A federal judge ordered the Los Angeles Times to remove information from an article that described a plea agreement between prosecutors and a Glendale police detective accused of working with the Mexican Mafia.
The agreement was supposed to have been filed under seal, but it was mistakenly made available on PACER, a public online database for federal court documents.
The newspaper says the judge’s order is highly unusual and unconstitutional.
KABC legal analyst Royal Oakes says the ruling seems to violate the First Amendment of the Constitution.
“The smart money might be on overturning the trial judge’s order here. In many cases where inadvertently released stuff has been published, the Appellate Courts have said, ‘No, we don’t think that should be restricted, that should be back in the public realm.’ ”
Royal Oakes was a guest on McIntyre in the Morning.
By Sandy Wells