Legal News

Court of Appeals tells Merritt to put up or throw out

By Richard Binder

Yesterday the California Court of Appeal ordered Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Hilleri G. Merritt to show a compelling reason why the Los Angeles Times should not print photographs taken of Alberd Tersargyan at his arraignment hearing, or else abandon her order barring the Times from doing so.

Merritt has expressed her concern about pictures showing Tersargyan in an jail jumpsuit being prejudicial to potential witnesses. Jeff Glasser, an attorney representing The Times, argued in a hearing last week that neither the U.S. Supreme Court nor the California Court of Appeal has ever upheld a prior restraint even when faced with a competing interest such as the right to a fair trial. He also noted that images of Tersargyan had already been shown on television news broadcasts and on the Internet.

Tersargyan is awaiting a trial in the killing of a woman in Los Angeles' Little Armenia neighborhood in March. He was charged last week with the 2008 slaying of the woman's husband and 8-year-old daughter, as well as a fatal sniper-style attack this year on a prostitute on Sunset Boulevard.

Full story here.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on August 10, 2010 (boomark / email).