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| Updated: 10/30/2012 6:04 pm |
Published: 10/30/2012 5:45 pm |
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - The mother of one of three Cub Scouts killed in northeast Arkansas in 1993 cannot see physical evidence in her son's death under the state's Freedom of Information Act, a judge has ruled.
The judge issued the decision in a lawsuit Pam Hicks filed in the hopes of viewing evidence in the 1993 slaying of her son, 8-year-old Stevie Branch, and his friends, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers.
Hicks argued that police and prosecutors violated the Freedom of Information Act by not allowing her to examine items, including her son's bicycle and clothing.
Circuit Judge Victor Hill disagreed and said in an order filed late Monday that neither the West Memphis Police Department nor prosecutor Scott Ellington violated the Freedom of Information Act.
"These items might be available for viewing under some other provision of the statutory or common law, which plaintiffs are free to argue at a later hearing, but these items are not available to them under the Freedom of Information Act," Hill wrote in an order filed late Monday in Crittenden County.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter from the court Tuesday before either the West Memphis attorney or Hicks's lawyer had seen it.
Hicks' lawyer, Ken Swindle, said late Tuesday that he respectfully disagreed with the judge's decision, but he pointed out that the judge hadn't completely closed the door on the case.
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