A judge questioned why the San Joaquin County Superior Court had motioned to seal an arrest warrant for one of its former employees when the document had already been public for several days before court proceedings began.
The court’s attorney argued that, though the warrant had been public, it was important to keep the document sealed going forward. A judge agreed to temporarily seal the warrant last month pending further review in response to an emergency motion filed by the court’s attorney.
The issue is that court clerks denied multiple requests to access the document before the sealing, saying it was under review.
In November, former records clerk Pamela Edwards was arrested on suspicion of violating a court order by knowingly releasing a sealed document. The document Edwards is alleged to have illegally released was a search warrant from the high-profile fraud case against AngelAnn Flores, a Stockton Unified School District trustee.
At a hearing Wednesday, presiding Judge W. Stephen Scott expressed confusion about why the court was involved in the case — a criminal trial essentially pits the District Attorney’s Office against the defendant.
Scott asked why the court had an interest in keeping the warrant sealed, since it may already have been accessed by members of the public before the document was temporarily sealed in December. California law generally considers court documents, including warrants, to be public records unless sealed by a judge. …
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Cassie Dickman 