Lawyers clashed Tuesday over a court order sealing search warrant records in the slaying of University of Virginia student Yeardley Love, but a judge decided she needed more time to rule whether to open the order to the public.
After a hearing on the petition Tuesday in Albemarle County Circuit Court, Judge Cheryl Higgins said she wanted to review briefs in the case and would share her ruling May 26.
The Daily Progress, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Washington Post and the Associated Press filed the request May 11, a week after search warrant records in connection with Love’s death were sealed from the public’s view. George Huguely, 22, a fourth-year UVa student and a lacrosse player, was charged May 3 with first-degree murder and other charges in connection with Love’s death.
Craig Merritt, the Richmond-based lawyer representing the media outlets, said in court Tuesday that his clients are requesting to make public the sealed order that seals the records filed in the Charlottesville Circuit Court Clerk’s Office.
“We’re trying to discern what the contents of the orders are,” Merritt said. “… There may be a very valid reason for closing the search warrants, but we can’t determine that without the order.”
Alexander Francuzenko, a Fairfax-based lawyer representing city Circuit Court Clerk Paul G. Garrett, said in court that Merritt had filed the wrong type of petition to unseal the order. According to a motion to dismiss that Francuzenko filed Monday, the “petition of writ of mandamus” is an “extraordinary remedy” that should only be used when the litigant has no other legal options.
The Daily Progress obtained a search warrant inventory May 5 from the clerk’s office that said police found, among other things, a red-stained UVa lacrosse shirt and a letter to Love at Huguely’s apartment.
The petition said a Washington Post reporter went to the clerk’s office to view that search warrant record but was told that it and other such records were sealed. The order sealing those documents was sealed as well.
Francuzenko said the media outlets should have filed a motion to intervene in the criminal case. Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman said in court that because the request wasn’t brought before the city’s circuit court, it shouldn’t be considered.
Merritt said that Huguely’s case is in the Charlottesville General District Court; search warrant records are kept in the Charlottesville Circuit Court.
How the order came to be remains unknown. Huguely’s defense attorneys, Francis McQ. Lawrence and Rhonda Quagliana, issued a statement Tuesday saying that they weren’t part of any hearings or communiqués regarding the sealing order, and that they did not seek any materials relating to the search warrants sealed by the court. The statement, which is filed in court records, said that they haven’t taken a position on the document sealing.
Chapman said in court that city officials are in the midst of a criminal investigation in the Huguely case, which has received widespread media attention.
“We have a duty that this is a proceeding that can take place in the city of Charlottesville,” Chapman said in court. “We have a duty that this is a trial that can take place in front of unbiased jurors.”
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