Dec - CO Courts



Dec. 10, 2003

TO: Members of the Media

FROM: District Judge Tom Moorhead

Karen Salaz, Office of the State Court Administrator

RE: Dec. 19 Motions Hearing

Proceeding: Motions Hearing/Bond Appearance

Presiding judge: Judge Terry Ruckriegle

Time: 9:00 a.m.

Date: Friday, Dec. 19, 2003

Place: Eagle County Justice Center, Courtroom 1

Anticipated length of the proceeding: one day

Notice of hearing on all pending motions relating to medical records’ subpoenas, Valley View’s Motion for Protective Orders, Resource Center’s Motion to Quash, and People’s Motion for Hearing to Enforce July 24, 2003, Order Concerning Pretrial Publicity and Sanctions.

The following information is being provided for your reference for the Dec. 19 proceeding. We have tweaked a number of our procedures to better address the demands placed on the courts, county and sheriff’s office. We want to thank you for your continued cooperation.

Expanded media: There will be no cameras in the courtroom on Dec. 19. The presence of expanded media coverage in the Colorado court system’s courtrooms is controlled by strict standards spelled out in Canon 3A(8) of the Colorado Code of Judicial Conduct effective Dec. 1, 1985. The following are excerpts from the Canon directly related to the current series of pretrial hearings. The full Canon is available at

(III) “Expanded media coverage” means any photography or audio recording of proceedings.

(c) Limitations on Expanded Media Coverage. Notwithstanding an authorization to conduct expanded media coverage of a proceeding, there shall be no:

(I) Expanded media coverage of pretrial hearings in criminal cases, except advisements and arraignments;

Pool video camera requests for the hallway and front door have been approved by Judge Moorhead. Judge Ruckriegle has approved the still camera pool requests for both of those locations.

Courtroom artist: Courtroom artist Pat Lopez will be in the courtroom doing sketches.

Dec. 19 auxiliary courtroom listening room: Courtroom 3 will be available for use as an auxiliary listening room for this proceeding (no courtroom will be available on Jan. 23 for use as an auxiliary listening room due to regular proceedings being scheduled). All rules and restrictions applicable to the main courtroom, as designated by the Amended Decorum Order, are applicable in the listening room. Half of the seats will be reserved for the media and half for the public. Passes for the media seats (approximately 44) will be made available based upon first filling the remaining recorded “primary designees” for all media outlets not already represented in the main courtroom on a first-come basis. Standby passes will be given to “secondary designees” on a first-come basis for any remaining seats (including empty media and public seats). The standby passes will be available from 3-4 p.m. on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning beginning 90 minutes prior to the proceeding as designated in the next section of this memo. Passes will be available in the media services tent at both times. If you want to be eligible to receive a pass or standby pass there MUST be a seating request form on file with your name on it.

Passes

Main courtroom: Each media seat must have one designee assigned to pick up a pass between 3-4 p.m. on Dec. 18 in the media services tent from Karen Salaz. As the designee, you will be responsible for picking up the pass and coordinating the rotation for that seat throughout the day. This DOES NOT need to be the reporter who first fills the seat; however, photo identification is necessary to receive the pass. If you are in the main courtroom, please forward the name of your designee to karen.salaz@judicial.state.co.us by 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 17. Only one pass per seat will be available per day so you will need to coordinate with others in your “pool” (outlined below) to share the pass. This will be a new process since we have an even greater demand for the seats, thus have expanded the pooled-seat arrangements. Any problems in making the pool transition process will be addressed by the Consortium prior to the next proceeding.

Those who cannot pick up their passes at the time designated on the day prior to the proceeding should pick them up beginning 90 minutes prior to the proceeding in the media services tent, a minimum of 45 minutes prior to the beginning of the proceeding. (Example: if it is a 9:00 a.m. proceeding, passes must be picked up by 8:15). All passes not picked up 45 minutes prior to the proceeding will be redistributed via a lottery of those news organizations present not already represented in the courtroom. Each seat in the main courtroom will have four names drawn to establish a rotation for the day. The first name drawn will coordinate that seat’s pool. The remaining three would have seats in the auxiliary courtroom to use when not in the main courtroom.

If you are one of the following organizations, I need to know the ONE name per seat of the person designated to pick up the pass. If you need contact information for the others in your group let me know and I will forward it to you.

← National Newspapers (1 seat: New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today)

← New York Newspapers (1 seat: Newsday, New York Post, New York Daily News)

← Local papers (2 seats: Vail Daily, Vail Trail, Grand Junction Daily Sentinel)

← Magazines (2 seats)

← Radio (1 seat)

Auxiliary listening room: “Primary” (as indicated on your seating request form on file) designees, not in the main courtroom, will be able to pick up their passes, numbered on a first-come basis, from 3-4 p.m. on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning beginning 90 minutes prior to the proceeding in the media services tent. “Secondary” reporters will be given standby passes on a first-come basis during the same times. Each of the standby passes will also be numbered. Seats will be filled according to the numerical designations. We will begin filling seats not filled by “primary” with “secondary” reporters 30 minutes prior to the proceeding.

Public seats: Passes will be available 90 minutes prior to the proceeding in the media services tent. Any passes still available 30 minutes prior to the proceeding will be distributed to the media based upon the numbers designated on their passes.

Media services tent: Eagle County has again agreed to provide the media services tent. The phone lines are still in place. The tent will be available three days prior to the proceeding.

Gallegos lot: Eagle County has reached an agreement with the Gallegos to again lease the lot adjacent to the courthouse through Feb. 15, 2004. The charge for using the lot will be $100/vehicle for the 2-month period. The County has a website available where you can register for a transmission vehicle parking space. You will be able to use a credit card to register for spaces and a confirmation e-mail will be returned to you that must be posted in you vehicle front window. Individual passes must be purchased and displayed on the dashboard of every vehicle, no matter what type, parked in the lot. The website address to purchase a pass is eaglecounty.us/presspark . If you have questions please contact Jack Ingstad directly at jack.ingstad@eaglecounty.us. The Consortium, in cooperation with the county, has agreed to be responsible for ensuring that only authorized vehicles are in the lot.

Platforms: Due to the arrangements for Dec. 19 now being status quo regarding location of the transmission vehicles, platform locations will remain the same as already established (i.e. on west side of courthouse and along Gallegos property). It will be at the discretion of the Media Consortium if it elects to keep or re-designate who is in which spot.

Reporter vehicle parking: Reporters should park their personal vehicles in the 160-space parking lot east of the Judicial Center. No media/reporter/photographer vehicles are to be in the main parking lot of the Judicial Center to allow access for courthouse patrons. Parking in this lot is specifically restricted in the Amended Decorum Order. The media is reminded that all provisions of the Amended Decorum Order remain in full force and effect.

Security screening: Security screening will routinely begin one hour prior to each proceeding and will remain open all day. All persons who enter the courthouse will be subject to screening by the Eagle County Sheriff or his designee in accordance with the stipulations set forth by the sheriff and as outlined in the Amended Decorum Order issued Oct. 7, 2003 (). All persons holding passes must be seated in the courtroom 15 minutes prior to each proceeding or resumption of court following breaks as stipulated by the court. The courtroom doors will be closed 15 minutes prior to each proceeding. Those outside the doors will be denied access to the courtroom until the next natural break. There will be no exceptions. The Eagle County Sheriff, or his designee, shall have discretion as to whether a person may be admitted to the courtroom depending on the results of the screening.

Courtroom procedures: No routine admittance or departure will be permitted while court is in session. If you leave the courtroom, you or another representative for your seat will not be permitted to return until the next recess. All members of the public and media must remain quiet, not comment on the proceedings, and not engage in any disruptive behavior while in the courtroom. At the conclusion of the proceeding, members of the public and media must remain seated until the parties have exited the courtroom and a sheriff’s officer has dismissed the gallery.

Non-seating pooling: The following are the contact persons for the pools:

← Still cameras: Ed Andrieski (AP), eandrieski@

← Audio cameras: Jack Chesnutt (NBC), jack.chesnutt@

← Courtroom artist: Ed Andrieski (AP), eandrieski@. Artist Pat Lopez, of Oklahoma City, has been retained to be the pool courtroom artist for the Dec 19 People v. Bryant hearing. Her fees and expenses will total around $1,500 that will be split by all outlets using her work. Those interested should forward their billing information to eandrieski@ and lwells@ .

Credentials: If you have not already filled out the form available at and e-mailed it to karen.salaz@judicial.state.co.us please do so immediately. All forms that have been submitted thus far are effective throughout the duration of the proceedings. Those submitted by Nov. 13 were considered in the seating plan put in place by the Consortium on that date. Only those with forms filed with the State Court Administrator’s Office (Karen Salaz) will be considered for seating in the main courtroom or auxiliary listening room for the Dec. 19 proceeding.

Courtroom arrangement: The media and public will be reversing the side of the courtroom in which they are seated. Entering the courtroom, the media will now be on the left side and public on the right. As a reminder, it is a violation of the Amended Decorum Order to attempt to interview a judge, party member, witness or any other persons affiliated in any way with the case while in the Justice Center including the courtroom. Violations will result in no less than a reporter being barred in addition to other appropriate sanctions as issued by the court.

Witnesses: All witnesses who are in the courthouse will be identified with a distinctive sticker when they enter the courthouse worn on their clothing. The stickers will serve as an indication to law enforcement, court personnel, the media and members of the public that these persons are not to be approached.

Courtroom seating: The results emerging from the media Consortium meeting on Nov. 13 following the first appearance follow. All news organizations who had submitted seating request forms were considered in the discussions. The initial decision was to again divide the seats 12 for broadcast media and 13 for print. The following is a record of the assignments.

Print seat allotments (13)

Single seats

1 AP (r2s6)

2 Reuters (r3s7)

3 Denver Post (r3s6)

4 Rocky Mountain News (r3a2)

5 Los Angeles Times (r2s3)

6 Orange County Register (r3s5)

Shared seats

7 National Newspapers (r2s1)

New York Times

Washington Post

USA Today

8 New York Newspapers (r5s3/r2s7*)

Newsday

New York Post

New York Daily News

9, 10 Local papers (r5s5, r5s7)

Vail Daily

Vail Trail

Daily Sentinel (Grand Junction)

11, 12 Magazines (r4s3, r5s6)

13 Other Print Media (r4s2)

*alternate to r5s3 if court artist is in courtroom when no EMC

Broadcast seat allotments (12)

Single seats

1 KUSA-TV (9 News) (r2s4)

2 KMGH-TV (7 News) (r2a2)

3 KCNC-TV (Channel 4) (r5s4)

4 KWGN-TV (Channel 2) (r4s4)

5 KDVR-TV (Fox 31) (r3s4)

6 NBC Network (r4s5)

7 ABC Network (r4s7)

8 CBS Network (r3s1)

9 Fox Network (r4s1)

10 ESPN (r2s5)

11 CNN (r3s3)

Shared seats

12 Radio pool (r4s6)

Seats added in back depending upon availability (1-8)

Court TV (pool camera org.) (r5s2)

Artist switch seat (r2s7*/r5s3)

Celebrity Justice (r5Rs3)

Pool seat(s) from all media (if available)

Audio: 1 audio control (r5s1)

Print media details: For shared seats, the magazine, national paper, local paper and New York paper groups will decide among themselves how to share seats on a daily basis. The seat will rotate at each break, with the order determined by drawing.

For the Other Print Media category, seating will be determined by a drawing among those organizations present on the day of the hearing. You will need to have business cards or another form of contact/affiliation information ready for placement in the drawing. Four names will be selected for each seat. Those four will need to coordinate the rotation throughout the day. The first name drawn is responsible for coordinating the rotation.

All media organizations taking part in this arrangement agree to pool reporting if there is not video broadcast or closed-circuit feed available. In other words, any reporter in the courtroom is obligated to brief others who were unable to get in. If you have immediate questions please contact George Garties at ggarties@ .

Broadcast media details: Assignment of network and radio pool seats will be the responsibility of each individual group. For additional information, contact Marc Williams at marc_williams@ .

Radio pool: At the Dec. 5, 2003 meeting of the Radio Pool in Denver, the following order for courtroom seating pool rotation was determined by lottery: 1) It's the Law, 2) Metro Networks, 3) KYSL, 4) KNRC, 5) American General Media, 6) Clear Channel, 7) CBS, 8) ABC, 9) NPR. The group determined that the deadline for joining the pool would be Jan. 31, 2004. For more information contact Kathy Walker at KathyWalker@

Magazine pool: Please contact Rita Healy (Time Magazine), ritahealy@

Thank you again for your continued corporation and help in making this run as smoothly as possible.

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