file photo by Boyd Loving
By S.P. Sullivan | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on August 31, 2016 at 5:33 PM, updated September 01, 2016 at 8:15 AM
TRENTON — A state appeals court ruled on Wednesday that government officials don’t necessarily have to acknowledge the existence of a record when refusing to release it.
The three-judge panel sided with prosecutors in Bergen County, who responded to a request from a news organization by saying they could “neither confirm nor deny” they had documents related to a possible criminal case.
The court agreed that in some cases, even acknowledging a record exists can divulge sensitive information. The so-called Glomar response, originally invoked by the federal government in a matter of national security, has been finding its way into state courts in recent years, a trend free press advocates have called troubling.
At issue in Wednesday’s decision was a request made by the Community News, a weekly newspaper in northern New Jersey, for records held by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office regarding an individual who had been accused of sexual abuse but never criminally charged.
