![]() ![]() The department did turn over two full boxes of documents to Hamburg and Niemeyer in October 2020, but the filmmakers alerted investigators in early November that dozens of files were apparently missing from those records. The commission ruled in August 2020 that because the department could not identify any specific “prospective law enforcement action,” they had to turn the documents over to the filmmakers, court records show. A hearing was held in February 2020, where Detective Christopher Sudock testified on behalf of the department that the release could jeopardize a “prospective law enforcement action,” such as a search or arrest warrant, but could not identify any specific actions investigators had planned. The filmmakers appealed to the state’s Freedom of Information Commission, which reviews public records disputes. In 2019, Madison Hamburg and Niemeyer requested the department’s investigative files under the state’s public records law, but the department refused, claiming the case remains an open and ongoing investigation. The episodes also addressed skepticism about the police department’s initial investigations and even included surreptitious recordings of Madison Hamburg’s discussions with detectives at the department. The series examined the Hamburg family’s relationships in the wake of Barbara’s death and focused on suspicions both the police and family had about her husband and Madison’s father, Jeffrey Hamburg. The resulting documentary series was picked up by HBO, and the four-part “Murder on Middle Beach” premiered late last year. In 2016, he began to film a project reviewing the circumstances around his mother’s death, interviewing family members and pursuing information from the Madison Police Department about its investigation. Madison Hamburg, who was a teenager when his mother died, went on to study documentary filmmaking. The police department initially provided two boxes of materials to the filmmakers late last year - which the pair said were incomplete - before the department reversed course and appealed the commission’s decision in Superior Court. They successfully appealed to the Connecticut’s Freedom of Information Commission, which ruled last year the police department had to turn over its files free of charge to the pair. ![]() Madison Hamburg and producer Anike Niemeyer had requested the files while filming the series and were summarily denied by the department. ![]() The Madison Police Department is appealing a state judge’s order that it must turn over its investigative files on Hamburg’s 2010 murder to a pair of documentary filmmakers, including Hamburg’s son, who examined the investigation in the hit HBO miniseries “Murder on Middle Beach.” More than a decade after Barbara Hamburg was murdered outside her Madison home, the fight over whether the public should have access to the investigation into her death is continuing to escalate - a fight that could have broad implications for access to cold case files across Connecticut. ![]()
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