Help me out here lawyers:
KC's atty from CA said the primary reason they want the tape sealed is to protect her privacy with regards to medical records citing HIPPA among others.
He then goes on to explain that KC was taken to the medical office to receive medical care, but that the plan was to put her in front of the TV for 30 -45 minutes and that...
" SHE WAS RENDERED NO MEDICAL CARE, WHATSOEVER."
So my question is... if she did not receive any medical care, treatment, diagnosis etc. how can her privacy with regards to medical information possibly be violated????
I think that argument was all over the board and not clear to me. I see that they are married to the idea that this was an amendment rights violation when they could have just as easily argued that the "prejudice" concept (that the video is more prejudical than probative and could taint the jury pool).
Perhaps they are trying to open a window for an appeal later on with some kind of 2nd, 5th, 8th, etc. Amendment violation. Who knows...
The problem lies in that seemingly the State has no interest to use the video at trial. If so, and if the video is not entered into evidence at trial and never even mentioned then I think it might be harder to shoehorn an appeal over it. So, why go that route?
If I was Casey's counsel, I would have just argued that the video prejudiced the client and could taint the jury pool, and that since it wasn't being entered into evidence by the State that it should remain sealed. The State will concur with the defense since they have no "dog in the fight". Media will want it released but the Judge will deny it as prejudicial. End of Story.
But instead, the defense went on the record talking about how this video would not be positive or negative either way (why cut off that avenue of prejudice?) and that instead is a hornets nest of human rights violations (heh).
It's funny that he wanted to bring up all these depos that the State took AND those depos that the defense later did (which were supposedly so contradictory), and lay a big foundation of a story about the videotape. If it is true that the State has not intentions to use the videotape, then they won't use those depos about the tape, and so why put all these stories out there and taint the jury pool some more? See the irony? We are getting a "story" about something for which the jury may never see. And ironically, the video itself is only images, no sound. So, essentially, the video should speak for itself if it is shown and would not need a lot of "scaffolding" to explain what was going on. [I'm sure I'm not explaining myself well.]
Regarding Casey's rights being violated...I have real doubts about what privacy Casey has in jail to what a camera monitor can see. Are her conversations with nurses about medical treatment private? They should be. Are the conversations with her attorney private? Yes, they should be. Her confessor/priest? Yep. But, for the sake of safety the camera's eye has to be on the inmates! She truly does not have privacy over her reactions captured on a video camera in jail (as far as I know).