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8 officers appeal release of Silk Plant statements
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December 17, 2009
» Read the judge's orders of the release of interview documents
Published: March 12, 2010
Updated: 03/12/2010 12:45 am
Eight former and current Winston-Salem police officers are appealing a judge's decision last week that ordered the release of their statements to a citizens committee reviewing the 1995 beating at the Silk Plant Forest store.
Their appeal means that the statements likely will not be made public soon.
Last week, Judge Richard Stone of Forsyth Superior Court ordered that the statements be opened to the public by Sunday.
On Tuesday, the officers filed a request for Stone to temporarily block the release of the statements until the N.C. Court of Appeals reviews his decision.
At stake is public disclosure of statements that the officers made to the Silk Plant Forest Citizens Review Committee, which reviewed the police investigation into the beating of Jill Marker, a manager at the former Silk Plant Forest store on Silas Creek Parkway.
The attack left Marker, who was 4½ months pregnant, with severe brain damage. Today, she livies under 24-hour care in Ohio.
The man convicted of beating Marker, Kalvin Michael Smith, is serving 23 to 29 years in prison. He has maintained his innocence since being charged.
The officers were interviewed during the course of the citizens committee's review. City officials didn't initially release their statements because of personnel-privacy laws.
In October, the officials asked a judge to release those statements and thousands of pages of other documents collected during the committee's work.
In December, Stone ordered the release of a 214-page transcript of an interview that Don Williams, the former Winston-Salem police detective who headed the investigation, had with city officials and the citizens committee in June 2009.
Much of committee's report is available on the city of Winston-Salem's Web site, www.cityofws.org.
lgraff@wsjournal.com
727-7279
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