The mother of the missing autistic teen whose remains were found in the East River the past week slapped the NYPD with an emergency lawsuit Wednesday to turn over records related to his disappearance from school three months ago.
Vanessa Fontaine, tragic Avonte Oquendo’s mom, said she needs the information to pursue a wrongful death case against the city.
The NYPD twice denied a Freedom of Information Law request for the information, in the first instance citing possible interference with an ongoing investigation, according to the suit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.
In denying an appeal of that decision, the Police Department bizarrely claimed that the release would violate the 14-year-old boy’s privacy even though it was his mother asking for the documents and his photo was plastered around the city on missing posters.
“Without articulating so much as a single detail, the denial of the appeal states among it supported grounds that the release of the information would constitute an alleged unwarranted invasion of privacy,” Fontaine’s attorney David Perecman said in court papers.
“No privacy concerns exist here,” Perecman argues in the suit.
“The details of Avonte’s disappearance have been published and made widely known to the public through heavy coverage in print and television media, rendering moot any privacy concerns that may have existed,” he says.
“All that is sought is information about how Avonte came to be outside of his school unattended. Such information does not give rise to any legitimate concern about the privacy of Avonte.”
Avonte, who was nonverbal, was supposed to be closely supervised by staff at his public high school in Astoria, Queens.
The grieving mother wants school safety incident reports, the names of all the agents on duty the day of his Oct. 4 disappearance, witness statements, phone records and video surveillance.
“It is highly likely that the NYPD records have detailed investigative information not only about the actions of the teachers and paraprofessionals and administrators of the school, but also about the security system in place and the actions or inactions of the school security agents, employees of the NYPD,” the suit says.
“This involves a terrible tragedy, and the City’s thoughts are with Avonte’s family. We will review the legal case thoroughly once it’s received,” a spokeswoman for the city Law Department said.