We had been discussing some of these issues in the sext thread where we were off topic, and I recalled reading this article from August 21, it is an interesting read for those of you who may have missed it, it discusses several of the things that are going on right now. The parallel divorce/criminal case issue, the ability and fundamental right to get a fair trial and the release of information from LE to one side of the family. I think these are all very interesting points in this case, maybe they all need their own threads. Anyway interesting article.
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/08/kyron_horman_divorce_case_cast.html
snipped:
"It might be a borderline situation, where there isn't anything that expressly makes it wrong," Paris said. "But, assuming there's eventually an indictment and a trial, the question an attorney at that time would likely raise is the fact that there's been all this stuff leaked that would threaten their client's ability to get a fair trial."
snipped:
Stuart Slotnick, a managing partner in New York for the criminal defense litigation firm Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney and a former prosecutor who works alongside his father and well-known defense attorney Barry Slotnick, said usually law enforcement closely restricts the flow of information in an ongoing investigation so it doesn't hamper the inquiry.
"If they have evidence the stepmother was responsible for the disappearance, then they need to make an arrest," Slotnick said. "I would say a public relations campaign against a potential target is inappropriate, and likely counterproductive if in fact this is being orchestrated by the prosecution. If this is in fact happening, to overbear someone with bad press, it's not a conventional strategy."
The inclusion of criminal investigative information in the pending Horman divorce case isn't as unusual, and there are no rules that prohibit litigants from including such material, Paris said. "Certainly we've all read in divorce petitions salacious details that come out of divorce filings, especially when celebrities are involved."
But defense attorney John Henry Hingson III says what is unusual here is having a parallel civil proceeding, while there's an ongoing criminal case. Once Kaine Horman's lawyer includes material from law enforcement's investigation in a court filing, you can be sure Terri Horman's divorce attorney will argue that any police privilege to withhold criminal investigative material has been waived, and he probably will seek access to it, Hingson said. That doesn't mean he'll get it. A family law judge would end up the arbiter of the dispute.
(More at the link)