The N.C. Supreme Court has declined to review a lower court's ruling that blocked the public release of statements that Winston-Salem police officers made to a citizens committee looking into a police investigation of a 1995 assault on a pregnant store clerk.
The Supreme Court didn't explain its ruling in its one-page order released Wednesday. The city of Winston-Salem had filed a petition asking the court to reconsider the lower court's decision.
Deputy City Attorney Alan Andrews said Friday that the city has no plans to appeal the ruling to a federal court.
"I can't say we were surprised that we were denied our petition," Andrews said. "We felt like we had appropriate legal justification for the release of these statements. The city wanted the residents to see all of the materials."
A three-judge panel of the N.C. Court of Appeals had unanimously ruled that Judge Richard Stone of Forsyth Superior Court had no authority to order the release of statements made by eight former and current officers to the Silk Plant Forest Citizens Committee.
J. Michael McGuinness of Elizabethtown, the officers' attorney, said that the Supreme Court's ruling ends the case.
"It was a long, hard legal battle," McGuinness said. "These officers had a lot at stake."
The justices recognized the lower's court ruling that the officers had a legitimate expectation of privacy in their statements because they involved personnel matters, McGuinness said. Legislators have excluded these types of confidential and private records under the state's public records law.
None of the officers could be reached for comment.
In 2007, city officials formed the citizens committee to investigate the 1995 beating of Jill Marker, a manager at the former Silk Plant Forest store on Silas Creek Parkway. The beating left Marker, who was 4½ months pregnant, with severe brain damage.
Kalvin Michael Smith was convicted in 1997 of the beating and is appealing his case. He has maintained his innocence, and is serving 23 to 29 years in prison.
Questions were raised about the police investigation by the Innocence Project at Duke University and in a five-part series in the Winston-Salem Journal in 2004.
Three years ago, the committee released a report that concluded that it had no faith in the investigation. The committee also voted 7-2 in favor of a statement saying it found no evidence that Smith was at the scene of the crime.
In November 2010, an internal committee of the Winston-Salem Police Department recommended the case not be reopened.
John Midgette of Harnett County, the executive director of the N.C. Police Benevolent Association, said he was pleased with the decision.
"The court ruled that the city should not skirt the law when it comes to its police officers," Midgette said.
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