Dallas Courts Consider Sealing Records to Protect Witnesses, Agents
Dallas may become the next jurisdiction to seal some or all of its plea deal data to protect identities of cooperating witnesses and undercover agents.
Federal officials in Dallas will review their public records and decide by June what steps to take.
The move comes after the U.S. Judicial Conference last week recommended that all 94 U.S. District Courts take steps to seal information that reveals whether a witness has cooperated with authorities, the Dallas Morning News reports.
Questions about how much information should be public surfaced after plea agreements were downloaded from PACER (the court’s Public Access to Court Electronic Records system) and posted on the Who’s a Rat website, which promotes itself as the “largest online database of informants and agents.” The site was created by a disc jockey who says he was arrested on marijuana charges based on allegations by a paid informant.
The website lists 43 alleged informants from the Dallas area. Authorities fear such listings may jeopardize the safety of informants and the progress of criminal investigations.
“It’s getting more and more difficult to do narcotics and vice operations with information like this available on the Internet,” said Dallas police Deputy Chief Julian Bernal.
