Ada County Judge Steven Hippler told both sides in the Idaho student murders case that they will no longer have the court's permission to file a large number of documents under seal and out of view of the public.
"The parties' pervasive practice of filing material under seal in this case has become the norm rather than the exception," Hippler wrote in an order filed Monday. "Rather than seeking to redact discrete sensitive information, entire documents are filed under seal. In addition, much of the material the parties seek to seal is already in the public domain or is simply not confidential or sensitive."
Bryan Kohberger's defense team and state prosecutors can still ask to have certain information, such as the names of witnesses and the victim's family members, redacted, Hippler said. He will also allow documents to be filed under seal if sealing is justified under Idaho Court Administrative Rule 32, which governs documents that are exempt from public disclosure.
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"The parties must also seek the least restrictive method to protect information that should be or is exempt from disclosure," Hippler wrote.
"For example, despite the Court's concerns being expressed previously, the State continues to seek broad orders sealing entire documents to protect the identity of individuals rather than simply using initials or requesting that a redacted version be made public that discloses only initials."
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Read the judge's order
The court will also continue to redact filings that include grand jury testimony, because grand jury proceedings take place in secret by default.
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"I've never seen so many documents sealed in a criminal case with no real legal basis," said Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor and Los Angeles-based trial attorney. "There is a strong presumption that court filings are public."
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The case has garnered massive public interest across the U.S. and abroad, he said, and as a result, the public interest can be violated by conducting so much of the proceedings behind closed doors.
"It's not proper for the judge to issue a blanket order gagging the victims' families and to allow the parties carte blanche to file everything under seal," he said.
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Just days after Kohberger's arrest in connection with the murders of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, Latah County Magistrate Judge Megan Marshall issued the first gag order.
Both sides have used that gag order to justify answering virtually no questions about the case outside the courtroom. As a result, nearly all of the publicly known information in the case was either contained in a police affidavit unsealed in January 2023 or through courtroom statements.
"There is so little evidence that has come out since the search warrants," Rahmani told Fox News Digital.
Kohberger was studying for a Ph.D. in criminology at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, at the time of the murders. His apartment was about a 20-minute drive from the crime scene, at the neighboring University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho, where all four victims were undergrads. Each had been stabbed multiple times in a 4 a.m. home invasion.
Under the 21-year-old Mogen's body, police found a knife sheath that prosecutors allege contained Kohberger's DNA. Other known evidence includes phone data and video showing the suspect vehicle - as well as testimony from a surviving housemate who saw a man with bushy eyebrows leave the crime scene wearing a mask, possibly carrying a vacuum cleaner.
After Kohberger's indictment, the case went to District Judge John Judge, who entered not guilty pleas on the defendant's behalf at his arraignment in 2023, and he kept the gag order in place.
It went to Judge Hippler after the defense argued for and received a change of venue.
Kohberger's third judge made several moves favoring transparency in recent days, unsealing the transcript of a closed-door hearing on DNA evidence that took place in January and ordering the court to make audio recordings available for other sealed hearings that took place earlier.
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Kohberger's trial is expected to begin in August and could take up to 15 weeks. He could face the death penalty if convicted.
