HARTFORD, conn. — A prosecutor is planning to release a report Monday on the investigation into the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, but the public will have to wait longer for the state police’s full accounting of the crime.
The decision to continue withholding the bulk of the evidence is stirring criticism of the secrecy that has surrounded the probe since a gunman killed 20 children and six educators inside the school Dec. 14.
While the gunman took his own life and authorities are not contemplating any prosecutions, the lead investigator, State’s Attorney Stephen Sedensky III, has gone to court to fight the release of 911 tapes, consulted privately with victims’ families on what might be included in the report and resisted calls from Connecticut’s governor to divulge more information sooner.
In defense of their handling of records, investigators have cited the scale of the criminal investigation — perhaps the most extensive in Connecticut’s history — and consideration for the victims’ families, some of whom have lobbied for tighter restrictions on public information and complained of being harassed by conspiracy theorists.
Dan Klau, a Hartford lawyer who specializes in First Amendment law, said the decision to release a summary report before the full evidence file is a reversal of standard practice and one of the most unusual elements of an investigation marked by secrecy.
“What I found troubling about the approach of the state’s attorney is that from my perspective, he seems to have forgotten his job is to represent the state of Connecticut,” Klau said. “His conduct in many instances has seemed more akin to an attorney in private practice representing Sandy Hook families.”
Sedensky said he could not comment.
Mark Dupuis, a spokesman for Sedensky, said the summary to be released Monday will not include the state police report, which is expected to total thousands of pages. It was not clear when the full report would be released.
The gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, killed his mother inside their Newtown home before driving to his former elementary school and gunning down 26 people with a semi-automatic rifle. He killed himself with a handgun as police arrived.
So far, investigators have released little more than search warrants, which detailed an arsenal of weapons found inside the Lanza home.
The information that authorities have not revealed includes the timeline of the police response to the shooting, any mental health records for Lanza and whether investigators found any clues to a possible motive for the rampage.
