A New Jersey judge has ruled that sealed settlements involving public entities may be subject to release under the state's Open Public Records Act.

Hudson County Superior Court Judge Daniel D'Alessandro, in a ruling released on March 15, said the Jersey Journal, a newspaper covering Hudson County and owned by Advance Publications, should be allowed access to confidential settlement documents involving a family whose members claimed they were beaten by Bayonne police officers.

“This court holds that when a settlement with a New Jersey public entity is made in another jurisdiction that the settlement documents shall inform the parties and the court in that jurisdiction that the settlement may be subject to disclosure under OPRA,” D'Alessandro said.

The settlement was reached between the family and the city in federal court, and the terms of the agreement were put under seal by U.S. Magistrate Cathy Waldor of the District of New Jersey. It is unclear who requested that the terms be declared confidential.

After several unsuccessful requests for the details behind the settlement, the Journal filed a OPRA suit in Superior Court.

D'Alessandro said there should be a presumption that settlements involving pubic agencies resolved in other jurisdictions be considered public records available on demand.

“A government entity cannot shield itself from public scrutiny by rotely sealing documents,” the judge said. “The public has a right to know that settlements are not borne of reckless judgment, collusion, conflicts of interest or corruption.”

The case involves a Bayonne family that filed a lawsuit against the city police department, alleging that officers beat up a handcuffed man, and pepper-sprayed his mother, without cause.

Brandon Walsh, 26, and his mother and other family members filed the lawsuit in 2014, a year after the incident.

On Dec. 27, 2013, police officers went to an Avenue C address to arrest Walsh on an outstanding warrant, Bayonne police told the Jersey Journal.

According to the lawsuit, Walsh opened the door for the officers, and as his mother and other family members approached, they saw the officers—identified in the lawsuit as Domenico Lillo, James Wade and Francis Styles—“storm into the home.”

The officers sprayed the chemical irritant at Walsh as they attacked him, throwing him on the ground, the lawsuit stated. Next, they sprayed his mother, Kathy Walsh, in the face when she “attempted to find out what was going on,” according to the lawsuit.

Officers grabbed the front of Walsh's shirt to keep him from closing the door, at which point he repeatedly struck one of the officers on the side of the face and on top of the head, police said.

According to the lawsuit, the pepper spray that the officers used “covered [Kathy Walsh]'s grandchildren” and spread to the other family members in the house, causing the whole family, including the family's dogs, to “become violently ill.”

Under D'Alessandro's ruling, damages awarded to the minor children will remain under seal.

Neither the newspaper's attorney, Keith Miller of Newark's Robinson Miller, nor the city's attorney, Daniel Santarsiero of Lum, Drasco & Positan in Roseland, returned calls seeking comment.