After five years, lawyer wants media out of court

For five years, Tawanna K. Crabb has been arguing about her mortgage payments in open court, where anyone interested in the foreclosure case could observe the proceedings.

Just as the long-standing case is reaching its climax, however, Crabb wants to lock the courtroom and prohibit the media and public from knowing how the case concludes.

Crabb sued her mortgage company and others after she lost her home to foreclosure in late 2001. The case became newsworthy because a case document alleged Crabb's boyfriend, District Judge Donald Mosley, hatched a scheme to help her avoid foreclosure by arranging for false employment records. As it does on a regular basis, the Las Vegas Review-Journal last month requested permission from District Court Judge Jessie Walsh to photograph courtroom proceedings.

After Walsh approved the Review-Journal's request, Crabb's attorney, David J. Winterton, filed a formal objection with the court, in which he argues that the media and the public must not be allowed to "interfere" with the conclusion of the case in open court.

Winterton couldn't be reached for comment Friday and attorneys representing defendants also couldn't be reached for comment. The Review-Journal plans to challenge Winterton's objection.

In a brief filed with Walsh last month, Winterton explains that Crabb and the only remaining defendant in the case, the mortgage trustee, Nevada Mortgage Assistance Co., had reached a confidential settlement and that the amount would no longer be a secret if the media were present for the final arguments.

The motion states, "There was special permission to use the terms of the settlement for trial but it was not for public dissemination. There was also no problem with presenting it at trial because the judge (Walsh) approved the terms of the good faith settlement. It is a breach of the settlement if it is put to the press."

The request to close the court hearing comes at a time when state lawmakers are considering a proposal that would limit judges' authority to seal civil cases from public view, and as the state Supreme Court considers forming a committee to examine problems associated with the sealing of court records and public access to court records.