Video shows officers sifting through belongings left behind and finding a professional camera inside an open bag

The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office on Thursday released body camera footage showing law enforcement officers searching through belongings left behind after police cleared protesters and journalists from the area outside Newark’s Delaney Hall immigration detention center.

The May 30 recording became public weeks after The Jersey Vindicator filed a public records lawsuit seeking its release, following the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office’s denial of the newsroom’s request for the video.

The video was recorded by the body camera of Essex County Prosecutor’s Office Sgt. Darryl Brown, who was charged in June with third-degree theft after prosecutors alleged he stole an Associated Press photojournalist’s camera bag containing about $10,000 worth of cameras and other equipment.

The video begins after protesters and journalists were cleared from the area by police. Brown and other law enforcement officers then walked through the scene with flashlights, examining first-aid supplies, food, backpacks and other belongings scattered across the ground and on tables and chairs.

At one point, Brown asks other officers, “Anyone need to wash their eyes out? They’ve got everything.”

As officers continue searching the area, Brown asks, “Are we going to leave all this stuff? All they’re going to do is be back tomorrow.”

A short time later, he says, “They’ve got mad s_ _ _ over there. I’m going to check over here too.”

Officers then come across an open bag among the belongings. Inside is what appears to be a professional camera. Brown asks whether it is a camera before saying, “Give me that s_ _ _.”

The video shows Brown zip the bag closed, toss it to the side, and continue searching through other items in the area.

Another officer says, “They’ve got a whole flea market over here.”

Brown then says, “They should have DPW or whatever come get all this s_ _ _ because tomorrow is going to be the same thing.”

Moments later, Brown picks up another object and asks, “What’s this? Just a battery?”

Another officer says it is probably a charger.

Just under two minutes later, Brown tells the other officers, “You can shut down,” and the body camera recording ends. The footage does not show what happened to the bag after the recording stopped.

When Attorney General Jennifer Davenport announced Brown’s arrest on June 4, she said his body-worn camera footage showed him “interacting with a dark colored bag, consistent with the description of the victim’s belongings.”

According to the Attorney General’s Office, Brown, 43, allegedly stole the camera bag containing cameras and equipment.

Associated Press photojournalist Angelina Katsanis.Katsanis was struck in the knee by a wooden beam while covering clashes between protesters and law enforcement outside Delaney Hall on May 30. She left her gear bag, which was marked with her name and contact information, while she sought treatment at a nearby medical tent. When she was later allowed to return to the area in a wheelchair, the bag was gone.

The Attorney General’s Office said an Apple Air Tag attached to one of the missing items later led investigators to Brown’s home in Sparta Township. Investigators executed a search warrant there on June 3 and recovered several pieces of the missing equipment, including items bearing Katsanis’ name and phone number.

After reporter Steve Janoski’s public records request for the body camera footage was denied, attorney CJ Griffin of Pashman Stein Walder Hayden filed a lawsuit on behalf of The Vindicator in Essex County Superior Court, arguing the video should have been public from the outset.

The lawsuit argues that the recording was created before any criminal investigation into Brown began and therefore does not qualify for the investigative exemption cited by the prosecutor’s office. The suit also argues that New Jersey’s body-worn camera law permits only four narrow categories of recordings that can be withheld from public disclosure, and that Brown’s recording does not fall within any of those exceptions.

On Thursday, the Attorney General’s Office released the recording as part of a revised response to a separate public records request made by Janoski to the Division of Criminal Justice.

The records custodian wrote that the agency had properly withheld the video when it initially responded on July 7 because several witnesses had not yet been interviewed and releasing the footage at that stage would have jeopardized the integrity of the investigation. The concerns no longer apply, they wrote, so they released the recording, maintaining that the original denial still was proper.