Letter: Uphold judge's seal of Bird records
Jo'Anna Bird, seen here with her children, was found stabbed to death in her New Cassel home on March 19, 2009, police said. Credit: Handout
In Newsday's editorial "Secrecy law is contemptible" [May 30], we can agree that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But when it comes to the law, just because you do not agree does not make it right to break that law.
Judge Kathleen Tomlinson issued a decision that allowed the legislature to look at the Jo'Anna Bird report under a confidentiality agreement. Whether the legislature's presiding officer, Peter Schmitt (R-Massapequa), violated the confidentiality agreement will be decided by a judge, not by Newsday.
No one is above the law -- not Newsday nor Schmitt. To state that he should be commended for violating the law sends a message to everyone that if you don't like a law, just break it, and Newsday will commend you.
James Carver, Mineola
Editor's note: The writer is president of the Nassau County Police Benevolent Association.
