New Hampshire v. Kibby

Defendant Nathaniel Kibby appealed a superior court order that unsealed pleadings, hearings and letters related to the status of counsel and unsealing motions for services other than counsel that he filed ex parte during the pendency of his case. defendant was indicted on more than 150 charges including kidnapping, criminal threatening, witness tampering, second degree assault, criminal use of an electronic defense weapon, felonious use of a firearm, indecent exposure, falsifying physical evidence, sale of a controlled drug, aggravated felonious sexual assault, and felonious sexual assault. At a chambers conference, the defense raised an issue of status of counsel and requested that the court hold a closed, ex parte hearing on the matter. The trial court informed the parties that it had received two letters from defendant relevant to the status of counsel issue in the previous two days, that it had not sent the letters to the State, and that the letters were sealed in the court’s file. The State moved to unseal the letters and the record of the ex parte hearing. In granting the State’s motion, the trial court reasoned that “the rationale in support of the adjudication of issues on an ex parte basis no longer appear[ed] to apply” because the pleas resolved all pending criminal issues involving defendant. Defendant claimed the letters he sent to the trial court “contain information covered by the attorney-client privilege,” because four of them “raised general issues about counsel’s representation,” and one letter “related specifically to the issue that was the subject of counsel’s pleadings and two hearings.” The New Hampshire Supreme Court found that defendant had the burden of justifying the confidentiality of every document sought to be sealed, and he could not prevail upon his claim to keep the letters sealed merely by asserting a general claim that the record contains privileged attorney-client communications. Defendant conceded that unsealing the documents would not compromise his defense and that he sought a ruling on this issue only for “future cases.” Consequently, the Supreme Court held defendant failed, as a matter of law, to meet his burden of demonstrating with specificity a compelling interest in this case to justify maintaining the motions under seal. View "New Hampshire v. Kibby" on Justia Law