About the Case
Along with co-counsel Daniel Klau, the Clinic represents Charlie Graeber, a journalist who is working on a documentary about the case of an unsolved murder of a Yale student in 1998. In fall 2016, Graeber filed a series of requests under Connecticut’s Freedom of Information Act seeking access to files pertinent to the investigation of the murder held by a number of law enforcement agencies.
In response, most of the agencies claimed their records were exempt from disclosure because releasing them might jeopardize a future law enforcement action. Graeber appealed to the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission, and in April 2017, MFIA students appeared at the hearing, which was recorded and televised. Students handled the direct examination of our client as well as cross examination of the government’s five witnesses in a hearing that stretched over four hours.
In September 2017, the Freedom of Information Commission adopted a decision permitting the law enforcement agencies to withhold all records concerning th investigation.