Around New England

Judge To DAs: Fork Over Records

November 30, 2018

A judge has ordered the district attorneys of Worcester County, Plymouth County, and the Cape and Islands to turn over records concerning the cases they prosecuted to a newspaper that requested them.

The Suffolk Superior Court judge rejected the district attorneys’ argument that the records are protected by attorney-client privilege. The judge also rejected an argument that a law that protects the privacy of convicts prevented making the records public.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey brought a lawsuit against the district attorneys after they refused a demand from the supervisor of records in the Massachusetts Secretary of State’s office to turn them over.

The newspaper that requested the records, The Boston Globe, has already received similar records from district attorneys covering eight other jurisdictions in the state, according to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.

Worcester County’s district attorney, Joseph D. Early Jr., is considering an appeal.