PROVIDENCE
-- The Providence Journal Co. yesterday asked the U.S. Court of Appeals to intercede in the corruption case involving Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. and order District Court Judge Ernest C. Torres to make public more legal memorandums filed by prosecutors and defense lawyers.
The Journal petitioned the higher court to order the lower court to grant access to any current and future legal memorandums that aren't specifically sealed and to consider blacking out sensitive sections of other memorandums instead of sealing entire documents.
"It's not an overstatement to say that this case is perhaps the most important criminal trial in Providence's history," wrote Howard A. Merten, The Journal's lawyer. "It has engendered significant media scrutiny and rightly so."
Merten said The Journal needs access to the memorandums so it can cover the proceedings more effectively and accurately. Lawyers write the memorandums to explain their legal arguments.
A dispute arose last year when The Journal was told it couldn't get access to legal memorandums filed in the case because in the Rhode Island District such documents go directly to the judge and are not filed in the clerk's office.
The Journal protested that practice, arguing that Rhode Island is one of just five jurisdictions in the nation that doesn't make memorandums public.
Judge Torres issued an order last May that resulted in many more documents being made public. Last week he issued an additional ruling calling for a more detailed public accounting of memorandums.
But Merton said in yesterday's petition that Torres did not go far enough because numerous documents are still withheld from public scrutiny without any specific findings justifying such actions.
What's more, he said, Torres has reversed the constitutional presumption that judicial records are public unless and until specific determinations justify otherwise.
Cianci and three other defendants are scheduled to stand trial next month on racketeering and bribery charges.
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