In a move opposed by prosecutors and the media, acting Orange County Sheriff Jack Anderson is seeking to extend the seal on thousands of pages of testimony that resulted from the special grand jury investigation into the killing of an inmate at Theo Lacy Jail.
The motion itself was filed under seal this week by county lawyers on Anderson's behalf, further shrouding the grand jury proceedings in secrecy and driving speculation that the move was designed to spare Anderson and his troops more turmoil and embarrassment in the death.
A closed courtroom hearing before Orange County Superior Court Judge James A. Stotler is scheduled for today. The hearing coincides with the expiration of the 10-day deadline under which testimony is normally unsealed in grand jury cases.
Lawyers for The Times and other news organizations planned to ask Stotler to immediately release the estimated 8,000 pages of testimony, in compliance with a state law that requires secret grand jury records to be made public after an indictment is returned and the panel is disbanded.
Kelli Sager, an attorney representing The Times, said the only exception is when a criminal defendant can show that release of the transcripts before trial would affect his or her ability to get a fair shake. In such a case, the court can keep some or all of the transcripts sealed, she said.
Normally, the only parties with standing in the release of the transcripts would be those with a stake in the criminal proceedings -- in this case, county prosecutors or the inmates charged in the killing, Sager said. But it is difficult to tell what the Orange County Sheriff's Department is arguing because the motion is under seal. Sager said she had heard that jail security and personnel issues would be cited as grounds for keeping the transcripts from being immediately made public, in which case "I don't see how they have standing."
"But it's hard to respond to a motion that's filed under seal, which is the first problem," Sager said. "None of this stuff should be filed under seal. The rules of the court require that it be done in public, and that's one of the things we'll be arguing for."
Anderson issued a brief statement Thursday saying that his department had been advised by county counsel that it was inappropriate to comment on the motion, and that he looked forward to the release of the transcripts.
