called into question French's account of what unfolded, noting that witnesses and ballistics testing did not support his claim of being pinned between the vehicles when he opened fire. The report, and earlier news accounts, also confirmed that officers at the scene told at least two civilian witnesses to "get the f__ out of here" rather than taking their information and following up to interview them.

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Those witnesses, Keith Millington of Cohoes and Phillip Gross III of Troy, later gave statements contradicting French's account.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel J. Stewart, in a decision filed Tuesday in federal court, noted that John D. Aspland, the attorney for the city and French, was seeking to block disclosure of the report on the basis of a state law — section 50-a of state Civil Rights Law — that does not apply in a federal court proceeding.

"This investigative report concerns an incident which has already received extensive publicity; was the subject of a separate attorney general report that has been published; most or all of the witnesses mentioned in the report have already been deposed; and the facts covered by this report will be part of this court's upcoming summary judgment decision, which will be a public record," Stewart wrote.

The report's existence was recently revealed when a confidential source contacted an attorney for Cinthia Thevenin and told him about the report. It had been prepared by Joseph L. Centanni, a Troy police captain who heads the detective bureau and had also worked in internal affairs.

Aspland told the judge during a conference last week that he became aware of the internal affairs report after the attorneys for Cinthia Thevenin had asked for it.

"We are reviewing the court order internally," Aspland said Tuesday. "As this matter is currently being litigated ... I do not think it would be appropriate for me to comment."

Aspland declined to say whether any officers had been disciplined as a result of the internal affairs investigation. He cited the restrictions of section 50-a and referred questions on that issue to Troy police.

Troy police Chief Brian Owens, who was appointed to the department's top position seven months before the internal affairs report was issued last year, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The shooting incident has haunted the city for more than three years as new information continues to trickle out about the circumstances leading up to French's decision to open fire.

The attorney general's report indicated their office could not pursue any charges against French, if warranted, because former Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel E. Abelove had granted French immunity when the officer testified before the grand jury that cleared him of wrongdoing.

But the attorney general's office filed criminal charges against Abelove, accusing him of misconduct for his handling of the investigation and allegedly lying to a 2017 grand jury that investigated his actions. The attorney general's office has filed an appeal of a judge's decision dismissing criminal charges against Abelove, who lost re-election last year and is now in private practice.