By: A group of news organizations is seeking to open juvenile court proceedings for a black teenager charged with beating a white classmate in a case that sparked a huge civil rights demonstration in central Louisiana last month.
The Associated Press joined more than two dozen newspapers, television networks and network affiliates today in filing a court petition that challenges a judge's decision to seal Mychal Bell's case and close court proceedings to the press and public.
The news organizations seek permission to attend upcoming hearings in the case, to review transcripts of previous hearings and other court records and to lift a gag order against participants in the case.
The petition was filed in the 28th Judicial District Court in LaSalle Parish, the court where Bell's case is being heard. District Judge J-P Mauffray Junior is expected to hear the petition. His secretary said the judge had not received the petition.
Criminal cases involving juveniles in Louisiana are usually sealed. But Bell, 17, was charged with aggravated second-degree battery, which, under state law, is one of the violent offenses that allows a juvenile court case to be opened to the public. That's according to xxx Roy, a lawyer for the news organizations.
The petition argues that opening the case wouldn't jeopardize Bell's right to a fair trial because a judge, not a jury, will decide it. Also, it says, the details of Bell's case were widely publicized when he was tried on adult charges in open court earlier this year.
Bell and five other black students were arrested in December 2006 and charged with attacking Justin Barker, a white classmate at Jena High School, and knocking him unconscious.
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