State To Look Into Westmont's Secrecy Decision

WESTMONT, IL – The attorney general is looking into the Westmont Police Department's decision to keep secret most of its report involving a downtown bar fight.

In a letter to the department this week, Assistant Attorney General Christina Lucente-McCullough said further action was warranted. She said the department must respond in seven business days.

This was in response to a complaint filed by Patch.

Patch recently filed a public records request with Westmont police for the report on a fight at Pot Belly Pub, 24 N. Cass Ave.

Arrested last month on charges of public fighting were Carlo Buonavolante, 35, of the 6700 block of Fieldstone Drive in Burr Ridge, and Jake Lenc, 24, of the 6000 block of Bentley Avenue in Willowbrook, police said.

All the information in the police report from the witnesses and the suspects themselves has been blacked out.

This is in contrast to most police departments, which only redact the names and personal information of victims and witnesses. Such departments include Elmhurst, Darien, La Grange, Burr Ridge and Hinsdale.

Patch called Natalie Mozingo, the police department's Freedom of Information Act officer, who was responsible for the denial.

Mozingo said the Freedom of Information Act required her to make the redactions. And she said the information would always be blacked out, even after the men go to trial, unless the village receives a subpoena.

In justifying the department's redactions, Mozingo cited exemptions under state law that allowed secrecy for information that is specifically prohibited from release by law, unique identifiers and unwarranted invasions of personal privacy.

Patch agrees those reasons are justified for keeping personally identifying information for witnesses under wraps.

But it said most of the redacted information had nothing to do with the cited exceptions.