Warrants unsealed in slaying of UVa student

Orders sealing search warrant records in connection with the death of University of Virginia student Yeardley Love were unsealed Tuesday, although three of them had information redacted first.

Albemarle County Circuit Judge Cheryl Higgins ordered Tuesday after a hearing that the orders be unsealed, but required that information about the people, places, accounts or things being searched be sealed. The hearing was spurred by a request made by several media outlets — The Daily Progress, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Washington Post and the Associated Press — after learning that certain search warrant records had been sealed.

The sealing orders seal search warrant records regarding the death of 22-year-old Love. George Huguely, a former fourth-year University of Virginia student and lacrosse player, has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with her death.

The orders, all of which Higgins signed, request that the court temporarily seal a variety of search warrants, search warrant affidavits and related documents in connection with Huguely’s case.

The orders said that the requests were made because the investigation is ongoing, the events have received widespread media attention and the information in the documents may become evidence at trial.

The documents also said publicly sharing the sealed information could negatively affect law enforcement’s investigation and the selection of an impartial jury “that is free from the influence of any pretrial publicity.”

The signature of Dave Chapman, the commonwealth’s attorney in Charlottesville, is present on each order under the line, “I ask for this.” Chapman said in court that the information that he requested to be redacted came from the sealed warrants themselves and is contained in a separate paragraph from the explanations as to why the order was requested.

Roman Lifson, an attorney representing the media outlets, said in court that he had concerns over what information was being redacted, but viewing the redacted orders was better than having nothing at all.

A hearing on an expected motion to unseal the warrants is tentatively scheduled for July 1, which is longer than the three days that Lifson requested and shorter than the month that Chapman requested.

Lifson said in court that his clients don’t want the case to drag on.

“If the Commonwealth had evidence to justify the sealing a month ago, that is when it should have been presented,” Lifson said.

Chapman said he needed more time to gather witnesses because the media’s motion affects many different kinds of search warrants.

The prosecutor also said in court that the attorney representing the media outlets wasted weeks by filing a writ of mandamus, which Higgins previously denied. Higgins previously ruled that the media should have filed a challenge directly to the sealing order rather than trying to force Paul C. Garrett, the city circuit court clerk, to hand over the document.

“Now last week they filed a petition that should have been filed weeks ago,” Chapman said in court.

McGregor McCance, managing editor of The Daily Progress, said after court that he understands why there have been delays in the complex case. He said no decision has been made as to whether the media outlets’ attorney will request the unsealing of the warrant records.

“We’re just looking forward to seeing the documents today,” McCance said Tuesday.