Keep Public Records Public: Solomon Pena, Anderson Lee Aldrich, and George Santos Show Why.

Public records, records created and maintained by various levels of government, provide critical access to information the public needs to know. Efforts over the last decade to remove these invaluable records from our access, although sometimes well intentioned, put us all at greater risk.

I used public records extensively during my 30+ years of building cases for civil plaintiff and criminal defense attorneys. And for the almost two decades I spent conducting political investigations for Democratic candidates and interest groups. I’ve long opposed the sealing of public records because they are powerful tools that belong to and benefit the public. 

I’ve taught hundreds of legal professionals, law school students, reporters, and political activists how to harness the power of public records to benefit their clients and the community at large.

Recent high profile stories, involving Anderson Lee Aldrich, Solomon Pena, and George Santos show why, it’s more important than ever, that public records remain public.

Why Some People Push for Expungement

Over the last decade, some public officials, and social justice groups, have pushed for the expungement, or the sealing, of public records. They want to deny the public access to the information these records contain.

This push by government officials and interest groups has been accompanied by efforts to  “ban the box” (to prevent prospective employers from asking job applicants about criminal case histories) to help those with a criminal past obtain work.

And weirdly the hiding from the public information pertaining to restraining orders and orders for protection.

Their arguments in support of blocking access to public records, especially criminal records, are based upon two concepts: people deserve a second chance, and the criminal justice system disproportionately targets minorities, and disproportionately affects them.

I think there is merit and validity to both of these points.

Some young people do “age out” of lower level criminal conduct,  and become productive members of society.

And there is no doubt that the criminal justice system disproportionately affects minorities. And that it can be abused for political purposes just as the “war on drugs” was used by GOP states such as Florida, to prevent a generation of Black men from voting.

The Weird Effort to Protect Domestic Abusers by Sealing Restraining Orders

However, the arguments behind sealing restraining orders is less clear to me.

I’ve heard some, like the New Mexico Administrative Office of the Courts argue that consealing the existence of restraining orders protects the victim by hiding their address…it doesn’t. Just the opposite. It PROTECTS THE ABUSER.

It’s one thing to seal a victim’s address. It’s another thing to keep the public from knowing about a court document documenting the domestic abuse committed by a controlling and abusive person.

Others, especially men’s rights groups, argue that because the burden of proof is lower with restraining orders than it is with criminal charges, it is easier to falsely accuse someone of abuse in a petition for an order of protection than to seek to get that abuser criminally charged.

While that can happen on occasion, it’s fairly rare. And as solutions go, sealing petitions and orders of protections is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Why Public Records Should Remain Public

While I agree with those first two points, and clearly disagree with the restraining order arguments, I oppose preventing the public from seeing public records.

In fact, I think sealing public records is a mistake. One with serious consequences to our safety, and democracy.

Fact-patterns are fact-patterns. And unless someone really wants to change, and is willing to put the work into changing, they won’t change.

People are creatures of habit. They are who they are. And as the old saying goes, leopards don’t change their spots.

A Sealed Order of Protection Leads to the Murder of Two

In Albuquerque, New Mexico a woman and man were murdered by her stalker ex because the Administrative Office of the Courts removed Orders of Protection from the state’s court’s public records website.

Sadly, a judge, who released the man was unaware that there was an order of protection against him since it had been completely removed from the state court’s public website.

She thought since there’s nothing online. There must not be a reason to keep him locked up.

Upon his release, the man then shot the woman and a friend of hers to death. A tragedy that should never have happened.

When this tragic story broke, the Director of the New Mexico Administrative Office of the Courts who had directed the removal of orders of protection from the website, falsely claimed that the removal of orders of protection from the website was done in compliance with the Violence Against Women’s Act (“VAWA”).

VAWA required keeping the petitioner’s address confidential. But did not require the removal of the existence of the filing from the public website. At all. (The same director at AOC also attempted to remove from public view, any publicly filed criminal case that did not result in a conviction, which thankfully the New Mexico Supreme Court struck down).

5 People Slaughtered, And Countless Others Scarred for Life, in a Night Club Shooting Thanks to the Sealing of Records

Anderson Lee Aldrich, the shooter at the gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado killed 5 innocent people and scarred many more for life when he opened fire at the club.

A year prior to the shooting, he got into an armed standoff with a police swat team. He also threatened to blow up his family home with his family members in it.

Despite his clear cut guilt, the prosecutor NEVER FILED CHARGES, even over Aldrich’s standoff with law enforcement. The prosecutor blamed the inability to serve subpoenas on Aldrich’s mother and grandmother for a hearing as the reason he didn’t file charges.

With no charges filed. Aldrich then got the police reports documenting his actions sealed from public view.

Aldrich was given a free pass for grievance based violent behavior. Sadly, his attack at the nightclub was absolutely foreseeable.

Shootings of Democratic Office Holders’s Homes and Families by a Dangerous GOP Candidate.

Political violence in our country has escalated dramatically in the last few years. Kidnap plots against the female governor of Michigan, an insurrection at our nation’s capitol, and an attack on in their own home of the elderly husband of the Speaker of the House.

In New Mexico, the GOP turned a blind eye to Solomon Pena’s history of violence, and his embrace of conspiracy theories.

While his prior criminal history was not sealed, the GOP justified their support of him by claiming that he had turned his life around. Therefore, the public should not judge him by his  history of violence. (The same kind of thinking that leads to expungements of case files).

Leopards don’t change their stripes.

They ignored the person he is and gave him a free pass just like Aldrich. And he responded by hiring men to shoot at the homes of Democratic office holders. Those bullets pierced the bedroom wall of the sleeping daughter of one of those officials.

George Santos, Criminal Charges, and Financial Misconduct

George Santos became the subject of extensive news reporting. But only AFTER he was elected to the US House of Representative.

Santos is not who he claimed to be. He fabricated his entire background. And even fled from criminal charges that had been filed against him in another country. He appears to have defrauded multiple people since then.

And yet, some people would prevent the public from ever reading the public records that exist on him. They certainly are excusing his conduct. The ends justify the means.

Sadly for America, the failure to locate records that could educate the public on why he’s a danger to our country led to his being elected. Once elected. It's hard to get him out.

Removing public records from public view harms all of us. The push to restrict the public’s access to these documents needs to stop.

There are other ways that innocent people falsely accused can be protected as they move forward with life.

And people who are trying to turn their lives around, can prove that through their actions. And with time.

Public records can benefit all of us. Everyday. Download your free guide to using public records to research a building contractor or other professional BEFORE you hire them.