Grand jury documents on nuke weapons plant probe stay secret
DENVER—A judge has refused to make public some sworn statements by former grand jurors alleging that prosecutors committed misconduct during an investigation into possible environmental crimes at the old Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant.
U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch released several documents and motions from the 1989 case Monday but not the sworn statements or a list of alleged misconduct.
Some former members of the grand jury have alleged the Justice Department broke the law during the probe and cut a deal with plant's operator,
Matsch allowed the jurors in 1997 to create a list of alleged misconduct by prosecutors and to make sworn statements before their attorney, Jonathan Turley, now a law professor at George Washington University. Turley said compiling the list and making the sworn statements were unprecedented actions for a grand jury.
"In all of our filings we said, 'These are the only two things (the list and the transcripts) we want,'" Turley said. "Those two things would inform the public and Congress what it was that prompted the jurors to take this historic stand."
Rocky Flats produced more than 70,000 plutonium triggers for nuclear warheads throughout the Cold War at a site 15 miles northwest of Denver. It was raided and shuttered by federal agents for safety violations as part of the 1989 probe.
The federal government has since spent $7 billion to turn the area into a wildlife refuge.
Matsch ruled there is no current investigation that would justify disclosing certain documents under the strict rules that govern a grand jury.
He had ruled in 2004 that grand jury secrecy rules prevented the release of documents that 18 of the 23 former grand jurors want the public to see, but the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that ruling in 2006 and sent the case back to him.
Turley called Matsch's ruling "a small victory" because some documents were released. But he said his clients are considering another court appeal for the transcripts and list of allegations. He said the group plans to ask Colorado's congressional delegation to subpoena the documents.
"Then they can see what motivated the grand jurors and they can make them public," Turley said.
(This version corrects that grand jurors want to release their own statements about alleged prosecutorial misconduct, not testimony made by witnesses before grand jury.)
