Coal Tattoo

Previously unknown documents posted

October 6, 2015 by Ken Ward Jr.

This post is from Joel Ebert, who is covering the Don Blankenship trial with Ken Ward Jr.

One day after I called the clerk’s office and Judge Irene Berger’s office wondering where document 405 and 409 were, they appeared in the court’s system.

Because they did not previously appear in the system, we had no idea if they were sealed documents or anything else.

This morning both documents were added to the Blankenship trial’s document history.

Here’s 405, which you can see was filed last Friday.

10/02/2015 405 SEALED ORDER as to Donald L. Blankenship; directing that the Transcript of Voir Dire 402 be filed under seal. Signed by Judge Irene C. Berger on 10/2/2015. (cc: Judge,) (tmr)

The filing mentions document 402, which is the transcript from the first day of jury selection.

Here is 402, which was previously listed in the case’s document history:

10/02/2015 402 TRANSCRIPT OF VOIR DIRE as to Donald L. Blankenship held on October 1, 2015, before Judge Irene C. Berger. Court Reporter Lisa Cook and Mary Schweinhagen. (lac) (Modified docket text to add court reporter’s name on 10/2/2015) (klc). Modified document security on 10/2/2015 (cbo).

Interesting to note the final line of the entry – Modified document security. That was added after the transcript was temporarily available at the clerk’s office on Friday, which resulted in this story.

The second recent filing that was previously unlisted was document 409.

Here is the entry:

10/04/2015 409 MOTION to Seal Motion as to Donald L. Blankenship (Attachments: # 1 Proposed Order, # 2 Motion, # 3 Exhibit 1, # 4 Exhibit 2, # 5 Exhibit 3) (Brown, Blair)

It is unclear what this document is exactly but it, along with the aforementioned ones, are unable to be viewed by the public.

The latest court filing – 416 – grants the defense’s request to seal document 409.

10/06/2015 416 SEALED ORDER as to Donald L. Blankenship; granting 409 MOTION to Seal Motion as to Donald L. Blankenship. Signed by Judge Irene C. Berger on 10/5/2015. (cc: Judge, USA, counsel, deft) (skh)

Following the addition of documents 405 and 409 in the document history, that leaves 21 documents unlisted.

I’m not sure if our questioning or mention of 405 and 409 resulted in them being posted but while we’re at it, I’m still wondering what the following documents are: 21, 27, 36, 37, 38, 172, 225, 252, 253, 254, 281, 292, 301, 302, 366, 367, 370, 374, 379 and 400.