A BLUE WALL IN KILLING

Fight on Ramarley files

LAWYERS FOR THE city and the family of an unarmed teen shot and killed by police in 2012 will face off in court Wednesday over investigation records the NYPD is keeping secret.

Oral arguments in the Freedom of Information Law case the family of 18-year-old Ramarley Graham filed are slated for Supreme Court .

Some of the documents were introduced as evidence in the departmental trial of Officer Richard Haste, who fired the fatal bullet in the encounter in Graham’s Bronx home in February 2012. Haste quit the force before a verdict was issued.

Even though those records were introduced in open court before the public, the NYPD still refused to release any of them.

“The Police Department really threw the kitchen sink at the family’s FOIL request,” said their lawyer, Gideon Oliver. “They are refusing to disclose anything.”

In rejecting the request, the department cited section 50-a of the state civil rights law, which the city has interpreted as barring the release of all personnel records for safety reasons. That position, which began in 2016, flies in the face of previous department practice, as well as the intent of the freedom of information statute.