3 news
outlets join fight to unseal Yale murder case files
The
Associated Press, New Haven (Conn.) Register and The New York Times
have added their support to The Hartford (Conn.) Courant in its bid
to gain access to sealed court documents in the case against alleged
murderer Raymond Clark III, according to the Courant.
Clark is charged with killing
Annie Le, a third-year doctoral student at Yale University from Placerville,
Calif., and stuffing her body in a wall in a campus research laboratory
where they both worked.
Paul R. Guggina, a Hartford-based
lawyer representing the news outlets, argued in Connecticut Superior
Court Oct. 20 that the sealed documents should be made public because
of the constitutional right to a free press, and because release of
the documents should overshadow fears that a jury could be influenced
by widespread trial publicity, according to Associated Press.
The documents being sought
include search warrant affidavits and an arrest warrant affidavit
that contain details about evidence sought for a search of Clark’s
Middletown, Conn., apartment, the Courant reported.
Judge Roland Fasano said
at the Oct. 20 hearing that the documents would stay sealed for at
least two more weeks while he decided whether to unseal the documents
in part or whole, according to the New Haven (Conn.) Independent.
The prosecution requested
sealing of the documents Sept. 17, the day of Clark’s arrest,
and Fasano granted a 14-day seal.
Public defenders
Beth A. Merkin and Joseph E. Lopez, representing Clark, requested
Sept. 24 that the documents stay sealed on the grounds that Clark
could not receive a fair trial if the records became public. Fasano
granted the request.
Worcester
police info snub of local daily quickly reversed
The Worcester (Mass.) Police
Department revised its press policy Oct. 19 to exclude the Telegram
& Gazette of Worcester only to reverse the policy a day later,
according to the Telegram & Gazette.
According
to an Oct. 19 Worcester police press statement signed by Police Chief
Gary J. Gemme and Sgt. Kerry F. Hazelhurst, the department was to
make local radio and television stations the priority when providing
public information. On Oct. 20, Gemme told the Telegram & Gazette
that the statement was not a change in policy and that it only established
that all press inquiries would now be directed to Hazelhurst.
At an Oct. 20 Worcester
City Council meeting, Gemme said he criticized the Telegram &
Gazette in an effort to motivate members of his department, according
to the Telegram & Gazette.
Gemme’s
original statement about police-press relations was made the day after
an Oct. 18 Telegram & Gazette story critical of the Worcester
Police Department’s application of a Massachusetts law that
awards law enforcement officers bonuses for earning academic degrees.
The story said that more than 
100
Worcester police officers’ bonus-qualifying master’s degrees
were of doubtful educational merit. Those degrees came from colleges
that failed to meet basic academic standards in 2001, according to
the Telegram & Gazette. The Oct. 20 police statement said the
Telegram & Gazette focused more on “hyperbole over reality,”
the Telegram & Gazette reported.
City Manager Michael
V. O’Brien said at the City Council meeting that Worcester police
would treat all news outlets equally in disseminating information,
but he was also critical of the lack of coverage in the Telegram &
Gazette of two incidents the weekend of Oct. 17-18, according to the
Telegram & Gazette.
In an Oct. 25
Telegram & Gazette editorial, it was reported that a Telegram
& Gazette reporter requested information on the incidents on the
morning of Oct. 18. The reporter 
did
not receive the information until Oct. 21, although local television
and radio had already reported on the incidents, based on police information.
The flap over
police dealings with the Telegram & Gazette is the most recent
incident involving friction between the police and the Telegram &
Gazette, according to the newspaper. The paper is involved in litigation
with the Police Department for its refusal to release documents about
alleged misconduct by Police Officer Mark A. Rojas, according to the
Telegram & Gazette. The Telegram & Gazette also published
a story Sept. 9 about Chief Gemme’s brother, Police Officer
Alan W. Gemme, and his substantial overtime pay as a department mechanic.
Maine
moves to repeal law nixing minors’ health info
A committee of the Maine
legislature voted Oct. 16 to recommend repeal of a Maine law initially
opposed by the Maine Press Association and other free-speech advocates
that prohibits the collection and publication of health-related information
for people under age 18, according to mediapost.com.
The law, enacted Sept.
12, prohibits newspapers from publishing the names of minors under
certain circumstances, according to mediapost.com.
Margaret Reinsch, lawyer
for the committee, said at the Oct. 16 vote that the Act to Prevent
Predatory Marketing Practices against Minors is unconstitutional in
that it violates the First Amendment, according to mediapost.com.
The law prohibits Maine teens who do not have parental permission
from providing their medical information on some informational social
networking Web sites, such as something-fishy.com, which offers support
and counsel for people with eating disorders. The company that hosts
the Web site is technically in violation of the Maine law.
The federal Children’s
Online Privacy Protection Act already restricts companies from collecting
medical information about children under 13.
The Maine Independent Colleges
Association and NetChoice are among those that opposed the Maine law.
Maine Attorney General
Janet Mills said Sept. 9 that the law violates the First Amendment
and said she would not enforce it.
Reinsch said lawmakers
in Maine are committed to refining the language of the law to make
it more specific about the collection of minors’ health-related
information, according to mediapost.com.
Search
warrants, affidavits unsealed in Letterman case
Norwalk, Conn., Superior
Court Judge Bruce Hudock sided with arguments by The Associated Press
and The New York Post when he unsealed search warrants and affidavits
Oct. 15 in the case against a CBS television news producer, Robert
J. “Joe” Halderman, the AP reported. Halderman is charged
with extortion for trying to blackmail television star David Letterman.
The documents, including
search warrants for Halderman’s house and car, reveal that Halderman
attempted to extort $2 million from Letterman by threatening to expose
an affair he had with “Late Show” staff member Stephanie
Birkitt, according to the Post. Letterman’s lawyer, James Jackoway,
sent Halderman a check for that amount, which he received Sept. 30.
The next day, Halderman was arrested in New York City and
charged with blackmail, according to the Post.
The prosecution in the
case against Halderman had originally requested that the documents
stay sealed because they could deter witnesses from testifying, AP
reported.
The warrants were released
with several names and anything construed as witness-identifying information
blacked out, per Hudock’s Oct. 15 ruling.
The items
above were written, at least in part, from published reports by Bret
Silverberg, a graduate student at the Northeastern University School
of Journalism and member of the Bulletin staff.
