A judge has denied a request by defense attorneys to unseal records that questioned the credibility of an unnamed state witness in a Bath murder case.

Justice Daniel Billings said the Office of the Maine Attorney General disclosed the records too late — about two weeks before jury selection for a trial was set to begin — and he sanctioned the office by prohibiting it from calling on the witness at trial. A week later, lawyers for Jason Ibarra, who was charged with murder in the death of his mother, reached a plea deal with prosecutors in which the murder charge was dropped, and he pleaded guilty to manslaughter, resulting in a 10-year prison sentence in November.

The witness was not identified in court documents. The sealed records suggested the witness consumed alcohol while on duty and an investigator did not find the witness credible, according to Billings. Ibarra’s lawyers requested the records be unsealed, but Billings recently denied the request, citing privacy laws.

Defense attorneys are often restricted by protective orders and cannot share personnel information about witnesses. One of Ibarra’s lawyers, Rory McNamara, previously said there should be a public list of law enforcement officers who have credibility issues, like New Hampshire’s “Laurie list.” He declined to comment Monday on Billings’ rejection of the request to unseal the records in the Ibarra case.

Prosecutors are required to share evidence about witnesses, known as Brady or Giglio disclosures, referring to a pair of U.S. Supreme Court cases. In the Ibarra case, Billings said prosecutors should have known they were required to disclose the witness records and pointed to other homicide cases in where they failed to properly disclose records, calling in a “troubling” pattern.

“This is outrageous,” Billings wrote. “A criminal defendant’s right to counsel goes beyond simply having a lawyer at trial and includes having a lawyer that is properly prepared and has had sufficient time to consider alternative strategies and to properly counsel his client on his or her options based on a thoughtful review of all of the evidence in the case. Late disclosures, such as this one at issue here, endanger the fundamental right to counsel and must be taken seriously by the court.”

In response, the AG’s office said it will share the records in question and similar records on time.

Attorneys in the state have said prosecutors rarely disclose Giglio information on time.

“It is pervasive,” said Timothy Zerillo, a Portland attorney and director of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. “It’s systemwide and it happens all the time.”

Natasha Irving, the district attorney for Sagadahoc, Lincoln, Knox and Waldo counties, said prosecutors’ offices have limited resources and rely on law enforcement agencies to disclose potential issues. She said attorneys in her office track law enforcement officers who have credibility issues and notify defense attorneys of that evidence during a defendant’s first appearance.

Portland Press Herald staff writer Emily Allen contributed to this report.