{"id":627903,"date":"2018-09-21T07:00:56","date_gmt":"2018-09-21T13:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=627903"},"modified":"2018-09-20T16:05:42","modified_gmt":"2018-09-20T22:05:42","slug":"secrecy-in-nm-federal-courts-goes-deeper-than-documents-defense-lawyers-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/09\/secrecy-in-nm-federal-courts-goes-deeper-than-documents-defense-lawyers-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Secrecy in NM federal courts goes deeper than documents, defense lawyers say"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_624825\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-624825\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/IMG_5801-1170x878-771x579.jpg\" alt=\"United States Courthouse in Albuquerque\" width=\"771\" height=\"579\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/IMG_5801-1170x878-771x579.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/IMG_5801-1170x878-336x252.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/IMG_5801-1170x878-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/IMG_5801-1170x878.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/IMG_5801-1170x878-800x600.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Marjorie Childress \/ New Mexico In Depth<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The United States Courthouse in Albuquerque<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A new federal court filing indicates the practice of secrecy at New Mexico federal courts expands beyond the improper sealing of documents to improperly closing off court proceedings from the public.<\/p>\n<p>Assistant Federal Public Defenders John Robbenhaar and Aric Elsenheimer\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/4906144-Objection-to-Sealing-Hearing-in-Jackson.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">filed a document<\/a>\u00a0last week alleging that an Aug. 3 court hearing was sealed \u2014 meaning no one besides parties to the case could enter during the proceeding \u2014 without their knowledge.<\/p>\n<p>A transcript of the hearing also was sealed without their input, the filing says.<\/p>\n<p>On Sept. 4, New Mexico In Depth\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmindepth.com\/2018\/09\/04\/improperly-sealed-lawyers-not-judges-selecting-which-nm-fed-court-documents-stay-secret\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">published a story<\/a>\u00a0showing that prosecutors and defense lawyers have been choosing which documents to file \u201cunder seal\u201d \u2014 meaning the public cannot see them \u2014 even though judges are supposed to make those decisions, according to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/4807018-NM-Federal-Court-Rules.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the court\u2019s own rules<\/a>.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article comes from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmindepth.com\/2018\/09\/20\/secrecy-practice-in-nm-federal-court-goes-deeper-than-documents-defense-lawyers-say\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New Mexico In Depth<\/a>. Sign up for\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmindepth.us6.list-manage.com\/subscribe?u=1d2ab093d81b992e50978b363&amp;id=9294743d38\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">their newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>The case at issue involves two black men, Lonnie Jackson and Diamond Coleman, who were arrested in 2016 as part of a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmindepth.com\/series\/stunginabq\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">large-scale undercover sting operation<\/a>\u00a0carried out in Albuquerque by the federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Chief U.S. District Judge William P. \u201cChip\u201d Johnson, who oversaw the Aug. 3 hearing, inherited the case from former chief judge and now-Senior U.S. District Judge Christina Armijo.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, Jackson and Coleman asked Armijo to order federal prosecutors to turn over a trove of documents. Armijo\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmindepth.com\/2018\/04\/24\/legal-wrangling-could-pose-challenge-to-proving-racial-profiling-claims\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">granted the request<\/a>, saying the two men would have no chance to prove their racial profiling claims without the records, but Johnson has appeared more skeptical of the men\u2019s allegations.<\/p>\n<p>He invited federal prosecutors to ask him to reconsider Armijo\u2019s order. The Aug. 3 hearing was set to let prosecutors and defense lawyers argue their cases for whether the government should turn over the records.<\/p>\n<p>Unknown to the public defenders, the hearing itself was held in secret, the filing says \u2014 something they did not know until Sept. 11, when the public defenders received a transcript of the hearing. It was marked, \u201csealed proceeding,\u201d according to the new filing from Robbenhaar and Elsenheimer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNone of the representatives of the Federal Public Defender present at the hearing \u2026 recall any discussion of sealing the hearing, either on or off the record,\u201d they wrote. The lawyers also wrote one of their supervisors had attempted to enter the courtroom during the hearing and was denied by court security.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>It is not clear, the public defenders wrote, whether Johnson decided to seal the hearing on his own, or whether prosecutors were involved in or aware of the decision. Either way, they say the move violates Jackson\u2019s and Coleman\u2019s Sixth Amendment right to a public trial.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson has sustained the written objection, court records show, and ordered that the transcript be unsealed. A barrier remains, however: Journalists or others who want a copy of the transcript before Dec. 12 would have to pay more than $100 for it.<\/p>\n<p>And it appears the secrecy surrounding the case will continue.<\/p>\n<p>According to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/4906145-Clerk-s-Notes-for-9-18-18-Hearing-on-Sealing-in.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">published clerk\u2019s minutes<\/a>\u00a0from a status conference in the Jackson\/Coleman matter on Tuesday, Johnson indicated that he would rule on prosecutors\u2019 motion to reconsider Armijo\u2019s order by the end of the week.<\/p>\n<p>He plans to issue that ruling under seal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new filing indicates the practice of secrecy at New Mexico federal courts includes improperly closing off court proceedings from the public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":624825,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[161,706],"class_list":["post-627903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-judiciary","tag-transparency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}