Judge orders Nassau prosecutors to release electronic evidence to the media

News organizations, and the public they serve, are entitled to copies of 911 calls and other electronic evidence introduced at the trial of a Queens man accused of killing a Nassau County police officer and another man, a judge ruled Thursday.

The evidence should be available to the public, "not only to the people in the courtroom, but to the people in the general community," Judge Jerald Carter ruled in Nassau County Court in Mineola.

The judge said his ruling applied to all the materials, and prosecutors or defense attorney Kenneth St. Bernard could object on a specific item of evidence later in the trial if the need arose.

The judge ruled after attorneys for Newsday, News 12 Long Island and The Associated Press had objected that the office of Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice was not allowing the news media to copy the material.

Testimony was scheduled to resume Friday before Carter in the murder trial of Darrell Fuller, 34, of St. Albans, Queens. He is accused of fatally shooting uniformed Nassau County police Officer Arthur Lopez, 29, of Babylon Village, and Brooklyn resident Raymond Facey, 58, in separate incidents just minutes apart on Oct. 23, 2012.