Gag order

The judge in the shooting-spree case against James Holmes heard arguments Thursday on why court documents should be publicly available, but did not rule on the motion.

More than 20 news organizations are asking Chief District Judge William Sylvester to reconsider his decision to seal court documents in the case against Holmes, accused of killing 12 and wounding 58 people at an Aurora movie theater last month.

A Colorado judge denied the media's request to film and photograph Monday's hearing of the man accused of killing 12 and wounding 58 people at an Aurora movie theater last week.

Arapahoe County District Court Judge William Sylvester has ordered that no cameras or audio recording be allowed at James Holmes' July 30 hearing where charges are expected to be filed against him. The order is part of a broader trend of restrictions issued by Sylvester limiting press coverage in the Colorado shooting.

In the backdrop of mounting media attention, the attorneys for two boys withdrew their motion on Monday to charge a 17-year-old Kentucky teenager for contempt after she potentially violated a court order by identifying them on Twitter as her attackers in a juvenile sexual assault case.

“There you go, lock me up,” Savannah Dietrich tweeted when she named the teens who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting her. “I’m not protecting anyone that made my life a living Hell.”

Ordering lawyers to comply with rules of professional conduct was a less restrictive alternative to issuing a gag order during a high-profile politically charged Alabama gambling-corruption retrial, the presiding judge said in an opinion explaining the rationale for his decision yesterday.

A Pennsylvania judge denied a request by two Pittsburgh-area newspapers to make public documents relating to a settlement between several gas drilling corporations and a local family, stating that the newspapers failed to petition before the documents were sealed.

A Texas district judge unhappy about media coverage has loosened -- but not completely eliminated -- a court order that severely limited news gathering in a murder trial in Fort Worth after a newspaper requested her to reconsider.