Media group fights for court transparency

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8 August 2008

The El Paso Media Group and Newspaper Tree filed a 12 page motion in federal court, seeking transparency in a public corruption case stemming from an FBI investigation. The motion asks the court to unseal past documents from the case and open up future hearings to the public.

Contents

Sealed documents and hearings

On June 8, Travis Ketner plead guilty to 3 counts of conspiracy to commit mail or wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery. Ever since Ketner, the former chief of staff for El Paso County Judge Anthony Cobos, plead guilty in the case, nearly all documents and proceedings have been sealed by court order. Since then, eight others have also entered guilty pleas.[1]

The motion alleges that 35 of the 80 targeted by the FBI probe are "past or current public officials," creating even more of a reason the proceedings should be fully transparent to the public.

Some documents released

The media group's motion is not the first to seek access to documents in the case. On March 23, a motion was filed by Carl Starr in an attempt to discover just why records were being kept so secret. Federal Judge Frank Montalvo responded to the motion, stating that making content available to the public would "risk the livelihood and welfare of the persons who have cooperated in this investigation."[2]

However, the motion did succeed in the release of some documents in redacted form.

The Court responds

In response to the motion filed by El Paso Media Group and Newspaper Tree, Judge Montalvo issued a one-paragraph order forcing the government to respond to the motion by September 5.[3] A local FBI spokeswoman declined comment, while calls to Montalvo's chambers were not returned.[4]

References

  1. ↑ El Paso Times, Local media group files motion asking court to unseal public corruption documents, August 6, 2008
  2. ↑ El Paso Times, Local media group files motion asking court to unseal public corruption documents, August 6, 2008
  3. ↑ Newspaper Tree, Judge orders government to respond to open court motion in corruption case, August 7, 2008
  4. ↑ KVIA ABC-7, Montalvo: Gov't must respond to open court motion by Sept. 5, August 6, 2008
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