Turnpike wants documents sealed in wrongful death suit

Citing concern for public safety, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority is asking a state judge to seal documents in the wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of the Jamaica Plain woman who was killed in the Interstate 90 connector tunnel ceiling collapse in July.

In recent court filings, lawyers for the Turnpike Authority argue that the Homeland Security Act allows the agency to withhold certain information that could threaten transportation safety. With more than 3,000 boxes of documents, it would be impractical, if not impossible, for the authority to determine which documents could jeopardize security, its lawyers argue.

"Such a review . . . would be extremely time-consuming, inefficient, unduly burdensome, and costly for the MTA," Thomas Hayman, a lawyer for the Turnpike Authority, wrote in a memo requesting a confidentiality order, filed in Suffolk Superior Court last week.

Instead, the authority is asking that all records remain confidential. The move is being opposed by a lawyer representing Milena Del Valle's family, which is suing the agency and several Big Dig contractors, and by lawyers for The Boston Globe.

"When a public agency is involved in litigation about a significant public event, such as the tragedy involving the Big Dig, the public has a right to be able to monitor that litigation, and part of monitoring that litigation is having access to those documents," said David E. McCraw, assistant general counsel for the New York Times Co., which owns the Globe.

Attorney General Martha Coakley's office is also trying to keep documents private. It filed emergency motions in Suffolk Superior Court this week seeking to postpone the disclosure of documents and other evidence to lawyers for the Del Valle family for six months, while a grand jury continues an investigation into whether the death warrants manslaughter charges. Special prosecutor Paul F. Ware Jr. also aims to restrict documents to lawyers and witnesses in order to "aid the grand jury in performing its duty with utmost secrecy."

While the state's public records law calls for the release of most government documents, statutes have been amended since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to exempt records such as blueprints, schematic drawings, and other plans that could expose security weaknesses or divulge emergency-preparedness measures .

McCraw said that governments should be prodded to explain how the release of certain information would undermine security. He pointed to documents that New York City had sought to keep confidential in the lawsuit filed by Republican National Convention protesters, which was joined by the Times. After reviewing sample documents, the judge decided that the documents would not, in fact, undermine public safety.

Documents requested in the Del Valle case would leave the Central Artery and its tunnels "vulnerable to an attack in the event the information were to fall into the hands of persons who want to cause damage to them," the Turnpike Authority said. Hayman did not return phone calls seeking comment yesterday.

Under the Homeland Security Act of 2002, the Turnpike Authority can withhold certain "security sensitive information," as previously approved by the Federal Highway Administration, said Bradley M. Henry, the lawyer handling the case for Del Valle's estate. However, it is the authority's responsibility to review documents and to determine whether to seek confidentiality protection for additional documents, rather than throwing "a blanket of confidentiality over all its public documents," said Henry.

"The plaintiffs have public safety squarely in mind, because it was a failure of public safety that killed Milena Del Valle," Henry said.

Stephanie Ebbert can be reached at ebbert@globe.com.