Media Seek Open Hearing on Saints' Emails With Church
New Orleans news outlets on Thursday will ask a judge for an open hearing on the confidentiality of emails between Roman Catholic officials and the city’s NFL franchise, the New Orleans Saints, concerning clergy sex-abuse scandals.
Victims’ attorneys say that hundreds of Saints emails show team executives did behind-the-scenes public relations damage control amid the Archdiocese of New Orleans’ clergy abuse scandal. The team has gone to court to keep the emails from the public, saying court rules would ordinarily keep them under seal and that the plaintiffs’ lawyers want them released “for publicity purposes.”
A state court hearing is scheduled in New Orleans next week before a court-appointed special master to determine whether they may be released.
The AP has been allowed to intervene in the effort to get the emails released and lawyers for the news cooperative are being allowed to participate in arguments for release of the emails. However, the Feb. 20 hearing before the special master was to be closed to the public.
The owners of The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate, WVUE-TV, WWL-TV and WDSU-TV have filed a motion for access to the hearing.
https://www.courthousenews.com/media-seek-open-hearing-on-saints-emails-with-church/
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