Opinion ID: 2315777
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: J.D.C.'s challenge to the trial judge's determination of the likelihood of future harm.

Text: After ordering the exclusion of The Wall Street Journal but characterizing J.D.C.'s arguments for excluding other media as more speculative, the judge stated that J.D.C. will not be harmed by continued coverage of this matter by those who adhere to Rule 53. See the portion of his opinion quoted at page 74, supra. According the trial judge's statement a reasonable measure of deference, we are satisfied that it cannot stand. Some fifty-five thousand copies of a newspaper containing J.D.C.'s name, and describing him as the killer of a youngster who, through his association with the former Chief of Police, had become comparatively well-known, were distributed in the District of Columbia. Countless others were sold across the country. If J.D.C. were found guilty at the factfinding hearing, and if this were reported in the press (even without his name being disclosed), then surely a few readers of the Journal, [12] if not a great many of them, would learn of the event and recall J.D.C. by name. Those who did recall his identity might reasonably include a prospective future employer or college admissions officer, or some other individual who could play a meaningful role in this youngster's life and might be in a position to do him good or ill. The Post has not presented any facts upon which we could conclude with reasonable assurance that, in the event of further coverage, persons who could affect J.D.C.'s life in a significant way could not or would not recall or learn his identity. But even if we could reasonably assumeand we cannotthat all or almost all those who have now read the Journal article have forgotten J.D.C.'s name, or would otherwise be unaffected by further coverage, then even these assumed facts would not adequately assure for J.D.C. protection from further harm. Beyond the class of persons who will immediately know the identity of the juvenile on whom the press will be reporting if it covers the trial, there is the potentially far widervirtually universalclass of those who will have the potential to discover it. The Post, our capital's most widely read daily newspaper, has already revealed that J.D.C.'s name was published in the Journal, and has also disclosed the date of publication. [13] If the details of future proceedings in the case receive coverage in the media, then even if that coverage is anonymous, anybody who cares to do so will be able to ascertain the identity of the respondent without the slightest difficulty simply by visiting the morgue of the ... newspaper. Smith, supra, 443 U.S. at 108, 99 S.Ct. at 2673 (Rehnquist, J., concurring). Moreover, such a person will then have a constitutional right to disclose J.D.C.'s identity to the world. Id. at 103-06, 99 S.Ct. at 2670-72 (majority opinion). We have no reason to be confident that such a disclosure would not in fact occur. In the first place, The Wall Street Journal, which first revealed J.D.C.'s identity, has certainly provided no assurance to that effect. Indeed, in its amicus brief, Dow Jones quoted with apparent approval [14] the following passage from one of the Post's articles about the case: Thomas Petzinger Jr., the Journal's deputy Washington bureau chief, said that publishing the youth's name was something we deliberated about a great deal. We thought the story really demanded it. To omit the name of one of the principals in the casenotwithstanding that he's an adolescentwould have conferred an anonymity on this story that would have made it less believable and less powerful. And this is a story that had to be told powerfully, Petzinger said. The perceived or actual need for a powerful narrative will not necessarily have abated, for the Journal or for other publications, when the case goes to trial or disposition and the time arrives for a sequel to the original story. The Journal could base such a sequel on information derived from reports by media which have not been excluded from the proceedings. Accordingly, we are unable to share the trial judge's confidence that J.D.C. will escape unharmed if the press is admitted to further proceedings in his case. The Post argues that the publication of juvenile proceedings, even without disclosure of a respondent's identity, may in the generality of cases be linked to the respondent by those already aware of his brush with the law. See Rogers v. United States, 566 A.2d 69, 76 (D.C.1989) (en banc), in which this court noted that arrests of juveniles may be known and discussed by persons who know the individual arrested. This sort of risk cannot, however, fairly be compared with the present case, in which J.D.C.'s name has been revealed by a newspaper which has firmly expressed its position that the child's identity is essential to its news coverage. The danger of disclosure would be far greater here if the press were admitted for, as a result of the Journal article, J.D.C.'s name, as well as the proceedings against him, would be chronicled in perpetuity in the written word. Accordingly, contrary to the Post's contention, to require exclusion of the media on these facts will not logically compel exclusion in the ordinary case in which the respondent's name has not previously been revealed in the press. We likewise cannot agree with the notion that the cat is already out of the bag and that it would now be futile to attempt to do anything about it. Assuming that the kitten's whiskers (or even its tail) may be showing, the rest of the body remains concealed. As the court cogently wrote in State in the Interest of D.B., 181 N.J.Super. 586, 592, 439 A.2d 94, 98 (1981), [p]etitioners urge that since D.B.'s name has already received widespread publication there is no further need for confidentiality. The extension of this argument would provide that once the name is obtained from other sources by one paper the media can proceed to divulge details of his family life and the consultants' reports without restraint. This would in effect leave control of the confidentiality of the juvenile court solely in the hands of a newspaper. Public curiosity or the newsworthiness of events can never be a justification for unrestrained release of information. The notoriety of the delinquent acts must not be considered as a reason for juvenile courts to abandon their rehabilitative purpose. The repeated emphasis upon D.B.'s misdeed, including not only his name but adding additional details on his family, friends and school relationships, will compound the effects of exposure on any rehabilitative plan. Accord, In re J.S., supra, 438 A.2d at 1129.