Sealed cases

NBC Universal, on behalf of its affiliate station WNBC-TV, and The New York Times Co. have asked to intervene in a bankruptcy proceeding concerning investors in Bernard Madoff's company in order to gain access to key court documents.

A federal judge’s original ruling on a Guantanamo Bay detainee’s habeas corpus case disappeared and was replaced weeks later with a new ruling containing major deletions and no notice to the public of a change, a ProPublica reporter found.

An Idaho district court granted a county prosecutor’s request to seal court documents and proceedings from the public last month in a case involving a junior high school teacher accused of sexually abusing an underage student online, according to The Times-News of Twin Falls, Idaho.

A United States military judge has sealed the plea agreement in the first conviction at Guantanamo Bay under the Obama administration.

Judge and Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Nancy J. Paul sealed the plea agreement at the request of the government and with the consent of the defense attorneys in the case of Ibrahim al-Qosi, a native Sudanese and former cook for al-Qaida. Last month, al-Qosi pled guilty to conspiracy and material support for terrorism. He has been detained at Guantanamo for over eight years.

News organizations are asking a state judge to unseal the search warrant affidavit that led to police searching an editor's phone for evidence about a missing iPhone prototype, The Los Angeles Times and Wired reported.

A Pennsylvania judge has sealed the entire docket in a case involving a criminal indictment against a state senator, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday extended a ban on secrecy in civil court cases to criminal proceedings.

The former leader of a prominent Mexican drug cartel was sentenced to 25 years in prison during a closed hearing on Wednesday, The Houston Chronicle reported.

Osiel Cardenas Guillen had pleaded guilty to killing two U.S. federal agents and a Cameron Country sheriff’s deputy. Much of his case has taken place in closed hearings and many of the documents have been sealed -- Wednesday’s hearing was no exception.

A terrorism suspect was arrested, arraigned and indicted on a felony charge but the proceedings were closed and the sealed court docket lists him only as John Doe, The New York Times reported.

The federal judge who dismissed murder charges against Blackwater security guards after a closed hearing on whether evidence against them was tainted will release redacted transcripts of those hearings, according to The BLT.

The Washington Post had asked the court to release the transcripts last week.