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International audience apparently will cover Bresha Meadows trial next month in Warren
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
An international audience will tune in to watch the murder trial of Bresha Meadows, 15, of Warren, charged with killing her father last year.
It is scheduled the week of May 22 in Trumbull County Family Court before Judge Pamela Rintala.
Scott Bombeck, family court administrator, said he’s had phone calls from journalists from England, Germany and other countries asking about covering the trial, in addition to reporters closer to home.
The court has scheduled a final pretrial hearing for May 8.
Bresha is charged with aggravated murder in the July 28 shooting death of her father, Jonathan R. Meadows Sr., 41, in their Hunter Street Northwest home.
About 3 a.m. that day, her mother, Brandi Meadows, called 911 saying Bresha had shot her father in the head. He was dead at the scene, police said.
The case has been the subject of rallies in various cities across the country and a “Free Bresha” campaign on social media locally.
At the last hearing, the small gallery section of Judge Rintala’s courtroom was fairly chaotic, with about half of the seating space taken up by news videographers, photographers and reporters, including local reporters, a team from Huffington Post and a crew filming a documentary.
About 15 members of Bresha’s family and people wearing T-shirts supporting her also were present. Several members of her father’s family sat on the other side of the aisle.
As Bresha’s mother’s family is from Cleveland, numerous Cleveland TV reporters have covered hearings.
Bombeck said he didn’t know yet how the court would accommodate the crush of media and others in the small courtroom used so far but said, “We’ll work it out.”
One of the topics he has discussed with the international media are “conditions for broadcasting and photographing court proceedings” that are being implemented for the trial.
Judge Rintala will allow reporters to cover the trial, for video and photographs to be recorded, and for the public to attend.
But the judge is requiring the media to make a written request to cover the trial, limiting the number of cameras they may use and requiring them to be stationary in the courtroom.
Though the new rules do not say so, Bombeck said the same rule used at earlier hearings will apply to the trial: Photographs and video of Bresha will be allowed only from the back, not of her face.
The new rules say victims and witnesses have a “right to object to being filmed, videotaped, recorded or photographed.”
At the last hearing, in January, officials said Bresha would be transferred to a mental-health facility for an evaluation. Bombeck said he could not comment on what the evaluations showed or whether the results would affect the trial moving forward.
Bresha’s attorney, Ian Friedman, said after one hearing that Bresha’s life was an “unimaginable nightmare” living with her father. Members of Jonathan Meadows’ family, however, said he was not abusive. Jonathan Meadows had no police record.