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Monday, April 02, 2007

Ind. Courts - More on "Star files challenge to open adoption records" [Updated]

This ILB entry from March 22nd includes this quote from an Indianapolis Star story of that date:

In a petition filed today with the Indiana Court of Appeals, the newspaper's attorneys argued the public interest would be served by opening the appellate records. The adoptions drew scrutiny after Indiana child welfare officials responded to concerns that hospital employees had raised regarding Melinger's ability to care for the girls before they were discharged from Methodist's neonatal intensive-care unit.
This afternoon the Star has posted this story by Jon Murray, including the following:
Steven C. Litz, Melinger's attorney, has not yet responded to the Star's petition. But he filed a separate motion Thursday seeking a court order to seal the case separately from the restrictions imposed by the adoption law, and also to seal all future court filings such as the Star's.

The Star's petition said the public's interest would be served by making public the legal debate over whether the adoptions violated interstate laws and other restrictions.

"As this court is undoubtedly aware, the same day it filed the motion, the Star ran a front page story on the motion, again referring to confidential information that had been illegally provided to it," Melinger's motion says. "It then sought to justify opening this court's file by referring to the fact that there had been publicity about the case, publicity which it created by obtaining confidential records illegally. Such bootstrapping techniques should not be tolerated by this court..."

In its March 22nd entry, the ILB posted a copy of the public docket in the appeal. The last entry was March 22nd. A check this afternoon shows no new entries to the docket.

[Update 3/3/07] Here is the updated story from today's paper.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 2, 2007 04:02 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts