A Maricopa County Superior Court will hold a hearing on Wednesday to decide if the the records of a grand-jury investigation into the Phoenix New Times newspaper should be unsealed.
The County Attorney, Andrew Thomas, says he has closed the investigation and dropped the underlying charges against the alternative weekly newspaper. This was only after newspaper writers, lawyers, bloggers, and people interested in freedom in general made a fuss.
Thomas said he will not contest the public-records request by The Arizona Republic and Channel 12 to have the case unsealed.
"The application to unseal the grand-jury material is intended to help the public understand what in the world necessitated this protracted investigation of a newspaper on a misdemeanor charge," said Republic attorney David Bodney. "We hope to determine if there was a misuse of process or power by the special prosecutor. And if there was abuse, to make sure it doesn't happen again."
Well put.
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1 comment:
Thank goodness that this is one story that had a less than depressing ending.
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