Posted on 01/25/2013 9:12:50 AM PST by RummyChick
HARTFORD -- The prosecutor investigating the Newtown school massacre told a new panel Thursday not to expect a final report on the Dec. 14 slaughter anytime soon.
Danbury State's Attorney Stephen J. Sedensky III announced that while no criminal prosecution seems likely to emerge from the mass murder and suicide, he wants to suppress much of the evidence from the public anyway.
"This is an ongoing criminal investigation, for which I have obtained extensions of time from the Superior Court to keep documents sealed, so that the investigation may continue unencumbered by distractions," Sedensky said.
"The rules of professional responsibility for prosecutors require that I take steps to prevent publicity that would have a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing a potential prosecution," he said.
In a brief appearance before Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's 16-member Sandy Hook Advisory Commission, Sedensky said that he expects the State Police report on the shootings to be several months away.
"Of course, if the investigation reveals that there should be a criminal prosecution, then that prosecution would take precedence over any report," Sedensky told the panel of municipal officials, mental health experts, security professionals and social-service providers.
"Though no such prosecution currently appears on the horizon, I am sure you can appreciate that all leads need to be investigated and evidence examined before final decisions and statements are made," he said.
He offered to meet privately with a representative of the advisory panel to provide information that he might not release to the public.
Sedensky said that during the first week after the shootings, federal, state and local police worked around the clock investigating the crime scenes at Sandy Hook Elementary School, at the 36 Yogananda St. home of Nancy Lanza, whose son Adam, 20, murdered her before driving her car to the school, and elsewhere.
It will be months before a report is released.
"We are hoping for some time this summer, perhaps in June," said Sedensky, a Newtown resident, adding that details on the mental health of Adam Lanza, are protected from disclosure under privacy regulations and might not be able to be provided to the commission.
Bill Ritter, the former governor of Colorado whose district attorney of Denver investigated the aftermath of the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, told the panel the nation is watching.
"You could wind up saving lives at some point in the future," said Ritter, who later became governor and became a target for a deranged gunman who was shot and killed by a state trooper outside his office. "Healing can happen" but it can be a long-term process.
Richard Bonnie, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law who was an adviser to the Virginia Tech Review Panel following that 2007 shooting, warned that legislation and regulatory changes can be affected by emotions.
"Tragedy can compromise thoughtful policy making," he said from Virginia.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, in the panel's first meeting Thursday morning, said that the consequence that seems to be separating Newtown from other mass shootings is that momentum for a positive outcome to the crime seems to be gaining every day, not fading.
"We must take a serious look at public safety, particularly school safety, so our children can grow up and go to school without the fear of violence in a culture that does in fact glorify violence," Malloy said.
"We need to have a discussion about stopping that," Malloy said. "The recommendations you will craft over the coming weeks and months will no doubt take us toward that goal: better mental health, better safety in our schools and a system that is set up to stop the glorification of the violence."
Later in the afternoon, after Sedensky's testimony, Malloy, a former prosecutor, was asked by reporters about the reticence to release more details of the shooting.
"I think there's always this situation where a prosecutor is trying to make the right balance," Malloy said.
"This was an attack so outrageous, in the killing of 20 six-year-olds that in many ways it's going to have an imprint, the likes of which I can remember where I was, in the classroom, when someone came in to say President Kennedy was shot," Malloy said. "I think this is that kind of event. So I think he needs to take the time necessary to conclude the investigation. Having said that, I would hope that as little time is necessary. It's more important to get it right than to rush out a report."
On Friday morning, a legislative subcommittee looking into issues of school security after the Sandy Hook shootings will hold a public hearing starting at 9:30 a.m. in Room 2-C of the Legislative Office Building in Hartford.
What I can’t understand is that the shooting happened early in the morning, yet it is after dark when they search the trunk of the car. That just does’nt make seanse.
You are claiming. I posted your post that says .223 casings.
And it is very interesting that the poster who claims his friend knows all about guns now is going into hiding when the question of whether it was really 5.56
5.56 is NOT THE SAME as .223
Law Enforcement should know the difference between 5.56 and .223
So now you are going into hiding after claiming that the scene was littered with 5.56 ammo????? You said your friend knew guns.
So either he was right or he was wrong.
Possibly they waited on a search warrant.
There is a search warrant for cars that is sealed. I don’t remember if it included this one.
What is just as weird is the scene in Hoboken.
Check out these two pics.
what’s the tank like thing
http://www.newsday.com/topics/Hoboken
and why is Ryan Lanza’s whole apartment cordoned off that night
http://www.demotix.com/newtown-shooting
The police searched the car just before entering the school. A mother is interviewed here and tells of seeing the doors of the vehicle opened and things strewn about outside the car. I’m sure that search included the trunk where they found the shotgun.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptbd6qRY358
AGAIN, there is nothing that says that car was searched.
There were items that look like clergy outfits outside of the car.
Open doors does not mean the police searched it. The items were not close to the car like they had just been thrown out during a search.
Ryan could have left the doors open
Only if he was Flash with a split split personality.
I think you have slandered people enough for one day.
Yes, I have seen that video and I believe the police probably did search the car before or shortly after entering the school. However, it seems that they should have secured the weapon at the time they found it and not hours later. Perhaps they did not search the trunk at the time of their arrival on the scene, and that oversight did not occur to them later.
First off all, you don’t even know the difference between slander and libel.
Secondly, WHO???
Oh btw, they had to get a search warrant for the car in front of the School. Dated Dec 14th. And it is sealed.
Are you really sure they had the right to search the car when they happened on the scene.
Who owns the car?
The police didn’t stop the car.
The police didn’t know the circumstances surrounding the car.
They can glance in the car to see if there is anyone in it or any guns laying around.
But really search it as shots are being fired???
Don’t be so sure they had the right to search it even if they wanted to.
The night time search of the trunk is probably because they waited on the warrant.
Review helicopter shots during the day. See anyone searching the car????
I’m sure they searched it before entering the school because the shotgun is mentioned on the police dispatch along with the rifle 15 minutes after they got there.
In the tape that shows them in the trunk in the dark, they are emptying the chamber and clearing the shells and then the csi tech takes the shotgun out and with him. So they weren’t in the trunk at that time just finding it but to take it with them back to the lab.
Just for understanding searches since some people here think Law enforcement can search anything they want anytime they want...
An Oregon case said:
You can’t search a vehicle under the auto exception when it is parked, immmobile and unoccupied at the time the police encounter it during a crime.
I don’t know what the deal is in the Sandy Hook State but you can’t just pretend that the cops can search anything without knowing the State Law.
Here is another example for those that think cops can search anywhere anytime.
There is a case where a guy shot a cop and killed him in his apartment in Arizona.
Cops spent 4 days in the apartment on a warrantless search. They claimed the murder scene exemption.
Court threw out the evidence.
So just don’t assume that the cops can legally search a car just because you think they can.
For it to be as dark as it was when the police were in the trunk of the car unloading the gun, at least 10 hours or so had gone by. It would not take ten hours to get a warrant. I just want to know why they were just searching the trunk and finding the gun that long after the shooting, or why they waited so long to secure the weapon as evidence after they had found it earlier. The police waiting until after dark to collect evidence that would have been more clearly viewed by the public during daylight raises a red flag with me.
The car being searched, the one with the shotgun was not Lanza's car...
That whole story sounds hoaky...
According to Uncle Chip, the police had searched the vehicle while the gunshots are going off in the school...I find it odd that someone would search a random vehicle while there is scores of gunshots going off inside the school...
And then this lady comes up, checks the car out and then walks up to the door where the murderer supposedly broke in only to see another lady standing there...How would the cops let anyone walk up to the door??? Are we to believe that the cops searched the car and then left the scene at the front of the school while gunshots are being heard inside??? And then the lady says someone escorted her to safety...Now that's a weird story...
That wasn't Lanza's car...You will notice that the passenger side of Lanza's car is facing the school...You will also notice one of the helicopter shots was from the passenger side of the vehicle...You will also notice that between Lanza's car and the school there are no trees...Then, you may notice that on one of the helicopter shots, the trees are blocking a clear view of the trunk of the car with the shotgun in it...Not the same car...
<>I just want to know why they were just searching the trunk and finding the gun that long after the shooting, or why they waited so long to secure the weapon as evidence after they had found it earlier.<>
The answer to your two questions is in the picture posted at #186.
The car had already been searched and the shotgun found. Note the black sweatshirts strewn on the ground inside the yellow tape. Those had been inside the car and thrown out in the search, thus this advisory to dispatch from the scene:
9:55:25: Be advised, we have multiple weapons. One rifle and a shotgun
http://nhregister.com/articles/2012/12/14/news/doc50cc0897adc1a203744261.txt?viewmode=default
And note the yellow tape. Everything within that tape had been later marked off and secured as part of the crime scene under police guard. How much more secure could it have been????
And since it is part of the crime scene, nothing inside that yellow tape gets moved until it is noted, photographed, logged, then collected for processing by evidence techs in white suits.
It likely took them that long to make a connection to an accomplice and finally get the warrant for that second car...
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