The San Luis Obispo Tribune has teamed up with ABC News, the Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times in an effort to unseal records in the Kristin Smart murder case. The news media coalition, formed by the Tribune, filed a motion Thursday to both unseal records and allow remote online access to them.
Between April 20, when the Smart case moved to Salinas, and July 5, the last day the Tribune was physically in the Salinas courthouse, only about 12% of court filings that do not pertain to media access are public.
The coalition is asking the court to unseal all records filed in the case on or after April 20, to provide required context to their online register of actions and to find the case “extraordinary,” which would make records available online.