West Valley City Council decides not to release Powell files
WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah (AP) - The West Valley City Council has decided not to release police records that detail the investigation into Susan Powell's disappearance and the ensuing probe of her husband.
The order issued Tuesday evening says the records are properly classified as protected.
Attorney Anne Bremner, who represents Powell's parents, sought the records, but has been rebuffed by police who claim releasing them would compromise their ongoing investigation.
Bremner appealed her case to the City Council last week. She contends that under Utah law, Powell's parents should have access to the case files.
Susan Powell was reported missing Dec. 7, 2009. Authorities had been probing her husband, Josh, who maintained his innocence, then earlier this year killed himself and the couple's two young sons at a home in Washington state.
The order issued Tuesday evening says the records are properly classified as protected.
Attorney Anne Bremner, who represents Powell's parents, sought the records, but has been rebuffed by police who claim releasing them would compromise their ongoing investigation.
Bremner appealed her case to the City Council last week. She contends that under Utah law, Powell's parents should have access to the case files.
Susan Powell was reported missing Dec. 7, 2009. Authorities had been probing her husband, Josh, who maintained his innocence, then earlier this year killed himself and the couple's two young sons at a home in Washington state.
"ongoing investigation"???? really???   They are all dead!
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At this point, it is the police dept., DA's office, and child services that need to be investigated.
I originally thought Steven Powell could be involved but is there any evidence he was in town during that time?
Bottom line this town is hiding its police departments total incompetence or their local Keystones must have alot of garbage on their city council..
I still think Daddy Powell was involved in the disapperance of Susan. But I think West Valley City, Utah should release the files to police here and work together to keep Powell in jail for the rest of his life. Then let Susan's family have the files.
Again two possibilities.
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1) Utter incompetency and they are trying to hide it or...
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2) Daddy Powell remains a suspect
"police... claim releasing them would compromise their ongoing investigation." Â All the principle victims and criminals are dead or in jail so how will the "investigation" be compromised? Â Maybe they mean that it will compromise their reputation further by showing they didn't act when they should to arrest the killer or communicate with other agencies who could have stopped the brutal deaths of the children. Â This is fanny covering 101 in an epic failure of police work resulting in multiple innocent lives being lost.
 @newsie But let me add before you roast me, I think they are trying to hide incompetence.
 @newsie Daddy Powell could remain a suspect. The police were quite clear that Josh was not their only person of interest.
riiiiight - "compromise their ongoing investigation" - i think they meant "compromise their ability to appear like an actual police agency".
 @SwampThing And you are probably right
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Even âifâ they are still investigating, the police department, city council, and prosecutors office needs to be investigated as well.Â
There certainly are jurisdictions way beyond the the West Valley City council, and I hope the Cox family has both the advocacy and means to pursue this. There just has to be a way to force out the records of this investigation. "Ongoing", my foot. Any man capable of killing his own children, would have no consciousness or regret for killing his wife.
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I hope the news media will follow the future efforts of the Cox's efforts to find peace and closure for their daughter.
If they don't have some strong evidence linking Steve Powell to Susan's disappearance, they're just blowing smoke hoping their dismal investigative performance will never truly be found out. I think a little DOJ investigation into THAT police dept. & council is in order!
Oh ye of little faith.... Wait, that might be the answer...Â
Time for a lawsuit in federal court. They're merely trying to save their own Romneys... I mean their own faces from embarrassment and their derrieres from a legal whooping that they are going to get anyway.Â
No big surprise here.Â
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If the West valley City Council thinks they are going to protect the reputation of their PD by refusing to release the files they are sadly mistaken. Anybody who is even remotely familiar with this case is aware of the lackadaisical effort put forth by the Police in this town. Continuing to stonewall the Cox family only contributes to the public's disgust at the way they handled the entire investigation.
Ok. Way to cover up and shift it around so that it looks like they are still having an 'active' investigation. Well maybe this time they are trying to show that they 'can have' an ongoing investigation. Hmmmmphh! You did NOT have a thorough investigation the FIRST time you morons. And now you don't have ANYTHING to investigate that will change anything! Poor Cox family they need to catch a break here at some point. This whole thing still STINKS and makes me SICK to see this botched mess drag on and on and on and on and on..............
This smacks of small time detectives and prosecutors being in way over their heads and no one wants the public to realize the extent of how botched this whole thing was.Â
"releasing them would compromise their ongoing investigation." So they're actually still investigating this? Or is this their way of saying we're trying to cover up the fact that we completely screwed up and won't own up to anything? This is so wrong! Give that poor family a f'n break!
Then the only conclusion is they're still looking at grandpa perv as a possible participant in her death. Either that, or they know they really hosed this whole thing up, leading to the death of two innocent kids - or both.