Sun Sentinel, Miami Herald sue FDLE and prosecutors
Investigators and prosecutors must release hundreds of pages of interview transcripts related to the Parkland school shooting or risk violating the state’s public records law, attorneys for the South Florida Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald argued in court papers filed late Monday.
The news organizations say the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which conducted 191 interviews, or the Broward State Attorney’s Office, which obtained them as part of the case against Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooter Nikolas Cruz, are “unlawfully and improperly denying access to the records and should be ordered immediately to release them.”
The interviews are tangential to the criminal case — FDLE’s goal was related to identifying “system failures” before and during the shooting, including questions about law enforcement training and the emergency response to the tragedy as it unfolded. The interviews were conducted for the Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Commission, a statewide task force charged with making recommendations to avoid a repeat of the shooting, which claimed 17 lives.
Under Florida law, police agencies and prosecutors are not required to release information that is part of an active criminal investigation. Information that is provided to criminal defense lawyers becomes a public record, but even then prosecutors are required to withhold certain portions, including confessions.
But attorneys for the newspaper argue that the “active criminal investigation” exemptions do Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz is after a recent hearing.
price that was offset by two federal grants totaling $3.5 million for electric buses.
The bus being used on Route 110 Monday will be used again Wednesday when passengers on Route 114 become test riders for the 6:10 a.m. departure from the BB&T Center Park and Ride that travels to Miami’s Culmer Metrorail Station.
Additionally, the electric bus will be on display Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the west side of Broward’s Governmental Center, 115 S. Andrews Avenue in Fort Lauderdale.