The Sacramento Bee and other news outlets were affirmed access Wednesday to a Woodland teen’s juvenile court proceedings after a Yolo Superior Court judge denied a motion by the teen’s attorney to close the courtroom.
Yolo Superior Court Judge Janene Beronio upheld that “age alone would not be a reason” to bar media and others from the courtroom during the juvenile defendant’s proceedings. Outside factors such as media coverage of the case did not influence her decision making in the courtroom, she told lawyers during the hearing.
Prosecutors say the Woodland teen, who is not named because he is a juvenile, is accused of being behind the wheel in a deadly April 10 crash that killed Tina Vital, 43, and Adalina Lilah Perez, 4. The boy faces 13 counts including murder, vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and evading a police officer causing death. The teen, who pleaded not guilty at his April 12 arraignment, remains held in Yolo County juvenile custody.
Reporters have covered the case from inside the courtroom from its outset, but the teen’s attorney filed a motion to bar media from the courtroom on June 20 for the remainder of the proceedings, including trial.
The lawyer, Martina Avalos, cited the defendant’s “extreme youth, cognitive development and current mental state” in calling on Beronio to close the courtroom to reporters. During Wednesday’s motions, she argued media coverage of the proceedings created a “greater chance of bias,” citing the small size of the community and the severity of the incident as factors of prejudice.
Attorneys for The Sacramento Bee, which filed a motion Friday opposing the ban, sought to keep the proceedings open. Attorney Aaron R. Field countered in The Bee’s filing that in criminal cases where murder or other serious offenses have been charged that “the media has a statutory right to attend the hearing and a constitutional right to say what transpires.”
Field said the standard that “governs openness” for this proceeding applied the same for all criminal cases, and the public was already aware of the case and its proceedings.
“The cat is already out of the bag,” Field said.
Deputy District Attorney Jennifer McHugh told the judge that the news reporting of the case was not exceptional and found neither the media coverage nor the social media posts strong enough evidence to justify closing the court to reporters.
The next hearing to contest detention is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Aug. 15. The trial is expected to commence in juvenile court in late August.