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Last updated on Friday, March 21, 2014
(INDIANAPOLIS) - A federal magistrate on Wednesday denied a request for a protective order to keep some evidence sealed in the civil negligence lawsuit the parents of missing Indiana University student Lauren Spierer filed against two men who were with their daughter on the night of her disappearance.
The Herald Times reports that U.S. District Court Southern District of Indiana Magistrate Judge Tim Baker called the Spierers' proposed protective order "overboard" and said it failed to meet standards set in previous case law.
In late January, attorneys for Robert and Charlene Spierer requested that some court documents in their civil suit be kept confidential "to prevent possible harm resulting from public disclosure of private information and to ensure an impartial jury at trial."
Attorneys for the defendants, Corey Rossman and Jason "Jay" Rosenbaum, argued that the protective order "seeks carte blanche to seal materials from the public."
Judge Baker agreed.
"The Court will not grant carte blanche to seal such material by way of an approved protective order. And any subsequent motion seeking to seal any part of the record will be strictly scrutinized," Baker wrote in his order.
Barker also noted that the Spierers' proposed protective order was vague and lacked clear language as to what documents would qualify as confidential and which would not.
In the civil negligence lawsuit, the Spierers claim Rossman and Rosenbaum, then IU students, supplied alcohol to their intoxicated and incapacitated 20-year-old daughter and failed to care for her the night of her disappearance.
Spierer was reportedly last seen about 4:30 a.m. on June 3, 2011, at the intersection of 11th Street and College Avenue. It's been reported she was walking home alone toward her Smallwood Plaza apartment after a night out at Kilroy's Sports Bar and 5 North Townhomes, where Rossman and Rosenbaum lived.
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