A Lehigh County judge will rule on whether a motion filed on behalf of three Lehigh Valley news organizations to unseal court documents related to the drug arrests of 22 people, including a recently re-elected Lehigh County commissioner, was filed in the correct court.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, representing Lehigh Valley Live, Lehigh Valley News and The Morning Call, last week filed a motion in Lehigh County civil court requesting dockets related to the August arrest of Zach Cole-Borghi and 21 others, be unsealed.
Reporters Committee Paula Burke told Judge Thomas Capehart during a hearing Thursday morning that similar situations where media pushed for documents to be unsealed in criminal cases in the state were filed in motions in civil court. She said she was prepared to move it to the criminal court if necessary.
Deputy District Attorney Joseph Holaska told the judge that the proper way to intervene in a case would be to file a motion for each individual case at the district court where the charges were filed.
But Burke said that information on defendants, including their related docket numbers in the cases, are sealed, and reporters have been unable to locate documents related to the cases. To date, Cole-Borghi is the only defendant who has been publicly announced.
Burke also said a district judge does not have the power to unseal the documents. Capehart said he would make a ruling, which has not been announced as of Thursday afternoon.
District Attorney Gavin Holihan told Lehigh Valley News last week the dockets should remain sealed, adding that an explanation would reveal sensitive information that led to them being sealed in the first place.
He also said the order sealing the documents was also sealed because that references sensitive information. After the hearing Thursday, Holihan told reporters and Burke that he was mistaken about that order referencing sensitive information.
The DA provided the order, which directed the grand jury presentment in the case to be sealed. The order was signed May 30 by President Judge Thomas Caffrey.
Holihan announced in late August that 22 people had been arrested in a four-state investigation into drug distribution. Cole-Borghi was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute a pound of marijuana. Several people charged in the investigation were charged with criminal conspiracy; however, Cole-Borghi was not.
Cole-Borghi has denied the charges.
Investigators found two “clandestine labs” manufacturing products with THC, which is the psychoactive component of cannabis. People from outside Pennsylvania, including New York, Illinois and Wisconsin were arrested, and authorities said more than 2,000 pounds of marijuana was discovered, Holihan said in August.
The DA said the case involved an investigating grand jury, and information around the arrests was sealed. Burke argued in her motion that basic information on the cases and the defendants are being kept from the public.