428 Mass. 309 | Mass. | 1998
This case concerns restrictions imposed against a newspaper publisher on access to certain proceedings and records in the juvenile session of a District Court. We conclude that the newspaper should have had the full access that it requested. Accordingly, we vacate the judgment of a single justice of this court which denied relief pursuant to G. L. c. 211, § 3.
Robert and Andrea L. Berkowitz, both adults, were charged in complaints in the Stoughton Division of the District Court under G. L. c. 119, § 63, with contributing to the delinquency of minors, and, under G. L. c. 138, § 34, with furnishing liquor to minors. After the Berkowitzes were arraigned, the complaints were transferred to the juvenile session of the Stoughton District
George W. Prescott Publishing Company (Prescott), the publisher of the newspaper, moved to intervene in the Berkow-itz cases to assert a right of access to the court proceedings and to inspect the court records. After a hearing, a judge in the juvenile session entered an order granting the public, including the press, access to the proceedings and to the records in the Berkowitz cases, subject, however, to the following restraints:
“[1] The George W. Prescott Publishing Company, as publisher of the Patriot Ledger, the media and the public are prohibited from publishing or revealing the name or address of any child who has engaged in any delinquent conduct in connection with the allegations contained within the pending complaints.
“[2] The George W. Prescott Publishing Company, as publisher of the Patriot Ledger, the media and the public are prohibited from publishing or revealing the name or address of any child who testifies, during the course of any pretrial hearings or the trial, about his or her delinquent conduct in connection with the allegations contained within the pending complaints.
“[3] The George W. Prescott Publishing Company, as publisher of the Patriot Ledger, the media and the public are prohibited from photographing the face of any child who testifies, during the course of any pretrial hearings or the trial, about his or her delinquent conduct in connection with the allegations contained within the pending complaints.”
Prescott filed an amended petition under G. L. c. 211, § 3, for review of these restraints with the single justice, who, after a hearing, denied relief. Prescott appealed from the judgment of the single justice pursuant to S.J.C. Rule 2:21, 421 Mass. 1303 (1995), and we granted Prescott the right to pursue its appeal according to the regular appellate process.
“The constitutional principles that govern our consideration
The judge’s order was, and is, an unlawful prior restraint on the press. There is a particularly high burden of justification where, having opened the proceedings and the court records in the Berkowitz cases to the public, the judge sought to restrict the press from reporting fully on the cases. The right of the press could not be abridged in the absence of detailed findings of fact clearly establishing and supporting the criteria set forth above. The judge’s decision only alludes to an anticipation that, during “pretrial proceedings . . . the identities of certain children will be mentioned,” and that, at trial, “children will be called to testify about their delinquent conduct which was alleg
The judgment of the single justice is vacated. A judgment shall be entered vacating the order entered in the juvenile session of the Stoughton District Court on October 16, 1997, and directing that court to enter such order, if any, as may now be appropriate in light of this opinion and current circumstances.
So ordered.
We also need not decide Prescott’s claim that the juvenile session of the District Court did not have authority to conduct criminal trials alleging violations of G. L. c. 138, § 34, in closed session. The charges pertaining to contributing to the delinquency of minors were within the jurisdiction of the Juvenile Court under G. L. c. 119, §§ 63 and 65. We do note, however, the anomaly in a decision holding that cases involving G. L. c. 138, § 34, could be closed to the public and the press if conducted in a juvenile session, while they would be open to the public and press if heard in a regular District Court session.
The judge denied Prescott’s motion to stay the proceedings pending appellate review, and Prescott did not seek a stay of the orders, or the proceedings below, while this appeal was pursued.