News-Press Pub. Co., Inc. v. State
| Decision Date | 13 May 1977 |
| Docket Number | No. 76-1108,NEWS-PRESS,76-1108 |
| Citation | 345 So.2d 865 |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
| Parties | PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC., d/b/a Fort Myers News-Press, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida et al., Appellees. |
Steven Carta of Smith & Carta, Fort Myers, for appellant.
Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and Richard G. Pippinger, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tampa, for appellee State of Fla.
This case involves an attack upon a court order sealing the depositions taken in a criminal case.
Richard Albert Woodrick, Jr. was indicted for first degree murder. In connection with the prosecution of that action, numerous depositions were taken. At some point in time, the court before whom the case was pending ordered that these depositions be sealed from the public. Thereafter, but prior to trial, Woodrick entered a plea of guilty to the crime of second degree murder and received a sentence of fifteen years. On or about the date of sentencing one of appellant's reporters requested the opportunity to inspect the depositions which had been taken in the proceeding and was informed that the depositions had been sealed by order of the court. The appellant then filed a motion for limited intervention seeking to set aside the order which had sealed the depositions. Following a hearing, the court entered an order granting the motion for limited intervention but denying the motion to set aside the order sealing the depositions.
At the outset, we note that this is not a case of prior restraint since the court has not sought to prohibit the press from publishing any information it may have obtained. Nevertheless, the order in question does have the practical effect of making it more difficult for the press to obtain information about the case which it may wish to publish. Thus, the appellant was properly permitted to intervene. While appellant has attacked the order by way of appeal, we treat this appeal as a petition for certiorari.
The only Florida case directly bearing upon the issue before us is Miami Herald Publishing Company v. Collazo, 329 So.2d 333 (Fla. 3d DCA 1976). There, the trial court, at the request of both parties, directed that the terms of settlement of a civil case which had been reported to the court in closed proceedings be sealed from the public. In reversing the order which sealed the judgment containing the details of the settlement, our sister court held that there existed in that case 'none of the persuasive or cogent reasons generally required to justify denying the right of the press or public to know what takes place in the courts.'
By virtue of its inherent power to control the conduct of its own proceedings, there is little doubt that under certain circumstances the courts may exclude the public and the press from its proceedings, but such authority must be cautiously exercised. State ex rel. Gore Newspapers Company v. Tyson, 313 So.2d 777 (Fla. 4th DCA 1975). As applied to the instant case, a showing that the opening of the depositions might endanger a person's life could well justify the order entered below. On the other hand, an understandable desire to protect the victim's family from exposure of the details of what was apparently a heinous...
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State v. Cianci, s. 84-31-M
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