Missouri's attorney general's office told the state appeals court last week it eventually will rule in favor of the Northeast Missouri judge assigned to hear the five felony charges lodged against Moniteau County Prosecutor Shayne Healea after a 2014 Columbia accident.
And, Assistant Attorney General Gregory M. Goodwin told the Eastern District appeals court Thursday, that means the public eventually will see the special master's report in the case.
"There is a First Amendment right of access to court proceedings, and there is a common law right of access to court proceedings," Goodwin wrote.
His three-page motion was released by the court clerk's office, noting the court had sealed the rest of the larger filing from public view.
Jefferson City lawyer Shane Farrow, who represents Healea, wants the special master's report and other parts of the trial record to remain sealed because, he argues, they include information from a conversation between Healea and his attorney that should be protected from disclosure by the U.S. Constitution's 6th Amendment.
Goodwin's three-page motion Thursday asks the court to seal the rest of the documents - including his "Suggestions in Opposition" to Farrow's 17-page petition to the appeals court - because they "discuss the special master's report (and) Healea's petition for writ of prohibition requests that the report remain under seal in both courts."
In fact, the case is before the appeals court even before Shelby County Circuit Judge Frederick (Rick) Tucker hears Healea's trial, because Tucker ruled almost three weeks ago the special master's report should be released to the public.
"The Special Master's report contained portions of the actual content of the attorney-client phone call," Farrow wrote last month, in his 17-page petition, "rather than simply finding whether or not the recording was in fact an attorney-client phone call and whether or not its contents were prejudicial to (Healea), in the hands of the Columbia Police Department and Attorney General."
Healea faces the five charges, lodged by a Boone County grand jury indictment, after an Oct. 25, 2014, accident at Columbia's Addison's Restaurant.
Columbia Police reported Healea backed his pickup truck, with the tailgate down, into a glass-block window facing a parking lot in the back of the restaurant, and four people inside the restaurant were hurt by the broken glass.
The five-count indictment included one charge of leaving the scene of an accident where there was an injury or property damage and four counts of second-degree assault for operating a vehicle while intoxicated, resulting in an injury.
In motions filed last year, Farrow argued, after the arrest, when police took Healea to the Columbia police station, "(Healea) twice asked to speak somewhere privately with his attorney. The arresting officer placed (Healea) in a holding cell.
"Without (his) knowledge, the conversation was recorded on department audio and video equipment (and) the recording was then provided to the Office of the Attorney General," after it was named as a special prosecutor in the case.
Farrow has argued several times that the recording - which includes both sides of the 20-minute conversation between Healea and his attorney - was a clear violation of Healea's constitutional right to have a private conversation with his attorney.
Giving the recording to the attorney general's office gave the state information it could use in presenting the original case to the grand jury, in depositions and in the trial, currently scheduled for June 5 but placed on hold by the appeals court.
Last October, then-Assistant Attorney General Julie Tolle told Tucker there were no constitutional violations, noting the arresting officer contacted Healea near the crash site, smelled alcohol on his breath, and noticed his eyes were glassy and bloodshot.
"(Healea) admitted to driving his vehicle prior to the accident, admitted to leaving the scene and admitted to consuming alcohol," she argued in an eight-page brief filed last year.
Tolle noted Healea refused to take a field sobriety test or a preliminary breath test, and the Columbia officer arrested him.
She told Tucker the original police investigation also included surveillance footage from the nearby Boone County National Bank's camera, showing the accident and Healea's leaving the parking lot after backing into the wall.
Tolle argued last year the recording played no part in the decisions to seek a grand jury indictment or to pursue a case against Healea, because the state wasn't aware it had a copy of the recording and "has never viewed" it - and because the arresting officer didn't know the phone call had been recorded and never had reviewed it.
However, Farrow reminded the appeals court the attorney general's office had the recording in its files for more than two years.
He has argued for months the alleged constitutional violations are so significant that the case against Healea should be dropped.
Tucker appointed retired Circuit Judge Hadley Grimm as a special master to review the recording and advise Tucker whether Healea's constitutional rights had been violated.
Farrow told the appeals court: "The Special Master did find a 6th Amendment violation did occur (but) did not make a recommendation as to what the remedy should be due to the violation, other than stating some remedy short of dismissal would be adequate."
On Feb. 9, Farrow reported, Tucker "conducted the hearing in an open courtroom that contained members from multiple press agencies (and) divulged portions of the specific content" of the contested attorney-client conversation.
Farrow added Tucker "stated the content of the conversation was no different than the conversation any person arrested would typically have with their attorney."
At the March 2 hearing, Farrow reported he refused Tucker's "multiple requests to divulge the attorney-client communication. (Tucker) again stated he believed it was not fair for the Attorney General to have to defend the (6th Amendment) violation unless he had the chance to listen to the recording so he could properly argue his position."
The court hasn't set any hearing schedule yet.