Michelle Cruz.

Where does the public's right to know end and a victim's right to privacy begin? Should the public hear the pleas of a murder victim begging for mercy on a 911 recording, or should the victim's family be able to block the release of that recording?

On one side of the debate is State Victim Advocate Michelle Cruz, who pushed for legislation this year proposing a privacy exception in the Freedom of Information Act to allow victims and their families to argue against disclosure. The bill went nowhere because of the budget debacle, but Cruz plans to bring it back next year.

On the other side are journalists like Chris Powell, managing editor of the Manchester Journal-Inquirer, who argue that giving rights to crime victims to prevent the release of public documents is "a solution for which there is no problem." And Powell worries that giving police discretion to refuse to release evidence will make it harder for journalists to act as watchdogs over public agencies.

"If somebody gets ahold of evidence in court that's salacious or prurient it can be abused, but the alternative is to give a government that is already incredibly overbearing even more power," said Powell.

Cruz says Powell is overstating what she's trying to do with her legislation by casting it as an attempt to shut journalists out of police files. Cruz says the privacy exception she wants would apply only to "highly offensive" evidence concerning plea bargains, or criminal trials that have concluded.

The perfect example of what Cruz is talking about is the attempt by the New Haven Register to get a video made by one of five teenagers involved in the shooting of a 13-year-old girl in New Haven in 2006. Jajuana Cole was standing outside her home on the night of June 16, 2006, when two of the five young men began shooting wildly in an attack against a rival gang member. Cole was struck in the back by a stray bullet and died the next day at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

All five men pleaded guilty without a trial and were sentenced to prison terms. Daniel Carter, who fired the shot that killed Cole, got 40 years. The video, shot by Lamont Swint, purportedly shows the group driving around town brandishing guns and includes audio of gunshots and girls screaming. It was never introduced into evidence.

"The mother of this young girl is vehemently opposed to having the tape released," said Cruz. "We know what happened. All this videotape would do is sensationalize the behaviors of these young men before they murdered her daughter."

But Register Editor Jack Kramer says it should be up to the newspaper to determine the news value of the videotape. Kramer has been repeatedly quoted in the Register saying, "We don't know if what is on the tape is newsworthy, but we feel strongly we're the ones that should be allowed to make that call."

The Freedom of Information Commission agreed and ordered New Haven Police to turn over the video, but city officials responded that State's Attorney Michael Dearington has the tape and is refusing to give it up. And as the Register reported last fall, Dearington's office is "exempt from the state's public records law." The entire situation is at an impasse.

The state Judiciary Committee grappled with Cruz's expanded privacy exception this session — without reaching a decision — and is likely to take it up again in the next session. Rep. Michael Lawlor, D-East Haven, co-chairman of the committee, says legislators have to keep trying to settle the issue.

"It's a very legitimate controversy with two very legitimate points of view," said Lawlor. "The reason we have a legislature is to figure out what to do."