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neys for a copy of the deposition transcript after the deposi-
tion was taken in the civil action. When the plaintiff's attorney
refused to provide a copy of the deposition, a Deputy District
Attorney informed Mr. Feldman that, "they could serve him
with a search warrant if necessary."
In Pacers Inc. v. Superior Court, it further states that, "the
prosecution should not be able to obtain, through the medium
of the civil proceedings, information to which it was not en-
titled under the Criminal Discovery rules..." Discovery is pre-
sumed to be private. It is taken behind closed doors in the pres-
ence of a Certified Court Reporter in the presence of only the
party being deposed, the attorneys and sometimes a third party
mediator. The transcript is not ordinarily lodged with the Court
except in cases of appeal, motions or when it is used as an
exhibit. The interrogatories, responses, production of docu-
ments and admissions are also not filed with the court except
for the same reasons. Mr. Cochran's point was that the media
had no greater right under the First Amendment to access in-
formation revealed through the Civil Discovery than private
citizens.
Mr. Feldman agreed to the entry of a stipulated protective
order, but took exception to being able to respond to false alle-
gations and to providing information to law enforcement agen-
cies.
Opposition to Protective Order by the Times Mirror Com-
pany
The Times Mirror Company, the publisher of the L.A.
Times, filed an opposition to the motion for protective order,
contesting the order restricted public access to any Court pro-
ceedings, including the Discovery conducted. It's position was
that the media had a right to intervene in ongoing civil and
criminal actions to raise their objection to a protective order to
seek access. Public Citizen v. Liggett Group, Inc., 858 F2d, 775,
783 84 (1st Cir. 1988), cert denied, 488 U.S. 1030 (1989).
It further stated that the headliners of major news organi-
zations throughout the world had focused on the investiga-
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