Journalists unseal court cases
In EXPOSÉ's "In a Small Town," a court clerk and an anonymous source lead reporter Peter Zuckerman to sealed court cases documenting past sexual abuse within the Boy Scouts of America.
Other papers have examined court records and discovered instances of potentially improper sealing. For example, the LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL found sealed cases involving powerful people, dangerous products, the sexual abuse of minors, sometimes even the judges' own friends and relatives. Journalists need to access those files to find out the facts that allow them to report responsibly. Some, including Poynter.org's Al Tompkins, argue that sealing cases violates the public's right to know, and that "open courts are a bedrock principle worth defending."
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press also published some tips for reporters covering sealed cases.
Comments
This episode was AMAZING!
I just saw it half an hour ago & had to come online about it. They covered up this story & that is a crime. This guy hurt at least 24 children & they kept re-hiring him? In that part of Idaho, the two things people dare not question were finally brought into the light for the imperfections they have.
Posted by: Samantha | September 30, 2007 03:12 PM
Nobody covered up this story. Stowell was arrested at the Boy Scout camp when the boys reported. The Post Register reported this contemporaneously with the events. Stowell was hired as a Scout leader as an adult. When he was hired by the scouts, the only known occasion of previous child abuse was nearly ten years earlier when he was a teenager - himself previously abused. One can question whether he should have been hired, but one cannot accuse the Scouts of knowing that he had previously molested 24 children. Those abuses came to light after Stowell was arrested.
Posted by: Michelle | October 4, 2007 01:27 PM
If there was no cover up, why did the Boy Scouts of America hire two top Idaho law firms to seal court records pertaining to the Stowell cases?
That, by definition, is a cover up.
Posted by: Tracy | October 6, 2007 01:50 PM
I have been a camp director for a local council of the BSA. In a great majority of cases the hiring of camp staff is a part time summer thing. The adult staff is most often someone who has a position in something such as education which frees them up for the summer months. It is incumbent on the the council to do SOME screening prior to authorizing their hiring.
I get the feeling that there was/is a great deal more to this story which probably was left out in the editing due to time restraints and the inability to present positive proof of other related aspects.
In light of that I do commend what was presented. Both the newspaper staff and Expose have done an exeptionally good job here.
Posted by: Len J | October 13, 2007 06:24 AM