S-25-0817 In re: Special Knox County Attorney David D. Begley. David D. Begley, Special Knox County Attorney (Appellant) v. John Thomas (Appellee)
Appeal from the District Court for Knox County, Judge James G. Kube
Attorneys: Eric M. Hagen (Liberty Law Group for Appellant) and John Thomas (Thomas and Jensen Law Office for Appellee)
Criminal: Unsealing of court documents
Proceedings Below: The district court appointed the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office as a special prosecutor to investigate possible violations of Nebraska law involving Knox County officials. The district court sealed the documents that supported the appointment and sealed a final memorandum from the Nebraska Attorney’s General Office. The district court later granted Appellee’s motion to unseal those documents. Appellee petitioned to bypass the Nebraska Court of Appeals, which the Nebraska Supreme Court granted and transferred this case to its docket.
Issues: Appellant assigns the following errors: 1) The district erred in granting Appellee’s motion for unsealing; 2) The district court erred in concluding that it had subject matter jurisdiction to consider Appellee’s motion for unsealing filed within the previously concluded miscellaneous investigative file; 3) The district court erred in concluding that the criminal nature of the proceedings was irrelevant based solely on the clerk’s designation of the case as a miscellaneous file; 4) The district court erred in determining that a qualified First Amendment right of public access applied to the sealed affidavit and investigative materials contained in the court file; 5) The district court erred by failing to conduct the required constitutional analysis to determine whether a qualified First Amendment right of public access exists; and 6) The district court erred by improperly placing the burden on the party opposing disclosure of the sealed documents rather than on the movant seeking to unseal them.