Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Bob Gabordi, editor of the Asheville Citizen-Times a few years ago, is now the editor at the Tallahassee Democrat in Florida. Gabordi’s newspaper is suing for access to court records in the case of Gary Michael Hilton, who has been charged with killing a Florida woman. Hilton is already serving a life sentence for killing a Georgia woman. And Hilton is a suspect in the deaths of a Henderson County couple who were found dead after going out for a hike.
Here’s part of the story:
An attorney for the Tallahassee Democrat continued to press for release of documents in the Gary Michael Hilton murder case during a pretrial hearing Friday in Leon Circuit Court.
Meanwhile, prosecutors and defense attorneys couldn’t agree on a trial date for Hilton, charged with first-degree murder in the 2007 slaying of Crawfordville resident Cheryl Dunlap.
Leon Circuit Judge Terry Lewis earlier this year approved the release of discovery materials in the case with the condition that details that the prosecution or defense thought could prejudice a jury would be redacted.
Michael Glazer, attorney for the Tallahassee Democrat, argued that the public has a right to see the documents before the trial, just as they typically do in criminal proceedings. He said attorneys who have sought to keep pretrial evidence closed haven’t done a good job of “policing themselves.”
“What’s important about this deals with the public’s right of access,” he said. “This is not about the Democrat. This is about the public’s right.”
The Tallahassee Democrat filed a motion to obtain the pretrial evidence and challenge the closure of any information that’s customarily released.
Assistant Public Defender Ines Suber said she was strongly opposed to the release of pretrial evidence and criticized previous news articles that detailed elements of the case.
“They had the nerve to do their own investigation and were harassing witnesses,” Suber said of reporters. “No one was there to say you don’t have to talk.”
Lewis instructed the prosecution and defense to go through records in the case and highlight information they feel should be kept closed. Both sides will meet again with Lewis in an Oct. 23 hearing to discuss pretrial document closure. Lewis will make the final decision on which records should be released.
