A New York City police union says the New York City Bar Association should rescind its report supporting the repeal of a state law preventing the release of records related to police misconduct, saying it is “tainted” because its authors were lawyers from organizations in litigation over the statute.

On Monday, the City Bar said it was joining with more than 30 groups aiming to rescind Civil Rights Law 50-a, which exempts police personnel files from disclosure under the state's Freedom of Information Law and which, critics contend, has been applied more broadly than the Legislature intended under the measure.

The report accompanying the announcement was prepared in part by Philip Desgranges, a senior staff attorney for the New York Civil Liberties Union, and Cynthia Conti-Cook, a senior attorney with the Legal Aid Society. Desgranges and Conti-Cook were two of the report's three signatories, along with Kerry Ward, an Office of Court Administration official.

Both Legal Aid and the NYCLU are representing parties in litigation challenging courts' interpretation of 50-a, which was enacted more that 40 years ago but which received fresh attention after the 2014 of death of Eric Garner, who died while Officer Daniel Pantaleo had him in a chokehold.

In justifying its decision to block the release of reports of civilian complaints against Pantaleo, the city has cited 50-a.

On Tuesday, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, which has opposed legislation to rescind 50-a, issued a statement claiming that having Desgranges and Conti-Cook sign off on the report violates the City Bar's requirement that committee members with an immediate or direct interest in the contents of a report recuse themselves or disclose their activities to their respective committees.  

“This tainted report is a serious black eye for the City Bar Association and its reputation for integrity and objectivity,” said PBA president Patrick Lynch. “The authors have engaged in clear ethical misconduct by failing to recuse themselves or to even note their obvious conflicts of interest.”

The PBA also noted that John Kiernan, president of the City Bar and a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton, recused himself from reviewing and approving  the report because Debevoise is handling litigation regarding 50-a on behalf of Prisoners Legal Services.

Following the union's statement, the City Bar issued a footnote to the report clarifying the affiliations of Desgranges and Conti-Cook and noting that, prior to approval, two other committees within the City Bar consisting of 65 members sponsored the report.

Members reviewing the report, the footnote states, “expressly” treat the issue of repealing Civil Rights Law 50-a as different from those debated in pending litigation regarding the statute, which pertain more to the interpretation of the law as it is written.  

As for Desgranges and Conti-Cook, the footnote states, “they did not dictate the outcome of the multiple discussions and sets of commentary on the report as it was being drafted.”

“In the interests of enhanced transparency, though, the City Bar is amending its report to add this footnote so that their affiliations are fully presented to readers,” it reads.