City attorneys agreed Monday to release to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser at least some of the Honolulu Police Department’s 911 taped conversations related to the June 3 highway shooting rampage that left one dead and two wounded.

But the city lawyers intend to keep confidential other 911 tapes involving calls from the victims.

They also said they don’t want to immediately turn over any tapes to the newspaper because of a pending request to seal evidence, including any 911 tapes, by defense lawyers for the man charged in the shooting.

City lawyers acknowledged they would release some of the tapes during a hearing Monday before Circuit Judge Edwin Nacino on the Star-Advertiser’s lawsuit seeking the release of the tapes under state open-records laws.

The tapes, according to city lawyers, involve calls from five people reporting what they believed to be gunshots during the 17-minute crime spree on June 3 that began at a Kapahulu intersection and ended on the H-1 freeway in Aiea.

Toby Stangel is charged with murder, attempted murder and related counts that carry a life prison term without parole.

City Deputy Corporation Counsel Ernest Nomura said that upon review of the case, the city agreed to release five tapes.

But he argued against releasing four tapes that involve phone calls from the 16-year-old daughter of the woman shot to death, the two people wounded and a fourth caller who described the car of the shooting suspect.

Nomura said the release would violate the privacy rights of those callers and might hamper prosecutors and defense lawyers in getting those callers to cooperate in the criminal case.

Star-Advertiser lawyer Jeffrey Portnoy argued the public’s right to know about the calls overrules the privacy rights of those callers who have already been identified by the news media and will be testifying in the criminal trial.

"What the city has done is thumb their nose at the statute," Portnoy told the judge, presumably referring to the state’s Uniform Information Practices Act.

Nacino said he wanted to listen to the tapes in private before ruling on whether the city should be ordered to turn over the four tapes.

The newspaper’s lawsuit seeks the release of the 911 tapes as well as dispatch tapes among police officers to help the public understand how the police responded to the crime rampage.

Nacino indicated he might grant the Star-Advertiser’s request for attorney’s fees because the city agreed to release the five taped calls after the newspaper had filed its formal request for the tapes.

Circuit Judge Glenn Kim is scheduled to hear on Wednesday the defense request to seal evidence. Deputy Public Defender Edward Aquino said turning over the tapes would jeopardize defendant Stangel’s right to a fair trial by an impartial jury.

Stangel’s trial is scheduled for the week of Oct. 10 but will be postponed because the defense said it has not received all the information about the case from city prosecutors.

Also, according to the court file, Stangel’s lawyers are exploring the insanity defense, but they have not yet filed a formal request for a panel of mental health experts to examine Stangel.