A temporary order sealing the arrest warrant for a former San Joaquin County court clerk was lifted Friday following deliberations that lasted nearly two months after a judge ruled that the document shouldn’t have ever been sealed in the first place.
A lawyer representing the San Joaquin County Superior court where the case is being tried filed an emergency motion last month to seal the arrest warrant of its former employee, in a move that legal experts have described as highly unusual and has confused judges presiding over the case.
Attorneys have hashed out the issue over five hearings since early December. At the center of these deliberations hasn’t been the potential sealing order itself but whether the court had any right to make the request — what in legal jargon is known as having standing.
Judge Erin Guy Castillo ruled Friday that it doesn’t.
In November, former records clerk Pamela Edwards was arrested on suspicion of violating a court order by knowingly releasing a sealed document in 2023. That document was a search warrant from the high-profile fraud case against AngelAnn Flores, a Stockton Unified School District trustee.
The criminal case against Edwards soon became focused on a different document, the arrest warrant that deputies used to take the ex-clerk into custody. Castillo ordered Edwards’ arrest warrant temporarily sealed at her first arraignment hearing Dec. 4 until the court’s motion could be reviewed. The court’s attorney, Erin Hamor, argued that the warrants affidavit included confidential court personnel records and security footage, the release of which could jeopardize court security. …
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Cassie Dickman 