SAN FRANCISCO (Legal Newsline) - Parents of a San Mateo police officer who question the coroner’s conclusion that he died by suicide can obtain the entire investigative file into his death, a California appeals ruled, reversing a trial judge’s decision allowing some of those records to be withheld.
Munir Edais died by hanging on Jan. 21, 2020. The day before he had called his sister and told her he intended to confront his wife of six months, Eman, about his suspicions she had been unfaithful. Police found his body at their apartment after Eman called 911. The San Mateo Coroner declared his death a suicide.
A forensic analyst hired by Munir’s parents, Mustafa and Majeda, said he heard a whispered voice in the background of the 911 call, however. Suspicious, they filed a public records request for “all DOCUMENTS received or generated by, or currently in the possession of,” the coroner’s office.
The coroner declined to provide photographs of the scene or the autopsy and declined to provide the full investigative report, saying Eman hadn’t consented to its release. A trial judge concluded that the parents had only asked for specific documents, including photographs, and ordered those released. But the judge refused to order other materials released, citing exceptions under California public records law.
California’s First Appellate District Court of Appeal called that an error, in a Jan. 17 decision.
“We see no basis for concluding that by calling out specific documents of particular relevance, petitioners have abandoned the broader aspects of their Claim or their CPRA request," the decision says.
The coroner’s office can withhold documents that would “constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy” unless public interest requires it, the court observed. “The public interest in correctly distinguishing suicide from homicide is patent,” court went on. “It justifies even compromising the confidentiality of a patient’s medical records.”
The U.S. Supreme Court blocked the release of death-scene photographs from the investigation into Vincent Foster’s suicide, but that was under a different public records law. The California Supreme Court took a more liberal view of state law, however, for example ordering the release of records showing public employees who earned more than $100,000 a year over the objection of their union.
“We accordingly conclude that the public interest in disclosing the Investigation Report—which will facilitate a forensic review that directly bears on how well the Coroner’s Office has performed its duties—outweighs any individual privacy interest,” the court concluded.