- Police Brutality Watch

A group of city councilors have accused Suffolk District Attorney Dan Conley and United States Attorney Michael Sullivan of ``colluding'' to deny investigative records to the family of a man gunned down by police in Roxbury last year. The District Attorney's Office ruled 40-year-old Bert Bowen's June 27, 2004, fatal shooting justified, finding that he pointed a loaded .40-caliber handgun at an officer. Bowen was found with the gun in his hand, officials said. In a letter seeking help from Attorney General Tom Reilly, city councilors Chuck Turner, Charles Yancey and Felix Arroyo and activist Sadiki Kambon accused Conley and Sullivan of conspiring to conceal reports from Bowen's family. "We feel the Attorney General has a responsiblity after almost 10 months after the death . . . to get the file so that the Bowen family can proceed with their own investigation,'' Turner said. "They have suspicions that it was a wrongful death but without the file they don't have the information to make their own determination,'' Turner said. Conley's spokesman David Procopio said Bowen family attorney Earl Howard has received ``a significant amount of investigative material'' and called claims of secrecy "recklessly disingenuous.'' "If there are additional documents he is looking for, we will provide them but he has received the bulk of the material,'' Procopio said. [more]