The California Supreme Court announced today it would not hear a challenge by the Voice of OC and Californians Aware to a superior court’s gag order supporting Orange County’s refusal to release facts underlying an alleged series of sexual abuses by one of its senior managers against women subordinates. The County asked the court for the order barring release just as VOC and CalAware were preparing for a hearing in their Public Records Act lawsuit, seeking records that might show why so many complaints about the manager’s alleged predatory behavior were allowed to accumulate before criminal charges were filed. Full background on the situation, and why the state’s leading newspapers and a national journalist organization found it so troubling for investigative reporting, is found in Tracy’s Wood’s earlier story here.
