JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — An effort to exclude the public and the press from the criminal case against two former JEA executives is being challenged by a coalition of local media.
The city’s daily newspaper and all three television stations are fighting an attempt by the public utility’s former CEO and CFO to close the courtroom during upcoming hearings.
Aaron Zahn and Ryan Wannemacher face federal charges of conspiracy and wire fraud. Those charges stem from the failed sale of JEA, a privatization effort that prosecutors say was rigged to personally enrich both men. They have pleaded not guilty.
Their attorneys have not yet responded to new filings by local media to ensure access to the public trial.
The request by attorneys for Zahn and Wannemacher asks the judge to close the courtroom for significant portions of what is expected to be a multi-day hearing. They say the judge “should take steps to ensure that the Kastigar hearing does not exacerbate the harm caused by the prior publicity of the defendants’ compelled statements.”
The "compelled statements" were made when the two men were called by Jacksonville City Councilmembers and the city’s General Counsel to discuss the origins of a scheme that one former city attorney called “perhaps the greatest fraud in Jacksonville history.”
A joint motion filed by First Coast News and The Florida Times-Union says there is a presumption that courts are publicly accessible and that any attempt to close them must demonstrate the closure is necessary and that no alternatives are available. In the case of the Kastigar hearing, the information attorneys want to keep secret was already widely reported.
“Ironically, although the indictments themselves result from a lack of transparency in public proceedings," the filing says, "Defendants now seek to exclude the public and the media from the courtroom in order to prevent them hearing and reporting on matters that have already been the subject of reporting.”
It also notes that the news outlets have not only covered the story, but in the case of the Times-Union, “actually uncovered and exposed the allegedly fraudulent actions underlying the indictments.”
“Through classic and extensive shoe-leather reporting, beginning in 2019, The Florida Times-Union’s reporters obtained and then waded through thousands of pages of public records, interviewed dozens of people, and reviewed hundreds of pages of JEA text messages to discover and expose the scheme to sell JEA.”
A similar motion was filed by Cox Media Group which owns Action News Jacksonville and Graham Media Group, which owns Channel 4, filed a notice of joinder with the Cox filing.
Their attorneys have not yet responded to new filings by local media to ensure access to the public trial.