Middlesex DA Defends Withholding Part Of Critical Jared Remy Case Review
BOSTON (CBS) – Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan is defending her decision to withhold 19 pages of a report that said she mishandled the Jared Remy case.
One year ago Remy was arrested for assaulting his girlfriend Jennifer Martel in their Waltham apartment.
He was released on personal recognizance despite a long history of domestic violence.
The next day, Martel was murdered.
In May, Remy pleaded guilty to killing Martel and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
When she came under fire at the time of Martel's murder for letting Remy go, Ryan commissioned an independent review. At the time the review was launched Ryan said, "There were things that could have been done differently, should have been done differently."
"This is my life's work," she added. "There is no way that something like this happens that you don't feel the weight of that loss."
When the case was closed with Remy's guilty plea, the report based on the review was made public. The report released was 16 pages long.
It was first reported in the Boston Globe that the DA withheld an additional 19 pages that include interviews with her staff and others. That decision may have violated the state's open records law.
Standing by her decision, Ryan told WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Bernice Corpuz Friday that "what I released was released voluntarily."
Ryan said that to publicly disseminate candid interviews of employees "didn't serve any value as to the public safety."
The DA also withheld the report's table of contents, so no one could know the report was incomplete.
Ryan, who is up for re-election, said she believes she was not obligated to release the entire document earlier this year and added that her office has been very transparent about the case.
Her opponent in the DA's race, Michael Sullivan, calls Ryan's' decision arrogant and illegal.
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