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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MARYLAND IN RE: WASHINGTON POST MOTION TO OPEN JUVENILE DETENTION HEARING, ETC. : : : : : : : MEMORANDUM AND ORDER UNSEALING CERTAIN MATERIALS Now pending before the Court is the MOTION TO UNSEAL RECORDS AND TRANSCRIPTS of self-styled "Intervenors" The Washington Post Company, The Baltimore Sun Company, The Associated Press, and The New York Times Company ("the media organizations"). This case is a companion matter to that styled United States of America, Plaintiff v. Lee Boyd Malvo, previously known as John Doe, Juvenile, Criminal No. DKC-02-0474. In general, the media organizations seek the unsealing and public release of court documents and transcripts of proceedings related to the Malvo case. Mr. Malvo is a juvenile and, previously, this Court has entered Orders sealing virtually all court papers and transcripts relating to his case. The Court first entertained the media organizations' requests to unseal at a hearing on November 1, 2002. The requests to unseal were denied. During subsequent weeks Mr. Malvo became the subject of court proceedings in the Commonwealth of Virginia and, pursuant to the law of Virginia, much information relating to him and to his alleged involvement in the so-called Washington area sniper incidents was released and made public. Now the media organizations urge this Court to review and vacate some or all of its prior orders sealing materials relating to Malvo on the theory that the public's interest in these materials remains great and the potential prejudice to the juvenile has been reduced, by virtue of the material being made public in Virginia. MISC. CASE NO. 02-MC-355 (Magistrate Judge Bredar)

Mr. Malvo remains a juvenile in the eyes of this Court. That is the only status he has ever enjoyed before this tribunal, no motion to transfer his case to adult court having ever been filed or ruled upon. The Court is also mindful that while Mr. Malvo is being treated as an adult in the Circuit Court of Fairfax County, Virginia, apparently there are other jurisdictions in which prosecutors intend to proceed against him and, in those places, to date he has not been declared an adult and so remains a juvenile. As this Court has previously noted, there is a long and well-justified tradition in most American jurisdictions of treating juveniles accused of criminal misconduct differently from similarly situated adults, i.e.: after appropriate inquiry and a balancing of relevant interests, records and transcripts of juvenile proceedings are often kept sealed. See 18 U.S.C.

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