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Defense Tries To Bar Release Of Records In Lutz Triple Homicide

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By THOMAS W.  KRAUSE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 16, 2008

TAMPA - The public defender for a man charged in the slayings of his girlfriend and her two children in their home has asked a judge to severely restrict the public release of information about the case.

Attorneys for media organizations, including The Tampa Tribune, asked Circuit Judge Manuel Lopez to prevent the restrictions. The judge said he will make his decision by Friday, when the first batch of prosecution records is supposed to become public.

On May 12, the bodies of Lisa Freiberg, 26, her children, Zachary, 7, and Heather Savannah, 2, and the family dog were found May 12 inside their home on South Mobile Villa Drive.

Freiberg's boyfriend, Edward Covington, 36, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder, three counts of abuse of dead human bodies and one count of cruelty to animals. Covington is being held without bail.

In court cases, investigative material is shared with the defense through a process called discovery. Typically, the materials become public records as soon as they are shared with defense attorneys.

Assistant Public Defender Charles Traina asked the judge to withhold the discovery documents from the media.

If the judge will not do that, Traina asked the judge to withhold the record's public release for 30 days, giving the defense team enough time to read the records and decide whether they want to make an objection to the release of specific documents before the media can report about them.

Gregg Thomas, an attorney for The Tampa Tribune, said the records are public by law. Release of such records did not prevent fair trials in cases much larger than Covington's – for example, the prosecution of Danny Rolling, later executed for the slayings of several University of Florida students.

If the judge is inclined to delay the release of the records, the delay should be no more than 15 or 20 days, Thomas argued.

Traina also asked the judge to instill a gag order, preventing prosecutors, defense attorneys and law enforcement from speaking about the case.

Barbara Petersen, president of First Amendment Foundation in Tallahassee, said the public should not be closed out of the criminal justice system.

"Closing access to information of intense public interest and concern seems an overreaction," she said. "We do have to consider the defendant's right to a fair trial but there are all sorts of ways to protect that other than to close access to public records."

Reporter Thomas W. Krause can be reached at (813) 259-7698 or tkrause@tampatrib.com.

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