Press Seaks Unsealing in Tracy Child Murder Case

Posted by Terry Francke, General Counsel | May 14, 2010 | Legal Issue: Public Information | 0 |

PUBLIC INFORMATION — Three news companies filed a motion Wednesday to lift the gag order and
unseal court records in the Sandra Cantu murder case, reports the Tracy Press.

The
Associated Press, The Record in Stockton, and the Bay Area News Group
filed a motion citing public interest to overturn a ruling by Judge
Linda Lofthus that bars witnesses and others involved in the case from
talking about it, and keeps case documents secret, according to the AP.

Huckaby
pleaded guilty Monday to kidnapping and murdering 8-year-old Sandra,
who disappeared March 27 last year from the mobile home park they both
lived in.

Lofthus put a gag order in the case early on, but
during Monday's hearing, neither prosecutor Thomas Testa nor defense
attorney Sam Behar objected to lifting the gag order.

The AP
reported media lawyers argued in court filings that Huckaby's guilty
plea negates any need for a gag order at this point, and its removal
would shed light on the case.

Lofthus at Monday's hearing said
she needed more time to think about the gag order and was unprepared to
lift it or open the case file to the public.

A hearing to argue
for its removal is scheduled for May 24.

About The Editor

Terry Francke, General Counsel

Terry Francke has a 39-year history of helping journalists, citizens and public officials understand and use their First Amendment and open government rights. With CalAware, Francke has authored comprehensive and authoritative guidebooks to California law on access to government meetings and public records and the news gathering and publication rights of journalists. Focusing on these issues in public forum law, he supervises CalAware's legislative and litigation initiatives; conducts workshops on legal compliance; helps design public records audits; supports local sunshine ordinance drafting efforts; writes CalAware Today, a blog on current developments and proposals in the law and best practices; and answers countless queries by phone and e-mail from citizens, journalists, public officials and employees, and lawyers. Francke previously served 14 years as executive director and general counsel to the California First Amendment Coalition, after a 10-year post as legal counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Association. He has served as an advisory panel member to the National Center on Courts and the Media; taught journalism law at the Department of Communication at Stanford University; and served as an expert contributor to the 1994 major revisions to the Ralph M. Brown Act and the 2004 ballot proposition making open government a basic right of citizens under the California Constitution. Francke is a 1967 graduate of the University of Notre Dame and a 1979 graduate of McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific. Prior to his legal career, Francke worked as a weekly newspaper editor and in military and local government public affairs positions.

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