Legal News

Gag order to stay in place over weekend

By Richard Binder

Superior Court Judge Ken Riley, who issued a gag order forbidding the Ventura County Star from publishing sealed contents of search warrant documents in a child murder case, is scheduled to reconsider the matter Monday. Until then, the ban on publishing information that the Star legally obtained from arrest warrants will remain in place, in spite of claims by legal experts and the newspaper editor that First Amendment protections have been violated.

The article the Star planned to publish Thursday contained information from unedited versions of the warrant, which was mistakenly released by a court clerk, according to Steve Lipson, Ventura County's assistant public defender. That information, he said, would prejudice the defendant's right to a fair trial.

Information in the warrants contains details about what authorities were looking for when they searched Sharp's motel room and van after the attack. Rich Gualano, news director at KVTA, said the station broadcast a report based on information in the warrants on Dec. 4, which, according to UC Irvine law school dean Erwin Chemerinsky, weakens Riley's ruling.

"How can you make a claim for secrecy for something that's already been published?" Chemerinsky said. "What the press legally obtains it can truthfully report."

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Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on December 12, 2008 (boomark / email).