• At issue is access to memoranda explaining the legal arguments for adversaries in the City Hall corruption case.
BY W. ZACHARY MALINOWSKI
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE
-- The Providence Journal filed motions in U.S. District Court yesterday seeking access to memoranda submitted by prosecutors and defense lawyers for Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. and five others under indictment in the City Hall corruption case.
The lawyer for the Journal, Howard A. Merten, of Vetter & White, a Providence firm, also asked for an expedited hearing on the matter because of the "substantial First Amendment issues respecting access to court records."
The newspaper also suggested that the court could redact, or black out, passages of memoranda that could jeopardize the rights of the defendants.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers file memoranda in cases to explain their legal arguments in depth. Usually, the language is less formal than a legal brief.
Last May, a month after Cianci and the five others were charged with federal crimes, Chief U.S. District Judge Ernest C. Torres issued a sweeping gag order that bars the mayor and the other defendants, their lawyers, prosecutors, witnesses, law-enforcement authorities and court workers from releasing information that is not part of the public record.
The gag order did not extend to public court records in the case.
In an affidavit, Journal reporter Tracy Breton said she was told by the clerk's office that memoranda in the case were not available for public inspection. The District Court in Providence, as a matter of practice, has not made memoranda in cases part of the official court record.
The Journal felt the memoranda filed with the court should be public and Breton protested to the court. The court agreed to make public memoranda that did not refer to grand jury information or contain prejudicial material.
According to Breton's affidavit, the memoranda have only been sporadically released.
"Often, however, there is substantial delay -- sometimes months -- between the time that memoranda are filed and when they are made available for public inspection," Breton said in her affidavit.
"Many other memoranda have not been placed in the public file maintained in the clerk's office, sometimes even after the court has ruled on the underlying motion."
Breton, in the affidavit, said that the court's failure to make the memoranda public has hampered the newspaper's ability to report and inform the public.
"The pleadings which are filed in the clerk's office are skeletal at best," she wrote. "Without access to the memoranda, it is extremely difficult and sometimes impossible to understand what is happening."
According to other affidavits filed in support of the newspaper's motion, almost all federal courts in the United States allow public inspection and copying of memoranda.
One affidavit notes that "with very few exceptions," the memoranda and briefs filed in other federal jurisdictions are public. Other than Rhode Island, the only exceptions are New Jersey, Mississippi, Nebraska and the Northern District of Alabama, says the affidavit.
Last April, Cianci, Frank Corrente, his former aide; Artin H. Coloian, Cianci's top aide; Richard E. Autiello, who runs a car and towing garage; Edward E. Voccola, a felon who had a lucrative lease with the School Department; and Joseph A. Pannone, head of the city's Board of Tax Assessment Review; were indicted on a variety of corruption-related charges.
They are scheduled to go to trial on April 15.
Joel P. Rawson, the Journal's executive editor, said it's imperative that the proceedings are scrutinized.
"The trial of Mayor Cianci may be one of the most important in the state's history," Rawson said. "At stake is the public's confidence in government and the reliability of justice. Therefore, the Journal feels that the record of this trial must be open to timely and thorough public examination."
