HOW WE SEE IT: Unringing The Bell On Drug Court

— Six years went by with Washington-Madison County Drug Court proceedings being recorded and played on television.

No one challenged this practice in a suit brought before an appropriate court while these recordings were being made. Everyone who entered drug court did so as an alternative to going to trial on a felony charge. It was an opportunity to get off drugs and get the defendant’s life in order.

Remarkably successful as it was, many people failed the drug court program. None of them successfully appealed and protested that either the televising or the recording of drug court harmed his or her case in any way.

No one claimed until recentlythat any harm was done by these recordings being preserved. Nothing was recorded that didn’t take place in an open courtroom. Any member of the public who was so inclined could have gone to court on any particular day, sat in the audience and watched the proceedings.

Then the state Supreme Court got involved when a question arose about whether drug court could be broadcast for a for-profit purpose. The court went far beyond that original question and proceeded to shut the barn door on recording or televising drug court at all, years after the proverbial horse had left that barn.

Only after that happened did a local attorney file a petition on behalf of two anonymous plaintiffs to seal those recordings.

Legal scholars confirm that the case will raise some interesting points. For one, those are not court records.

They belong to the cable television company that did the recording.

Our position on this is that the records should not be sealed. After all, we believe the Supreme Court went too far in changing its rules to forbid such televising of court proceedings in the first place. To extend that to taking and sealing private property would go from bad to worse.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 08/18/2011

Upcoming Events