Court orders warrant information made public

November 28, 2018

By News Service Florida Staff

A South Florida appeals court Wednesday sided with a murder-case defendant and The Palm Beach Post in a dispute with authorities about the release of information included in warrants. The dispute centered on warrants that allowed the tracking of defendant Dacoby Reshard Wooten’s cell phone and a friend’s cell phone. The Post reported in August that the information involved authorities’ use of what are known as “stingray” tracking devices, which are mobile and masquerade as cell towers to collect information. Wooten, who was accused in the 2015 murder of the mother of his two children in Palm Beach County, sought information about the tracking of his cell phone, including requesting related warrants, according to Wednesday’s ruling by a panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal. Prosecutors sought only to provide redacted versions of the warrants to defense attorneys and to prevent broader dissemination, contending the disclosure of surveillance techniques could tip crime suspects on how to avoid capture. The Post intervened in the case and requested public access to the unredacted documents, the appeals court said. A circuit judge ordered the unredacted records to be made available, prompting the state to appeal. But in a 14-page main opinion Wednesday, appeals-court Judge Spencer Levine rejected the state’s arguments. “In a free society governed by our constitutional framework, the default should be for transparency and disclosure,” Levine wrote. “That is not to say that the state may not have compelling reasons to prevent disclosure. Far from it. In a time of security challenges, the state may request orders to prevent public disclosures. But the burden remains on the state to demonstrate, by evidence, that there is a compelling reason to inhibit the public from knowing.” Chief Judge Jonathan Gerber wrote a short opinion that concurred with parts of the main opinion, while Judge Burton Conner concurred with parts of the main opinion and dissented from other parts.