Judge Mulls Lawsuit To Open Ahmad Bradshaw’s Juvenile Records

PEARISBURG, Va. – A circuit judge will rule later this week whether a Tazewell County juvenile and domestic relations court judge and clerk violated Virginia law by sealing records concerning Ahmad Bradshaw’s court proceedings.

The Bristol Herald Courier is seeking details of Bradshaw’s recent probation violation, which sent him to the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail in Abingdon last month for a 30-day sentence. The newspaper contends that some of Bradshaw’s juvenile court records are subject to public disclosure – those concerning his activities as an adult and those concerning any felony offenses he may have been charged with at the age of 14 or older.

Tazewell County officials have refused to offer any details about the football hero’s brush with the law there; even the court order forcing Bradshaw to turn himself in to jail was sealed after his incarceration began.

Giles County Circuit Court Judge Colin Gibb heard arguments here Wednesday from an attorney who represents the Herald Courier and from the state Attorney General’s Office, which is defending two Tazewell County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court officials – Judge Henry A. Barringer and Court Clerk Connie Cheryl Roberts. Gibb was appointed from outside the region to hear the case.

The newspaper has petitioned for a writ of mandamus to compel the disclosure of Bradshaw’s records or for the Tazewell officials to show why they should not be released.

Roman Lifson, the Richmond attorney who represents the newspaper, argued the entire process has been secretive and that the public has been kept in the dark. “We don’t know anything,” he told the judge. “What we have here is a court that simply didn’t follow the statute.”

Also appearing in court Wednesday to oppose the newspaper was Bradshaw’s attorney, Charles Stacy of Bluefield, Va. – Bradshaw’s hometown. Stacy argued that the newspaper should be under a gag order or removed from the hearing completely to prevent any adverse publicity from harming his client.

“The failure to Order the closure of this file and court proceeding may result in detrimental and irreparable harm to the intervening Respondent, Ahmad Bradshaw,” Stacy wrote in his own motion.

In court Wednesday, Stacy argued: “Making the motion in open court with a reporter here is going to give them the story.”

The judge kept the hearing open. “I would be very, very reluctant to issue a gag order,” Judge Gibb said. “I don’t think that would be appropriate.”

Instead, the judge and attorneys never discussed Bradshaw’s case directly and constantly referred to a hypothetical John Doe, age 15, who was charged with armed robbery. If the charge were reduced to a misdemeanor, then the records of those court proceedings would remain confidential under Virginia law, the parties agreed.

The AG’s office contends that juvenile court judges have wide discretion to close virtually all proceedings in their courtrooms and the records that result from those hearings.

“… Juvenile proceedings have historically been confidential and this confidentiality serves important social values” such as rehabilitation, argued state Assistant Attorney General Mary Catherine Hawkins in a brief opposing the newspaper.

The newspaper’s attorney, Lifson, noted that there is no evidence that Judge Barringer issued a proper order sealing Bradshaw’s case, or that the order was made part of the public record – requirements of Virginia law.

“The JDR Court and/or the JDR Court Clerk currently have records that Virginia law requires be open,” the newspaper’s motion states. “The JDR Court Clerk refused to provide those records to the Newspaper. Each day that the JDR Court Clerk refuses to release the requested records represents a violation of the statutes.”

Barringer and Hawkins would not comment after the hearing.

“We have no comment while this case is in deliberation,” Hawkins said.

J. Todd Foster, managing editor of the Herald Courier, declined to comment while the case is pending.

| (276) 645-2549