The protective order was filed Thursday, July 25, in the Walker County Courthouse by state Attorney General Thurbert E. Baker’s office to ensure the integrity of the ongoing investigation.
“The criminal case has a very high priority for this judge,” Cobb Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge James Bodiford said.
According to the filing, defense attorneys have requested information that should be suppressed until the criminal investigation and legal proceedings are complete.
The motion says the defense team has asked for exact descriptions of the identification process, copies of all documents indicating the bases of identification, copies of all documents and items received that are used in the identification process and an inventory of all items that cannot be reproduced.
The attorney general used the court filing to inform “all parties that the information sought from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, or GBI, is clearly information relating, and integral, to an ongoing criminal investigation, and that the GBI will not release such information during the pendancy of the investigation.”
Attorneys did not have time to review the filing and were unprepared to argue, they said. Bodiford will wait to rule on the motion, offering a continuance until the next hearing to be held at the Walker courthouse on Monday, Aug. 26.
The motion has a great effect on the civil proceedings and may be the most important in the civil cases, Bodiford said.
In other business at the civil hearing:
* Attorneys were still unable to reach a scheduling agreement. Bodiford gave attorneys until Aug. 12 to reach an acceptable schedule or he will set it for them.
* Attorneys reached an agreement regarding the cost of sharing copies of evidence recovered from the crematory. Evidence will be dated, copied to CD and distributed among attorneys
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