Closed court records

Disciplinary records related to citizen complaints against Chicago police officers will not be released to the public in a lawsuit brought by a reporter and local government officials, a federal appeals court ruled Nov. 10.

The findings of a city-funded investigation into hostile workplace allegations against a judge and his staff are public under Washington records law, and should be released to a local newspaper, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The opinion upholding a trial court ruling came days after oral arguments in Morgan v. City of Federal Way, in which municipal Judge Michael Morgan had sought to keep the investigative report under wraps.

A Florida Bar committee is proposing a rule that would eliminate access to recordings of court proceedings.

For decades, many Florida courts have provided recordings of court proceedings to the public. The recordings are available more quickly than a written transcript, and typically cost a few dollars rather than hundreds or even thousands of dollars for a transcript.

The South Dakota Supreme Court decided last week to seal jury records from the public in a bid to protect personal information and identities.

With the rule change, the court policy went from favoring disclosure to closure: As of Nov. 1, “All records, lists, papers, tickets, and other materials used in all stages of the jury selection process shall be preserved in the custody of the clerk of courts."

In response to a media group’s push for greater access to a sweeping public corruption investigation in El Paso, Texas, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas agreed Tuesday to make available some redacted transcripts, but opposed any broader order forcing transparency in the case.   

The Montana Supreme Court last week refused to release the disciplinary records of a former  city prosecutor who was fired for ethical violations but was then hired as a county public defender.

From The Dallas Morning News: A Texas-bordering Mexican state where the drug trade subsists on public corruption, and murders this year have topped 700, is trying a new approach to crime: Public trials, with the burden of proof now foisted onto the government.

The Associated Press wants a Pennsylvania judge to open up his inquiry into grand jury leaks from a casino owner's perjury case, in an ongoing matter that has so far seen more than a dozen subpoenas of reporters sent out, and then quashed.

A federal trial court judge in Washington, D.C. unsealed a previous ruling in a civil lawsuit against Exxon Mobil Oil Indonesia. In the suit, 11 Indonesian villagers allege that the oil giant continued to arm soldiers guarding their facilities even though it knew that the soldiers tortured and killed villagers in 2000.

Parts of more than 2,000 court cases in Oklahoma were sealed between 2003 and 2007, including divorce documents, wrongful death settlements and name changes, according to a sweeping account of court secrecy by the Tulsa World.