VIDEO: Attorney Jeff Portnoy On The Fight For Misconduct Records

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In 1994, University of Hawaii journalism students went to court to gain access to police disciplinary files. Honolulu attorney Jeff Portnoy represented them for free.

The courts sided with the young journalists but the police got the Legislature to grant them an exemption that’s still in place today.

Portnoy vividly remember the day in 1994 he had to push his way past a hundred cops to get into Judge Lim’s courtroom.

16 years ago, Civil Beat did not exist.

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