Current:Home > MyCourt rejects Connecticut officials’ bid to keep secret a police report on hospital patient’s death -Quantum Capital Pro
Court rejects Connecticut officials’ bid to keep secret a police report on hospital patient’s death
View
Date:2025-04-17 19:13:51
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Police reports about deaths and other incidents in public hospitals cannot be kept secret, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Tuesday, citing the importance of government transparency and the public’s right to know what happened.
A majority of the justices rejected an attempt by state officials to prevent the release of a police report about a patient who reportedly choked to death on food in 2016 while being restrained by staff members at Connecticut’s only maximum-security psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane.
State officials argued the report was confidential under the patient-psychiatrist privilege as well as under the federal medical privacy law, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA.
While the court majority acknowledged the harm that could result from publicly releasing a patient’s medical information, “we must also acknowledge the unfortunate and undeniable reality that governmental secrecy can be used to conceal governmental abuse, corruption, and neglect.”
Four justices joined the majority opinion, which ordered the release of the report with some patient information redacted. Chief Justice Richard Robinson, in a partial dissent, agreed the report should be released but believed more information should be made confidential. Two justices said the report should not be disclosed.
“The decision ensures that an untimely death which occurs when a patient is under the custody, control or care of a public institution will be investigated thoroughly and that the cause will not be shielded from public view,” said Colleen Murphy, executive director and general counsel of the state Freedom of Information Commission.
The state attorney general’s office, which argued against releasing the report, said Tuesday afternoon that it was working on a response to the ruling.
The legal case was sparked by a request under state public records law for the police report by Hartford Courant reporter Josh Kovner in 2017. Kovner, who died in 2020, requested the report from the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services and the agency’s police force.
The report is about the December 2016 death of a patient at the Whiting Forensic Hospital in Middletown, which is overseen by the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, or DMHAS. The hospital treats people acquitted of crimes by reason of insanity as well as other patients.
An agency spokesperson said Tuesday that DMHAS will be making administrative and policy changes as required by the court decision.
In the months after the patient’s death, Whiting Forensic would become ensnared in a scandal involving another patient who was abused numerous times by staff. The abuse led to the arrests of 10 employees, the firings of nearly three dozen workers and reforms at Whiting.
After the patient’s death, DHMAS said in a statement that the person died “due to a medical event.” The department denied the request for the police report, which the Courant appealed to the Freedom of Information Commission.
The commission determined the report was subject to public disclosure with no redactions and ordered DMHAS to release it. But the department appealed to Superior Court, where a judge ruled the report could be released, but with patient information blocked out. The department appealed again, leading to the state Supreme Court ruling.
In 2019, the Courant obtained records that showed the patient was choking on multiple fig bars and flailing their arms, leading staff to restrain him because they believed he was becoming aggressive. The records said staff did not identify or respond to the patient’s obstructed airway for nearly 2 1/2 minutes until a nurse ordered staff to release him so lifesaving measures could be performed.
Tuesday’s Supreme Court ruling “is an important step in the Hartford Courant’s pursuit of the truth,” the paper’s executive editor, Helen Bennett, said in an email to The Associated Press. “We will review this decision and then decide on what our next steps will be in the case.”
The patient was identified as 25-year-old Andrew Vermiglio, of North Haven, by the Courant and a 2019 investigation report by the nonprofit group Disability Rights Connecticut.
veryGood! (3362)
Related
- Whoopi Goldberg is delightfully vile as Miss Hannigan in ‘Annie’ stage return
- Former Colorado officer gets probation for putting woman in police vehicle that was hit by a train
- Gunmen kill a member of Iran’s paramilitary force and wound 3 others on protest anniversary
- Tom Brady applauds Shedeur Sanders going 'Brady mode' to lead Colorado to rivalry win
- Backstage at New York's Jingle Ball with Jimmy Fallon, 'Queer Eye' and Meghan Trainor
- Dodgers win NL West for 10th time in 11 seasons
- Hollywood strikes enter a new phase as daytime shows like Drew Barrymore’s return despite pickets
- 2 pilots killed after their planes collided upon landing at air races in Reno, Nevada
- Charges tied to China weigh on GM in Q4, but profit and revenue top expectations
- NYC day care owner, neighbor arrested after 1-year-old dies and 3 others are sickened by opioids
Ranking
- Jamie Foxx gets stitches after a glass is thrown at him during dinner in Beverly Hills
- Tom Brady applauds Shedeur Sanders going 'Brady mode' to lead Colorado to rivalry win
- Bill Gate and Ex Melinda Gates Reunite to Celebrate Daughter Phoebe's 21st Birthday
- Drew Barrymore postpones her show’s new season launch until after the Hollywood strikes resolve
- Meta donates $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund
- Man shot by police dies following car chase in Rhode Island, teen daughter wounded
- A Fracker in Pennsylvania Wants to Take 1.5 Million Gallons a Day From a Small, Biodiverse Creek. Should the State Approve a Permit?
- Dominican Republic closes all borders with Haiti as tensions rise in a dispute over a canal
Recommendation
Jorge Ramos reveals his final day with 'Noticiero Univision': 'It's been quite a ride'
Timeline leading to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s acquittal in his impeachment trial
Incarcerated students win award for mental health solution
Billy Miller, The Young & the Restless and General Hospital Star, Dead at 43
B.A. Parker is learning the banjo
Poison ivy is poised to be one of the big winners of a warming world
'Wait Wait' for September 16, 2023: With Not My Job guest Hillary Rodham Clinton
Tom Brady applauds Shedeur Sanders going 'Brady mode' to lead Colorado to rivalry win