TPD Caught With Their Pants Down, Again!

Did anyone see the front page of Saturday's St. Pete Times, Tampa & State? It's a real beauty!

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/06/17/Tampabay/Courts_answer_to_secr.shtml

http://www.pointlesswasteoftime.com/captions/thong.jpg

Courts answer to secret records
The Pinellas clerk says he was following a judge's order to seal numerous cases. In Hillsborough, names in 14 cases are released.
By CURTIS KRUEGER, STEPHEN NOHLGREN and CARRIE WEIMAR
Published June 17, 2006

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Court officials on both sides of Tampa Bay scrambled Friday to account for secret court records, including one against the Tampa Police Department.

In Pinellas County, Court Clerk Ken Burke said his office followed the chief judge's order when it sealed numerous cases and kept them from public view.

In Hillsborough County, court officials released the names of people involved in 14 family and civil cases that were kept off the computerized public docket.

Dockets are indexes to case files, usually computerized, that tell what kind of case it is, who is involved and what paperwork was filed, including any judge's order sealing the case file.

One of those is an active case filed in 2004 by Richard S. Cochran against Tampa, the Tampa Police Department and police Chief Stephen Hogue.

Cochran was seeking an injunction, but because it was sealed by Circuit Judge Claudia Isom, it was not clear why a judge decided that a case involving a city government should be kept from public view.

Isom also sealed another of the 14 cases. In all, 13 judges sealed cases that were kept off the computerized docket.

Hillsborough routinely keeps sealed cases off the computerized docket, effectively shielding their existence.

Hillsborough officials said they did not intentionally hide the existence of sealed court files. The computer does not show the docket information, which includes the names of the parties involved and the case number.

"We inherited an imperfect system," Court Clerk Pat Frank's office said in a statement. "We are looking for an interim fix while we find a more permanent solution."

Pinellas has sealed civil cases involving sexual violence and kept all record of them out of public view.

Burke, who became clerk in January 2005, said Thursday that it appeared that his staff improperly sealed about 185 cases involving sexual violence since 2001, thinking they were following state law.

On Friday, he pointed to a November 2004 court order from Pinellas-Pasco Chief Judge David Demers requiring the clerks to seal "all court records for a person seeking a sexual violence injunction.''

Demers said in a statement that "at the time this administrative order was prepared, Pasco County was not sealing these records and Pinellas County was. This order was designed to bring the two clerks' offices into conformity in accord with the statutes mentioned in the (order). There was no discussion that I can recall about whether the records would be removed from the public docket.''

He added: "In light of recent developments, I will review'' the order and determine whether changes are needed, including whether they should be listed on a public docket.

It was unclear how many cases were sealed before and after Demers issued the order.

First Amendment lawyers questioned whether those cases were properly sealed and also whether removing all information from a public docket is permissible.

The scrutiny of sealed court cases in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties comes in the wake of a controversy in Broward County, where Attorney General Charlie Crist is investigating a secret docket of more than 100 sealed court cases involving prominent figures, including a former presidential speech writer, judges and a former elections supervisor.

Lawyers familiar with public records law said Demers may have overstepped his bounds with his order. The law Demers cited refers to criminal records, but his order concerns civil cases.

Demers' order dealt with court records of people seeking restraining orders on their behalf or on behalf of children because of sexual violence.

He cited a portion of state public records law that says "the identity of a person who is a victim of any sexual offense'' is exempt from public disclosure and should be sealed in "all court records.''

Burke said this is the reason the docket sheets of these cases were removed from public view.

Even if such cases could be legally sealed, removing the docket from public view could have terrible repercussions, said Barbara Petersen, president of the First Amendment Foundation in Tallahassee.

"Say your daughter is getting married, and you want to know about the guy she is marrying," Petersen said. "It's very easy to go to the courthouse and search the docket.

"You could have someone you want as a tennis coach for your child, and someone has alleged sexual abuse against him. It's frightening."

Meanwhile, Burke said, his office will review 43 other sealed civil cases to see if it overstepped the law by withholding from the public basic docket information. These 43 cases include such matters as simplified divorces, name changes, contract matters and declaratory judgments.

Burke said he expects that after the review, it's likely that docket sheets of some of these cases will be made public, even if the court files remain sealed.

First he wants a legal opinion of what should be made public and what should not.

Without a public docket, the public has no idea that the case exists, said Robert Rivas, a Tallahassee lawyer who specializes in media law.

"I have never heard of any case in Florida that says there is any prerogative to have a secret docket."

So what? Someone sued TPD (gee, that never happened before) and the COURT decided to seal the record. How is that "TPD getting caught with their pants down?" TPD didn't do anything wrong, as the last time I checked, a police department has no way to seal a court record....

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