Cafaros want to keep sealed the case records filed against them in Oakhill case

YOUNGSTOWN — Now that the Oakhill Renaissance Place criminal conspiracy case has been dismissed, the Cafaro interests argue that sealing case records is of paramount importance to protect their privacy rights.

Because of last month’s dismissal, the Cafaros “now have a heightened privacy interest in keeping the bills of particulars sealed that outweighs any qualified right of public access,” their lawyers said in a recent filing at the Ohio Supreme Court.

The filing was made Friday in a case in which The Vindicator and 21WFMJ-TV have sought a writ of prohibition that would compel visiting Judge William H. Wolff Jr. of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to unseal the bills of particulars, in which the special prosecutors provided details of the charges against the defendants.

Disagreeing with the Cafaros was Atty. Gregg Leslie, legal defense director for the Reporter’s Committee for Freedom of the Press, which has filed a brief in support of the newspaper and TV station at the state’s top court.

“Their highest interest is in having a fair trial, so, if the risks of that have been alleviated, or at least postponed, then the media’s right of access should triumph,” Leslie said of the Cafaros.

“They want to reward themselves for having it cloaked in secrecy in the first place,” Marion H. Little Jr., lawyer for the newspaper and TV station, said of the Cafaros and the criminal case in which they were defendants.

For the complete story, read Wednesday's Vindicator and Vindy.com