A California author seeking information about the headline-grabbing murder-suicide of professional wrestler Chris Benoit claims Stamford police are hindering his work.
The author, Irvin Muchnick, last week appealed to the state Freedom of Information Commission after Stamford police declined to send him a copy of a videotaped interview with a city teenager who posted an entry on Benoit's Wikipedia biography.
In the entry, the teen said Benoit missed a wrestling appearance because his wife had died. It was posted 14 hours before police in Fayette County, Ga., found the bodies of Benoit, 40, his wife and the couple's 7-year-old son in the family home in June 2007.
Muchnick said that in June 2008 he received an incomplete copy of the interview from Georgia police and was stonewalled by Stamford police when he asked for a complete copy.
"We need to look at this video and see what questions they asked and what they didn't ask," Muchnick said.
But voluntary statements are exempt from disclosure under the 2007 Connecticut Freedom of Information Act, Stamford Capt. Tom Wuennemann said.
"Part of the problem is it's hard enough to get people to come in and talk to the police," Wuennemann said. "If they have to come in and worry it's going to get broadcast on TV, it makes our job that much more difficult."
Georgia authorities concluded that Benoit, who worked for Stamford-based World Wrestling Entertainment, strangled his wife and suffocated his son.
The post was deemed coincidental. The teen cited rumors he found on the Internet.
Tom Hennick, public education officer at the state Freedom of Information Commission, said such cases are open to interpretation. It's up to Stamford police to prove voluntary statements are exempt.
"The crux of the matter is whether or not it's exempt from disclosure," Hennick said. "The fact that it's a public record is not in dispute. The police believe it's exempt from disclosure."
The appeal should go before a commission ombudsman in the next few months, Hennick said.
Steve Kalb, the FOI Commission liaison for the Society of Professional Journalists, said he could not find reference to voluntary statements being exempt in state FOI law.
"If it exists, it exists in the minds of someone I don't know, because I can't find it anywhere," Kalb said. "There's no rhyme, reason or logic to their position, other than they don't want to give it away."
Muchnick is the author of "Wrestling Babylon: Piledriving Tales of Drugs, Sex, Death and Scandal." He now is writing a true crime book on the Benoit murder-suicide.
- Staff Writer Jeff Morganteen can be reached at [email protected] or at (203) 964-2215.
