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Sunday, October 12, 2008
Ind. Decisions - More on "Appeals court says Kalab's siblings' records should not have been released"
Updating this ILB entry from yesterday, today the Evansville Courier & Press has a second story by Bryan Corbin on Friday's Court of Appeals opinion in the case titled In the Matter of K.B. and B.L.; A.B.L. (mother) v. Department of Child Services. Some quotes:
In a potentially precedent-setting ruling, the Indiana Court of Appeals has reversed the decision of a Vanderburgh County judge allowing media access to hearings and records involving two younger siblings of 3-year-old Kalab Lay, who died of blunt force trauma April 1.Kalab allegedly was beaten to death by his parents, Amanda Brooks Lay and Terry Lay, over a period of days in their Evansville home.
Roughly two weeks after the boy's death, Superior Court Judge Brett Niemeier of the Juvenile Division granted media access to Kalab's younger siblings' Child In Need of Services (CHINS) hearings.
Niemeier cited specific Indiana code at the time, stating a juvenile judge may grant "any person having a legitimate interest in the work of the court or in a particular case access to the court's legal records. ..."
Erin Berger, a public defender representing Brooks Lay in the proceedings, filed a motion April 16 asking Niemeier to reconsider and not allow access to the media. * * *
According to the Court of Appeals opinion issued Friday: "As far as we can tell, the heart of Lay's complaint comes from the release of the 'caseworker's report of preliminary inquiry & investigation,' which was filed April 2, 2008. ...
"This report is very detailed and was quoted at length in the April 15, 2008, newspaper article. It is on this limited record that we base our decision."
Brooks Lay's appeal argued the siblings' records did not fit within the categories in state law for releasing otherwise-confidential child-welfare records. Moreover, they should not have been released because the parents' criminal charges and the siblings' CHINS cases have not yet been resolved, according to the appeal.
The question ultimately is whether the privacy interests of the children — even when unidentified — outweigh the interest of the community, Niemeier said.
"I totally understand their interpretation," he said. "I'm hoping because it is such an important decision that the Supreme Court will accept transfer and decide once and for all what the law is."
While Niemeier's efforts to educate the public about the inner workings of the child-protection system were "laudable goals," Judge Michael P. Barnes wrote, Kalab's two siblings "are entitled to the same privacy and confidentiality that are offered to other children involved in less notorious CHINS proceedings."
The ruling is likely to shock some Hoosier judges, Niemeier said. "I know there are some judges around the state that have all of their CHINS cases open to the public."
Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 12, 2008 09:21 AM
Posted to Ind. App.Ct. Decisions