Dear Asbury Park City,

Please accept this electronic request for public records made under OPRA and the common law right of access. I am not required to fill out an official form or use a particular software platform to submit my request per NJSA 47:1A-5(f), which states that an email from a requestor including all of the information required on the adopted form shall suffice in place of a completed form as a valid government record request.

I HAVE NOT been convicted of any indictable offense under the laws of New Jersey, any other state, or the United States.

I WILL NOT use the requested government records for a commercial purpose.

I AM NOT seeking records in connection with a legal proceeding.

Records requested:

Under the New Jersey Open Public Records Act, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq., and separately under the common-law right of access, I request the following existing records concerning the October 9, 2014 reported assault/stabbing and injury involving then-Lt. David J. DeSane, reportedly occurring at or near 1248 Washington Avenue in Asbury Park at approximately 10:00 p.m.

1. Spillman Incident / Case Identification

Please provide the Spillman incident/case number assigned to this occurrence, together with any related, linked, cross-referenced, or subsequently created Spillman incident/case numbers.

Please also provide any existing Spillman case-history, case-activity, report-index, supplemental-report index, case-status history, case-assignment history, or equivalent record identifying reports and supplements associated with the incident.

2. Initial Police Reports and Complete Report Tree

Please provide the complete initial incident/offense report and every report associated with the incident/case number, including all narratives, continuation pages, supplemental reports, attachments, investigative reports, follow-up reports, case-status reports, investigative summaries, and case-closing/disposition reports.

3. Reports or Statements Authored by David J. DeSane

Please provide every report, narrative, statement, supplemental report, continuation, memorandum, written account, or other report authored, submitted, dictated, adopted, or signed by David J. DeSane concerning this incident, including any record in which DeSane described:

how the incident allegedly occurred;
where it occurred;
how he sustained his injury;
the person or persons allegedly responsible;
the description of either alleged suspect;
the alleged physical struggle;
the alleged weapon or manner of assault;
the suspects' alleged flight; or
events immediately before or after the reported incident.

4. Detective and Investigative Reports

Please provide all reports authored by the assigned detective(s) or investigator(s), including Detective Daniel Kowsaluk, and all subsequent investigative reports, supplemental reports, follow-up reports, investigative summaries, case-status reports, and case-closing/disposition reports.

This includes reports authored by any other APPD officer, detective, supervisor, evidence officer, crime-scene officer, or investigator concerning the incident or subsequent investigation.

5. Suspect Descriptions / BOLO Information

Please provide existing reports or records containing descriptions of either alleged suspect, including reported race, sex, approximate age, height, weight, clothing, physical characteristics, weapons, direction of flight, or other identifying information reportedly supplied by DeSane or another witness.

This includes BOLOs, wanted-person notices, intelligence bulletins, suspect sheets, investigative bulletins, or equivalent records generated from the reported incident.

6. Witnesses, Canvasses and Investigative Leads

Please provide existing witness statements, victim/officer statements, interview reports, neighborhood canvass reports, documented investigative leads, follow-up interviews, photographic-identification documentation, and reports memorializing attempts to identify or locate the alleged assailant(s).

7. CAD / Communications Records

Please provide the complete CAD/dispatch event associated with this incident, including:

CAD event number;
event chronology;
call comments;
unit assignments;
unit status history;
timestamps;
locations entered into CAD;
disposition;
related-event numbers; and
any existing CAD audit/history showing additions or modifications to the event.

Please also provide any police-radio, dispatch, 9-1-1, telephone, or communications recordings associated with the incident that remain maintained by the City, together with any existing recording index identifying recordings that previously existed.

8. Photographs, Video and Physical Evidence Records

Please provide existing:

scene photographs;
injury photographs maintained as part of the police investigation;
photographs of clothing or physical evidence;
surveillance video collected during the investigation;
photographic logs;
property/evidence reports;
evidence submission forms;
evidence inventories;
chain-of-custody records;
evidence disposition/destruction records;
crime-scene processing reports;
forensic submission records; and
laboratory submission/result reports.

I am requesting law-enforcement investigative records and photographs maintained by APPD, not DeSane's confidential hospital chart or private medical records.

9. EMS / Transport Administrative Information

Please provide existing police, CAD, dispatch, or other non-medical governmental records reflecting:

when EMS was requested;
where EMS was dispatched;
where the patient was encountered or picked up;
time of EMS arrival;
time of transport;
destination hospital, if reflected in a non-confidential responsive record; and
related incident/event numbers.

I am not requesting diagnosis, treatment information, medical history, physician records, hospital charts, or other confidential medical information. Such information may be redacted while producing reasonably segregable non-medical information.

10. Line-of-Duty / Injury Administrative Records

Please provide existing non-medical administrative records identifying:

whether the incident was classified as a line-of-duty injury;
date, time and reported location of injury;
reported mechanism/cause of injury;
date the injury was reported;
identity/title of the person receiving or approving the report;
first report of injury or equivalent administrative form;
supervisor injury/accident report;
workers' compensation claim number and administrative status, to the extent publicly disclosable; and
records identifying whether the injury was accepted or recorded as occurring while on duty.

Medical diagnoses, treatment information and other legitimately confidential medical information may be redacted.

11. Duty Status / Assignment Records

Please provide existing roster, duty-status, shift-assignment, attendance, payroll, overtime, assignment, unit-assignment, or equivalent records showing DeSane's work status and assignment on October 9, 2014, including his scheduled and/or recorded duty hours.

12. Vehicle / Unit Records

Please provide existing records identifying any police vehicle/unit assigned to DeSane during the relevant period and any maintained unit-history, AVL/GPS, MDT, or equivalent location/activity information associated with that unit for the period reasonably surrounding the reported incident.

13. Reward and Public-Information Records

Please provide existing APPD records concerning any reward offered in connection with this incident, including records concerning authorization, amount, publication, tips generated, referral of tips, and disposition of those tips, with identifying information of confidential tipsters redacted where legally required.

Please also provide existing APPD press releases, media advisories, public-information statements, or other records containing the factual description APPD provided to the press, PBA, or other organizations concerning the incident.

14. Case Status and Disposition

Please provide existing records showing whether and when this investigation was:

open/active;
suspended;
inactive;
administratively closed;
cleared;
exceptionally cleared;
referred to another agency; or
otherwise disposed of,

including the applicable date, status/disposition code, and any report explaining the disposition.

15. Internal Review — Separate Common-Law Request

If APPD possesses an Internal Affairs or administrative investigation specifically concerning the truthfulness, accuracy, circumstances, reporting, or handling of this October 9, 2014 incident, I separately request that responsive material under the common-law right of access, subject to appropriate redactions and the balancing analysis required by Richard Rivera v. Union County Prosecutor's Office, 250 N.J. 124 (2022).

This portion should not be construed as characterizing the ordinary incident report, CAD record, detective reports, evidence records, duty records, or other underlying operational records requested above as Internal Affairs records merely because an IA unit may subsequently have reviewed or obtained copies of them.

Clarification Regarding Potential Exemptions

A. This request is not a request for a medical file.

I am not requesting DeSane's hospital chart, physician records, diagnoses, treatment history, psychological information, medical history, or other confidential clinical information.

Where a governmental record contains both responsive administrative information and legitimately confidential medical information, I request production of the reasonably segregable remainder after appropriate redaction.

The fact that a police report, CAD record, evidence record, duty record, injury form, or investigative report references an injury or medical treatment does not, standing alone, transform every responsive governmental record into a confidential medical record.

B. The underlying incident records should not automatically be characterized as Internal Affairs records.

This request principally seeks records generated in connection with the reported October 9, 2014 incident and the resulting police investigation: the incident report, reports authored by DeSane, detective reports, CAD records, evidence records, suspect descriptions, investigative follow-ups, case-status records, and related operational records.

If APPD subsequently conducted a separate Internal Affairs investigation, I recognize that the IA file presents a distinct access question. I therefore request any such IA material separately under the common-law right of access and request the balancing analysis required by Rivera.

The existence of a later IA review should not be used to reclassify every independently created underlying police or governmental record as an IA record.

C. Criminal-investigatory status must be determined record by record.

OPRA defines a "criminal investigatory record" as a record that (1) is not required by law to be made, maintained, or kept on file, (2) is held by a law-enforcement agency, and (3) pertains to a criminal investigation or related civil-enforcement proceeding. N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1.1.

Accordingly, I request that the City determine the applicability of that exemption to each responsive record or category rather than treating the entire incident file as categorically exempt merely because the reported occurrence involved alleged criminal conduct.

If the City asserts the criminal-investigatory-record exemption as to a particular record, please identify the record or category being withheld and the legal basis for concluding that the record satisfies the statutory definition.

I additionally request any responsive information independently required to be disclosed by OPRA and any responsive record required by law to be made, maintained, or kept on file.

D. Common-law access is independently asserted.

To the extent any responsive record is withheld under an OPRA exemption, including the criminal-investigatory-record exemption, I separately request access under the New Jersey common-law right of access.

My interest is governmental accountability concerning the investigation and official documentation of a reported violent assault upon an on-duty senior police officer, an incident that resulted in a public search for alleged assailants and public dissemination of information concerning the event.

Where confidentiality concerns apply to particular information — including private medical information, confidential informant information, personal identifying information, or other protected material — I expressly consent to appropriate redaction rather than withholding an otherwise responsive record in its entirety.

E. The "victim records" exemption does not apply to DeSane's own official conduct.

Some custodians treat any record identifying a "victim" of a reported crime as categorically exempt from disclosure. To the extent that exemption is asserted here, it does not apply to the records sought in this request.

David J. DeSane is not a private citizen whose status as a crime victim this request seeks to expose. He is the reporting officer and the reported victim in an incident that occurred while he was a sworn, on-duty member of APPD, and the records sought are his own official reports, APPD's own investigative and administrative documentation of an on-duty incident, and related duty, CAD, and case-status records — not personal information supplied by, or private information concerning, a victim who is a member of the public. N.J.S.A. 47:1A-3(b) already requires disclosure of specified information generated in connection with a reported crime notwithstanding the criminal-investigatory-record exemption, and the privacy interest a "victim records" exemption is designed to protect is not implicated where the person in question is the public employee whose own on-duty conduct and official reporting is the subject of the request.

To the extent the City nonetheless concludes that some discrete portion of a responsive record reveals personal information about DeSane warranting protection as a crime victim, I request that such information be redacted and the remainder produced, rather than withholding the entire report, CAD record, or investigative file on that basis.

F. No-record / destroyed-record response.

If any specifically identified responsive record once existed but is no longer maintained, please provide any existing record reflecting its retention status, destruction/disposition date, or other disposition.

If no responsive records exist within a requested category, please state that no responsive records were located after a reasonable search.

Electronic production is preferred.

My preferred delivery method for response(s) to this request is by E-mail as attachments. Please confirm you have received this request. If you are not the custodian of records, please forward my request to that person and provide their email address to me for future reference.

Yours faithfully,

Bruce