The first court hearing for a former Superior Court clerk charged in the release of one sealed document led instead to a surprise move to seal another one.
The last-minute action angered the county sheriff, who blasted the court, accusing it of not cooperating with his investigation, and said that journalists are also under investigation in the case.
Pamela Edwards, who no longer works for the county’s Superior Court, was scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday morning. She stands accused of violating a court order, after allegedly releasing a search warrant in another criminal case to the media last year.
Instead, the court took up an emergency motion to seal the arrest warrant in Edwards’ case — a motion filed just hours earlier, not by the prosecution or the defense, but by an attorney representing Edwards’ former employer, Superior Court itself.
Edwards’ attorney, David Wellenbrock, told Stocktonia that both he and the prosecution had only received notice of the court’s filing Wednesday morning.
Known as an ex parte motion, lawyers typically file these emergency requests to forestall potential “immediate danger or irreparable harm” to their clients, California’s court rules state. …
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Cassie Dickman 