Ruling on Schierman Police Reports

Judge Gregory Canova (King County Superior Court) ruled that some of the police reports in the Conner Schierman case that were accidentally released to KING-TV will be made public. Ruling: Some police reports on killings to be made public, Aug. 30, 2006.

Defense attorneys oppose the release and hope to delay it until after another hearing, scheduled for Sept. 7. Attorney James Conroy says that the release "should just not happen, period," and might have tainted potential jurors.

Senior deputy prosecuting attorney Scott O'Toole says that publicity is inevitable in a case that is of so much interest to the public. "[Schierman] is accused of killing four people and torching their home. There is a certain amount of negative light he's going to have to endure." (This quotation is in the LexisNexis version of the article, but not in the web version.)

Filed in: news, Schierman, Canova, O'Toole, Conroy, KING-TV, public-records, pretrial-publicity