Information on the Seal of the Court in the Colleen Ritzer Case at the request of Danvers

A 24-year-old Massachusetts high school teacher was brutally raped and murdered by one of her students in 2013. Now, a Bay State judge has added a layer of secrecy about the circumstances surrounding the incident. around those horrible crimes at the request of the town in which they happened.

None of the facts here can be disputed. Philip D. ChismeAt that time, 14 years old, according to his math teacher, Colleen Ritzer, into a bathroom, where he proceeded to rape her before stabbing and slashing her to death. After killing her, Chism takes the teacher into a wooded area, where he commits acts of destruction to her body.

He was found guilty in 2015 and was sentencing in early 2016 sentences of 40 to 60 years in state prison. Chism will likely be pardoned within 25 years due to his young age at the time what the judge called the crime “brutal and senseless” against Ritzer.

The victim’s parents Peggie Ritzer and Tom Ritzer, At moment later File a wrongful civil lawsuit against the Town of Danvers, Danvers Public Schools, a cleaning contractor serving the school who allegedly washed away key evidence of Chism’s crimes, and another company that engineered the near expansion Here’s the school and their security system overhaul, failed the day in question.

Over the past five years, all the defendants, with the exception of the second firm, Dinisco Design Partnership, have been excluded from the case by motion for dismissal.

In a recent hearing, attorney for the Ritzer family, Daniel Murphy, arguing that the town’s request to seal the details of the failed security system was simply an attempt to save itself from “shame” in the eyes of the public, based on News about Salem.

For its part, the town said the request was pre-calculated in terms of safety and security. Judge of the Essex County Superior Court John T. Lu agreed to that bid for government secrecy and said it would be “inappropriate” for the public to get caught up in certain information.

Journalist Julie Manganis outline the contours of the dispute:

Murphy told the judge that the couple did not seek to reveal the specific location of the camera or other sensitive information, but did assume that the public had a right to other information about whether the system was working. normal at their time or not. daughter murder – an issue raised at the trial of their daughter’s killer, Philip Chism, when a police officer testified about the difficulty of finding surveillance footage of Chis moving around the school before and after the crime.

The Ritzers believe that someone was monitoring the security system at the time of their daughter’s murder, which could have been interrupted or completely prevented.

“The fact that there is video and it’s not working properly has been known to the public since 2016,” the lawyer told the court.

The details at stake come from recent filings of documents by DiNisco – who are also seeking to have the case dropped against them. As well as their request for summary judgment was filed, the town submit a petition request that all such records be sealed.

Lawyer Danvers John Davis said the town was concerned about “the safety of staff, students and any visitors” to Danvers High and that efforts to remove sensitive sections were unrealistic.

“We think the documents we submitted show good cause for the detention,” argued the town’s attorney.

“They are very concerned about safety,” Murphy counters unsuccessfully, referring to his client, the parents of Colleen Ritzer. “That’s why they brought this lawsuit.”

[image via Ritzer family]

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