LAWRENCE — Coverage of the arraignment of Thomas Belanger on murder charges became possible after a last-minute battle by The Eagle-Tribune to gain access to the proceedings.
The newspaper filed a motion with the state Supreme Judicial Court to allow a reporter to observe the arraignment after Lawrence District Court Judge Thomas Brennan banned media from the proceedings, which were scheduled for 2 p.m. The arraignment was in the hospital room where Belanger is recovering from what police say is a self-inflicted knife wound.
Brennan cited "privacy" as the reason the media would not be allowed. Eagle-Tribune reporter Jim Patten argued before Brennan that the newspaper should be allowed access to court proceedings as a representative of the public. By law, criminal proceedings must be open to the public unless the judge files a detailed written motion explaining why they should be closed, which Brennan did not do.
When Brennan refused to reverse his order, attorney Rob Bertsche of Prince, Lobel, Glovsky & Tye filed a motion on behalf of The Eagle-Tribune with the state Supreme Judicial Court, the highest court in Massachusetts. That motion delayed the arraignment at the last minute to have a hearing on whether there was proper reason to close the proceeding.
Brennan then voluntarily opened up the proceedings to one reporter, The Eagle-Tribune's Crystal Bozek, who later gave information to other media following the case.
"This is a great victory for the public's right to know," Bertsche said. "In the case of obvious importance and public interest, the justice of the Supreme Judicial Court said, 'Slow down here. You can't go headlong into an arraignment and exclude the public or the public's representative in The Eagle-Tribune.'
"The most fundamental principle of the First Amendment is that the workings of the government have to happen in public," Bertsche said.
