The always-on security cameras mounted above the judge’s bench in Cobb County courtrooms have the potential to embarrass jurists who are between cases and may forget they’re on a live mic.
So county attorneys have come up with a novel solution that could prevent any gaffes winding up on YouTube. Until now the recordings were available to anyone willing to pay the copying fees. Now, however, the public is still allowed to see the video, but the county officials have decided that the audio belongs to the court, not necessarily to the public. So a public records request for the video will get you just that: the video. With no sound.
There is one exception, almost as bizarre as the rule itself: you can listen to the audio, but you have to sign a “confidentiality agreement” – even though it’s not clear exactly what that means.
This new policy has spawned a lawsuit against the county by Atlanta lawyer Leigh Ann Webster, who is seeking audio and video recordings of what transpired in Superior Court Judge Reuben Green’s courtroom during eight days in February. The suit seeks a finding that the audio and video recordings are subject to the Georgia Open Records Act and must be released.
“County officials are engaging in a pattern to conceal,” John Merchant, one of Webster’s lawyers, said Friday. “They are doing this to keep the public from hearing what’s been going on.”
Early this year, Cobb authorities released a number of audio and video recordings of what had been going inside Green’s courtroom. The recordings were maintained by the sheriff’s department, which handles security for the courthouse and which charged $50 per recording.
On a number of occasions, Green can be heard having conversations with Cobb prosecutors about cases with no defense attorneys in the courtroom. Some of these discussions appeared to be at odds with the code of judicial conduct, which requires all parties to be present when a judge talks about a pending case.
After some of these discussions came to light, defense attorneys filed a number of motions asking Green to recuse himself from the cases he talked about with prosecutors.
Green did not return a call or emails requesting comment on Friday.
As regards Webster’s request for the February recordings, the sheriff’s department told her May 10 they would begin making copies of the audio and video recordings she had requested, according to court records.
But Lauren Bruce, Cobb’s associate county attorney, wrote Webster on May 19 that the county’s position had changed. The “video recordings (with sound redacted)” can be made available under the Open Records Act, she said. But because the county now considers the audio recording to be a “court record,” that is outside the sheriff’s control and not subject to the Open Records Act.
Webster could come to the county attorney’s office and listen to the audio, but only if she agreed to first sign a confidentiality agreement, Bruce said, without specifying exactly what that entailed.
The next day, Webster filed her suit against the county seeking access to the recordings.
Atlanta lawyer Tom Clyde, a First Amendment expert who represents The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, said the recordings captured events that took place in a public courtroom.
“Both the audio and the video ought to be available so that the public can evaluate how an elected judge conducted himself,” Clyde said. “Asking people to sign confidentiality agreements in advance without knowing what they are going to be required to keep confidential is not right, legally or practically.”
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