Gonzalez search records sought

LYNN – Lawyers for The Daily Item and The Boston Globe were scheduled to appear in Lynn District Court Monday to press for the release of search warrant information related to the disappearance of 5-year-old Giovanni Gonzalez.Hastings & Sons Publishing Co., through its attorney, Peter J. Caruso, and the Globe Newspaper Co. are requesting the court cease its impoundment order on the documents related to the search for the Lynn boy.The Daily Item has been reporting on the incident, which involves the boy’s father, defendant Ernesto Gonzalez, since it was first unveiled by police in August. The boy has been missing since Aug. 16, 2008, when he was last seen with his father.Ernesto Gonzalez, charged with parental kidnapping and misleading police, asserted the day before Thanksgiving that he stabbed his son to death. The elder Gonzalez told police he cut the boy into pieces in his apartment bath tub, stuffed the parts into six plastic bags and dumped them in three downtown Dumpsters. Police found no evidence to support such claims.A court document on file confirmed State Police searched an undisclosed location on Nov. 28, two days after Gonzalez confessed. Judge Michael Lauranzano impounded the search document and with it the reason for the search.Authorities conducted an extensive search that included locations in Lynn, Lawrence, Florida and Puerto Rico.The Daily Item requested to review the documents, specifically the search warrant application. According to Caruso, the impoundment of these records violates the well-established First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that provides the press access to judicial records. Case law supports this assertion of rights, Caruso said in his memorandum to the court.The controversy involves a missing 5-year-old boy, a father who confessed he killed him, and a search of an undisclosed area, which is information customarily disclosed during criminal proceedings, Caruso wrote. To continue to allow an impoundment order involving this type of case without any justifiable reason, other than its original order, would create a slippery slope for future potential impoundmentsThe court has not provided any affidavit in support of this impoundment order, Caruso wrote.Boston attorneys Jonathan Albano and Carol Head filed motions to cease the impoundment on behalf of The Globe Newspaper Co.