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.
Under police guard??? How'd the cops allow that woman to walk up to the front door just a few feet away???
And why would that be??? There could have been someone hiding in that vehicle or someone locked in the trunk or a bomb in it.
Furthermore 13 officers responded to the scene that morning. While some were chasing the guy into the woods, others were entering the schoo,l and still others were searching the car.
It's a multi-tasking taskforce capable of multiple operations at the same time -- especially with 13 officers at your immediate disposal. BTW the vehicle was not random but parked 20 feet from the ientrance in a No Parking Zone [picture at #187]
Because at that time they were all in the school trying to find the shooter and take him down. That's not too hard to figure out.
Something definitely is weird regarding these events. The whole thing seems to have been purposefully clouded, and made impossible to fully understand. I smell the Obama administration and Eric Holder on this one. Just like Benghazi, the Sandy Hook facts seemed to evolve and change. If there was a conspiracy here, and I believe there was, it began after the killings when the Obama administration saw the opportunity to exploit the horrible event to further their socialist/fascist agenda. The truth will likely never be known, but it is easy to who is attempting to benefit from the deaths of the children. Obama and the left are a bunch of vile, reprehensible bastards.
Wow -- you typed that question just seconds after typing this one:
According to Uncle Chip, the police had searched the vehicle while the gunshots are going off in the school.
You just answered your own question.
Obviously not. You're wrong again.
Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, connected to the entire Sandy Hook Scandal has been proven to be a liar, phony, imposter, fraud, faker, charlatan, thug or all of the above.
ALL of the "grieving Sandy Hook people" are frauds and liars. From their fake crying to their inappropriate happy stories," it's all bullsh!t. ALL OF IT. Only a fool believes what these liars are saying.
No way in h@ll is that guy a Reagan Conservative with common sense.
Yeah, Chip. I am calling you out.
You just said there was a guard at the car a few feet from the front door...And the lady in the video says someone escorted her and the other lady to safety...Now you say they were all in the school...Can't be both now, can it...
Agree with your questions that still have yet to be answered, and will throw in the fact that none of the non-verbal or emotional responses from the “grieving families” is believable or genuine.
She was at that front door when the shooter was still shooting and the police were still inside trying to take him down. There was obviously no police at the entrance at that time since they were all needed inside as they had a live shooting scene with 500 kids' lives at stake.
And on guy on one of these 'conspiracy videos' that I posted keeps asking a question to which no one will answer...
There were cops and the news media all day long at this school...Helicopters with cameras as well...There were supposedly over 600 kids in that school...
Why is there not any camera footage of 600 kids being herded out of the school...Not even a hundred kids...Not even 20...Why not???
I didn't say that they started guarding it when they all got on the scene. They clearly searched it and found the shotgun and then went into the school.
Did you think they were going to stop at the car and put up the yellow tape and have a picnic there while there was still a live shooting scene in the school???
Cmon, Iscool, you got better sense than that.
You said there was someone guarding the car a few feet away...Gotta make up your mind...
Because they were all kept after school for for not finishing their lessons for the day.
What a moronic question. There is plenty of news coverage and photos of kids coming down that road not in a big herd but a class at a time to meet their parents at the firehouse.
Now, that said, which is it? Why would the early morning police radio chatter indicate that a shotgun was being used in the school when they didn't pull it out of the trunk that night?
Also, why did the coroner indicate that all children were killed with 5.56 ammo after the police told the media that Lanza used 4 handguns in the rampage?
You gotta pay attention and try to keep up and try to fill in your own blanks at times. I know it's hard.
And according to the dispatch timeline, the last shot were heard around 9:46 and 7 minutes later, the entire school had been ‘cleared’...Those guys were unbelievably quick...
Yeah, something like 12 kids, who are told to keep their eyes shut...
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