Buffalo, NY --- The Law Office of Stephanie Adams, PLLC, is proud to represent James Kistner in his fight for his rights under the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL). On Monday, August 17, the office filed a Motion to Intervene in Buffalo Police Benevolent Association et al vs. Byron Brown et al, a case filed by local police and fire unions to stop the release of disciplinary records under the newly passed New York State legislation that repealed Article 50a.
Article 50a had prevented plaintiffs, journalists, activists, and anyone else seeking to investigate or redress harm by police officers from obtaining investigative and disciplinary records from police departments. Under the repeal of 50a, many of those records, with redactions for privacy and health information, would be accessible via the FOIL request process. The PBA suit seeks to keep those records confidential, despite the new legislation and its stated goals.
"The repeal of the law that was barring access, plus the added access and protections in FOIL means Mr. Kistner, and any person making a FOIL request, should have access to law enforcement agency disciplinary records," said firm owner Stephanie "Cole" Adams.
"The unions' position that the newfound access under FOIL violates their contracts is backwards," says Adams. "Due to the changes to FOIL, the public is now clearly entitled to records related to complaints about officers' alleged behavior. You cannot enforce a contract provision that requires breaking the law."
James Kistner has a pending FOIL request to the City of Buffalo/Buffalo Police Department, for materials relevant for an ongoing civil rights case based on reported police misconduct. On New Year’s Day, 2017, on Buffalo’s East Side, Kistner was struck by one police vehicle as he approached a second police vehicle in order to ask officers why they had visited a nearby rental property he owns. Kistner also lives in the area where the incident took place and had security footage from his own cameras showing the events that occurred. Kistner filed suit in 2018; the enforcement of 50a repeal is crucial to his case.
"My client is entitled, like any other person in New York, to request and, after any redaction required by law, receive copies of these records. This is a matter of legal compliance, as well as the ability of my client to access information relevant to his police misconduct case," Adams said.
The attached Attorney Affirmation and Memorandum of Law detail the case for enforcing 50a repeal, and for allowing Kistner to become a part of this case so he can fight for his own rights, and those of many similarly situated citizens.
The case is scheduled to be heard before Hon. Frank A. Sedita on Wednesday, August 26.