Supreme Court hears sealed records case

OLYMPIA, Wash. - Arguing that it’s in the public’s interest to know how taxpayer money is spent to defend suspected criminals, the Yakima Herald-Republic today asked the state Supreme Court to refine the limits of court secrecy.

During an hour-long oral argument at the Temple of Justice this morning, the newspaper’s lawyer argued that the Washington Public Records Act must be reconciled with a Yakima County judge’s order that sealed the expenses. The sealed records have made it impossible to scrutinize how attorneys in a 2005 double-homicide case spent more than $2 million in public funds defending the two accused killers, the newspaper argued.

“There are broad systemic issues here,” Michelle Earl-Hubbard told the court. “Clearly, guidance is needed across the state.”

The newspaper contends receipts and other billing records in the case were improperly classified by Yakima County officials as judicial records and should be subject to the state’s landmark Public Records Act of 1972. That position was at the heart of today’s arguments, because the Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that judicial records are exempt from the public records law. The high court reaffirmed its position as recently as October.

This morning, the justices repeatedly questioned procedural problems in the Yakima County case, because the sealing order itself was sealed. As a result, the justices expressed confusion over the nature of the dispute ... and how to resolve it.

“Our problem is, we’re swinging in the dark,” Justice Tom Chambers complained.

The newspaper wants access to receipts and other billing records submitted by attorneys for Jose Luis Sanchez Jr., one of two defendants in the 2005 shooting deaths of 21-year-old Ricky Causor and his 3-year-old daughter, Mya, during a drug rip-off in Yakima.

After Sanchez was convicted and sentenced to life without parole in 2008, the newspaper sought to review billing records totaling more than $1.5 million in fees and expenses for Sanchez’s court-appointed attorneys.

However, attorneys for Yakima County argued the records were sealed by court order and that the county could be cited for contempt for releasing them without a judge’s permission.

In a separate but related lawsuit, the Herald-Republic is seeking similar records involving Sanchez’s co-defendant Mario Gil Mendez, whose defense cost about $560,000. As in the Sanchez case, taxpayers financed Mendez’s defense.

That suit is now before the state Court of Appeals. The records for the two defendants took divergent paths on appeal because Sanchez is appealing his conviction while Mendez, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 years in prison, has no appeal rights.

Attorneys for both defendants have argued that unsealing the records would set a bad precedent that could jeopardize the rights of defendants in criminal cases to a fair trial.

“If Mr. Sanchez had money, we wouldn’t be here,” appellate attorney Greg Link told the Supreme Court, noting that a defendant who hires his own attorney does not have to submit “to the public looking over his shoulder.”

Most of the justices’ questions focused not on the constitutional rights of defendants but on the procedure by which the court records in the double-homicide case were sealed.

“How can the county claim to be complying with an order that no one ... has seen?” asked Justice James Johnson.

A decision in the case is not expected for months, perhaps even a year or more.

• Chris Bristol can be reached at 509-577-7748 or at cbristol@yakimaherald.com