Bolaski seeks medical records of man he shot

Efforts to finally get an already tangled second-degree murder case ready for trial took a Kafkaesque turn on Monday when attorneys for the Chester man who did the shooting sought to obtain the private medical records of the victim.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2010712019888

Published December 1, 2010 in the Rutland Herald         Bolaski seeks medical records of man he shot         By ERIC FRANCIS CORRESPONDENT         WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Efforts to finally get an already tangled second-degree murder case ready for trial took a Kafkaesque turn on Monday when attorneys for the Chester man who did the shooting sought to obtain the private medical records of the dead man, all while being barred from mentioning the deceased man’s name even though it has been widely reported for more than two years now.         Although it was clear both sides were talking about the death of Vinny Tamburello, who was shot by Kyle Bolaski in August 2008 on the McKenzie ball field during a rampaging confrontation that took place in front of more than 40 witnesses that Sunday evening, Bolaski’s attorneys felt compelled to refer to Tamburello as “John Doe, who is currently deceased” in motions they filed with the court.         The attorneys representing Bolaski, who has maintained from the moment after he fired at Tamburello that evening when, according to two witnesses he began yelling, “You saw it! It was self-defense,” that his actions were justified, are seeking to obtain records of mental health treatment that Tamburello is believed to have received from providers at Springfield Hospital in the days and weeks prior to his death.         It has long been assumed that Bolaski’s defense is going to hinge in large part on assertions that Tamburello was acting in an out-of-control rage when he charged down a hill at Bolaski, Bolaski’s brother, and several other men while waving a splitting maul above his head, making threats and eventually bashing the windows out of Bolaski’s pickup in the moments before he was shot twice at close range, the second time fatally.         According to affidavits filed in connection with case, when various witnesses were interviewed by investigators that evening about Tamburello’s apparent mental state, they used phrases such as “psychotic,” “crazy” and “on something” to describe him. One police officer quoted a friend of Bolaski’s as saying of Tamburello, “I’ve never seen anyone that angry.”        At issue Monday was whether the strict federal patient-privacy laws that have been imposed in recent years upon the medical records of the living still hold sway when the person whose privacy is being invaded is known to be dead.         “The crime for which Mr. Bolaski is charged ... is extremely serious,” defense attorney Kevin Griffin wrote in the motion to compel disclosure of the mental health records, continuing, “There is a reasonable likelihood that disclosure of John Doe’s medical information will be of substantial value (to Bolaski’s defense) as other witnesses alluded to the fact that the information exists during their depositions.”         At the start of Monday’s hearing, Judge Patricia Zimmerman read some of the controlling federal law aloud and then apologetically asked three newspaper reporters who were present to wait outside the courtroom while the legal issues involved — not the content of the records themselves — were being discussed because, she said, the law provides that anyone who is not a direct party to the case must be excluded when information might come up that “could potentially identify the person” whose medical records are being sought.         Ironically, it was exactly because Tamburello’s death was being discussed in a case of significant interest to the local community that three newspapers sent reporters to the hearing in the first place.         After a half-hour of closed-door discussions, the reporters were ushered back in and Zimmerman announced from the bench that the session had included a phone conference with a representative of Springfield Hospital, which had been ordered to produce all of the medical records being sought so Zimmerman could review them.         “If there are records I believe are disclosable, I will make these findings known to the parties,” Zimmerman said.         Bolaski’s trial, in which a jury will be asked to determine whether the final, fatal shot he fired at Tamburello was in fact an act of justifiable self-defense or merely a parting shot that amounted to the murder of an already wounded man, is expected to take place in February.         http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20101201/NEWS02/712019888