Capeci Rebuff: Trial proceedings transcript to remain sealed

"A federal appellate court in New York has rebuffed the efforts of a journalist to unseal a transcript of unspecified, closed court proceedings in a high-profile criminal trial," according to The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in New York City (2nd Cir.) held in early June that journalist Jerry Capeci could not get access to a transcript from a part of the fraud trial of Milana Murcia.

Capeci, who operates the website Gang Land News, was covering the trial when he learned that the court had sealed a transcript of a closed proceeding held earlier in the trial, according to a brief submitted on his behalf in the case. He sent a letter asking the trial court to unseal the transcript, but the court refused. The court also sealed the filings by the parties on the matter, as well as the opinion denying the order.

Capeci, whose website bills him as the foremost expert on the American Mafia, appealed the order with the help of students taking part in Yale Law School’s Media Freedom and Information Access Practicum."


Capeci wrote about Murcia a couple of years ago on the Huffington Post:

"In a case tinged with irony, intrigue and tragedy, the mother of a top FBI organized crime supervisor has pleaded guilty to swindling investors out of $4.5 million through several bogus global recycling companies she ran with her late husband.

"Milana Murcia - who allegedly funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars in stolen funds to her daughter, but gave none to her FBI agent son - pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges ten days ago in a deal that calls for a maximum of five years in prison instead of the 20 years she would have faced if convicted of various fraud charges at trial. No other Murcia relatives have been charged, and the investigation is over, sources say."

Comments

  1. donald's hairpieceJun 20, 2011, 1:59:00 PM

    a cssic case of the government circling the wagons to protect their own. even mama's lawyer is known for being close to the fbi as an institution. often handpicked by them to represent their most prized sources. fichetti, a former shargel partner, is well respected as a lawyer who gets good deals from the fbi and u s attorneys office. mama got a license to steal and will now get a pass. step papa is not under the same umbrella, he has different dna. all a bunch of whores

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