Widow of Las Vegas police officer sues over autopsy records
The widow of a Las Vegas police officer killed in the Oct. 1 massacre has filed suit against the Las Vegas Review-Journal and others, asking a judge to block the media from publishing “private and confidential” information in autopsy reports of those slain.
“The vast majority of the subject matter of an autopsy report consists of confidential medical and health information,” lawyers for Veronica Hartfield, wife of Charleston Hartfield, wrote in court papers.
Names, ages, hometowns and racial characteristics of the victims were redacted from 58 reports made public last week after a judge’s order.
District Judge Richard Scotti scheduled a hearing for next week on the complaint, which also names the Associated Press and the coroner’s office as defendants.
Another judge ordered the autopsy reports public, along with that of 64-year-old gunman Stephen Paddock, but that report has not been made public.
Clark County Coroner John Fudenberg has said he will not release Paddock’s autopsy report until it is “finalized.”
“Out of respect for the victims’ families, the RJ and the AP never asked for unredacted versions,” Review-Journal attorney Maggie McLetchie said. “They asked for documents that protected all personal identifying information of the victims, and that’s exactly what the coroner’s office provided. The documents have already been released, and any order that the RJ, the AP or any other media entity be prohibited from reporting on those records is illegal and unconstitutional.”
Paddock, a high-stakes gambler, opened fire from his 32nd-floor Mandalay Bay suite onto the Route 91 Harvest festival grounds, just east of the the hotel-casino.
Authorities said Paddock turned a gun on himself before police entered the suite. He died from a gunshot wound to the head that entered through the mouth. The coroner’s office has ruled his death a suicide.
Lawyers for Hartfield could not be reached for comment Monday.
Hartfield Suit by Las Vegas Review-Journal on Scribd
Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Follow @randompoker on Twitter.
