Hear ye! Hear ye!
The court of public opinion will come to order.
The Sentinel has been spending a fair amount of time in the legal arena in recent days and weeks — pushing for full disclosure in one case and resisting full disclosure in another.
Can the newspaper have it both ways? Should it?
In a word: Yes.
The first case involved Noelle Bush, the 25-year-old daughter of Florida Governor Jeb and niece of United States President George W. She ran afoul of the law Jan. 29 when she posed as a doctor to call in a prescription for the anti-anxiety drug Xanax to a Tallahassee pharmacy.
After her arrest, Bush entered a court-ordered drug-rehabilitation program at the Center for Drug-Free Living in Orlando but in July was caught with a bag of prescription drugs — for which she ended up spending two days in jail. Then, last month, she was found with crack cocaine in her shoe.
Ninth Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Belvin Perry Jr. held a hearing to discuss whether Center for Drug-Free Living workers had to tell police what they had observed but closed the proceeding to the public. The Sentinel objected, and a transcript of the testimony was released.
Editor Tim Franklin explained, “Fundamental to our democracy is the public’s ability to monitor the functions of the judiciary and law enforcement.”
So, when Bush’s attorneys tried to close her future drug-court hearings from public view, the newspaper again objected, and prevailed. When the governor’s daughter was sentenced Thursday to 10 more days in jail, it was in open court — as with everyone else in a similar situation.
The second case involved Quawn Franklin (no relation to the editor), also 25, who confessed two killings and a savage beating to Sentinel staff writer Mark Matthews.
In separate interviews on different occasions, in the presence of Lake County Jail guards, Quawn Franklin told Matthews about shooting to death security guard Jerry Lawley, 61, and pizza-deliveryman John Horan, 30, and beating retired substitute teacher Alice Johnson, 76, with a hammer and leaving her bound with duct tape and bleeding.
Matthews recounted the confessions in articles in the next days’ newspapers.
That wasn’t enough for attorneys for both the prosecution and the defense. They asked a judge to force the Sentinel to hand over the audiotape of the confession to the Lawley killing and the Johnson beating — which the newspaper resisted.
Sentinel attorney David Bralow explained, “It is very important that we not be perceived to be an agent of either side in the litigation process. By introducing the tape, it becomes a question of whether we are introducing it for the prosecution or for the defense.”
So, in order to avoid either appearance, the newspaper posted both the audio and a transcript of the interview on the Sentinel’s Web site, releasing it to the public rather than to either side in the legal case.
Nonetheless, Fifth Judicial Circuit Judge Mark Hill ordered Matthews to testify in the Johnson case, which went to trial last week. And that would have happened if Quawn Franklin had not pleaded guilty Tuesday to burglary, robbery and attempted felony murder in exchange for three concurrent life sentences. He still faces trial in the two killings.
The Sentinel’s actions in the two cases may have seemed inconsistent, but they were designed to preserve open access to and independent monitoring of the judicial process — both in the public’s interest.
And, in the end, the public will be the judge.
