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Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Courts - Kentucky judge rejects mayoral candidate's motion to seal divorce files

Andrew Wolfson reported yesterday in the Louisville Courier Journal:

A judge Tuesday rejected a motion by Louisville mayoral candidate Jim King and his ex-wife, Rebecca, to seal their two divorce files from the 1980s, including one in which she accused him of physically, emotionally and verbally abusing her.

“This court on a weekly basis hears testimony from clients that is highly personal and very public,” Jefferson County Family Court Judge Patty Walker FitzGerald said after a hearing. “The fact is that divorce cases in this state are open.”

While FitzGerald refused to seal the cases entirely, she said she will allow lawyers for the Kings to argue Wednesday for withholding specific documents. She also said she will seal financial records and evaluations of the Kings’ children, which she said are confidential under current court rules.

Lawyers for the Kings indicated that they would appeal the decision to the Court of Appeals. * * *

Attorneys for the Kings — Don Cox and Janice Lintner for Rebecca King and Mark Dobbins for Jim King — argued that the files contain material that would harm their children and grandchildren if made public.

The lawyers also said that the U.S Supreme Court has said that judges have the authority to insure that their records “are not used to gratify, spite or prompt public scandal through the publication of the painful and sometimes disgusting details of a divorce case.”

But attorney Tim Napier argued for The Courier-Journal — which last Saturday published a story about allegations in the 1981 case and opposed the motion to seal — that divorce records have historically been open in Kentucky.

Referring to the allegations against Jim King, Napier said, “The very person who is alleged to have done these things is now running for the highest elected office in the city.”

The Kings filed a motion Tuesday to find The Courier-Journal and reporter Joseph Gerth, who wrote last week’s story, in contempt for reporting on the 1981 case file after FitzGerald said Friday that she was temporarily sealing both files pending Tuesday’s hearing.

But FitzGerald said Tuesday that the file obtained by the newspaper was not sealed when it was given to a reporter by the clerk’s office earlier last week, and Cox announced that the Kings were withdrawing the contempt motion, at least for now.

On June 14, 2004 the ILB posted an entry on a similar situation involving the U.S. Senate race in Illinois, a race that then little-known Barack Obama would ultimately win. The Chicago Tribune story is still available.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 28, 2009 11:22 AM
Posted to Courts in general